“Adventure awaits”

It’s a huge gap for me: north of Tioga Riad is this big swath of country but other than some traverses of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and one aborted mid May (yep, not smart) start at a route from O’Shaunessey dam over to Pate Valley then up the river to the meadows then down over Cathedrsl to the valley that got deferred due to crazed snowmelt unbridged crossings above Muir Gorge (and that was deemed “crazed” by a guy who had just crossed a pretty big stream above a waterfall on two floating logs… two being convenient since neither alone would support his weight so he (I) had to sort of shuffle along gauging my weight distribution by how close to over my boot top the water was getting; surely saved by not being good… smh),

Came out at White Wolf intending to simply head down Yosemite Creek to the valley only to find the ^**%%*+ road had been plowed and for as many miles as my patience held I was faced with a ten plus foot vertical snowwall; I felt just like a mouse I once had seen running back and forth along some curbing with no way up. So I hiked out the damn plowed road waving at passing construction crew. Oddest finish of a hike and a far cry from the High Sierra Trail route I’d had as my first Plan A, until the Sequoia rangers calmly stated I’d never make it out of the Hamilton bowl: and a peek from Moro Rock confirmed it: big avalanches as I watched… nogo

It’s funny I’ve gone to Yosemite for years and there’s still places left to see. Another is that strip between Tioga Rd and the valley west of Olmsted Pt. Looks interesting, never been. It really IS the size of the state of Rhode Island! 😎

Anyway after that, weather permitting I’ll head down to Sequoia to check out the country out of Lodgepole towards Colby Pass another one of those places on a map I’ve watched forever. Heck if it turns it’s been a while since I’ve skied under the Giant Sequoias. And I’ve got chains I’ve never used for my 4Runner. Win win.

Pizza Deck Pizza! Lol

And that’out of their trailhead quota season so it’s show up and go.

And a last piece of the puzzle that is a national park visit. I got online before 7 PDT and searched recreation dot gov and to my surprise tbh a Porcupine Flat my preferred high country Yosemite staging campground as it’s at a good elevation while being far less crowded than Tuolumne Meadows (the rebuild could be interesting) had potential availability in the dates I needed. I looked over the listed ones, picked one I liked from both previous visits and the map and photos and waited for the clock to tick. Hit the “book now” at ten in the dot ish EDT and the booking process opened up. A bit later: done and confirmation emails received.

I’ve a new camera as well to exercise so the fun looks highly likely. With this location I’ll get dayhikes in as well.