Trip Report:
Thanks to
cweston ,
High Sierra Fan ,
zeke ,
hikerchick395 , and anyone else I may have missed for your help in planning this trip.
6 months ago I planned a 5 day wilderness hike in Yosemite. I submitted a lottery application for several trailheads and was approved for starting my hike at the Rafferty Creek trailhead near the Tioga Pass section of the park. My pass offered the ability to hike Half Dome but I preferred to go the “less traveled” route and decided on hiking in the high Sierra Vogelsang area where there are a bunch of lakes that are comprised of snow melt. I ended up doing the hike with a very good friend who I have known since 4th grade. He recently read the Nick Offerman book Where the Deer and the Antelope Play and he fully agreed on doing the more remote hike.
Next came the planning. I ran and lifted weights like I normally do but I was also able to spend time and do some hikes at altitude. Our family visited a cabin owned by our extended family just outside of Durango so we were able to hike and spend a few days at ~9,000 feet altitude and then we visited Big Bear, CA this summer at roughly 7,500 feet altitude. So overall I felt like I was in pretty good shape for the trip. My buddy lives in Houstan at sea level so he was focused on doing hikes in 95-105 degree heat while carrying a 30 lb backpack. So that was the core of our training. Generally speaking, I am in better shape than him, but he got into very good shape with this training. He lost a bunch of weight and looks much healthier than he did when he started his training.
We also decided to head up to Yosemite a few days before the hike to get acclimated to the altitude. All of our time on the wilderness hike would be at 8,700 - 10,700 feet altitude so getting there early made a lot of sense. We were able to get a campsite at Yosemite Creek Campground for Fri - Sun nights before our hike. There were tons of burned trees along the dirt road leading to the YC campground. It was a reminder of how much of this area has been impacted by climate change and wildfires.
While at ~7,500 feet we decided to also do a few hikes to ensure we were ready for the wilderness hike. On Saturday we went down to the valley at ~4,000 feet and did the Glacier Point hike, which gains roughly 3,500 feet of elevation. The temps were insane that weekend, with Saturday maxing out at 99 degrees. So we started our hike at 8:30 which was a great idea. The sun was still hiding behind the face of the trail where we were climbing and there was lots of shade, which made it considerably easier for us to hit the summit for the Glacier Point trail. All told it took us 3 hours. I led the entire way while my friend joked that he was focusing on “not dying”. Here are some pics of El Cap and Half Dome.
El Cap
Half Dome
After enjoying the views at the summit we flew down the trail. I read that trekking poles work best when descending downhill so we used them and they seemed to make a big difference. So our first hike was a big success and made us feel confident about the wilderness hike. On Sunday we did a short hike at ~9,000 feet altitude to May Lake to see how a hike at higher altitude felt. Whenever climbing uphill we both felt short of breath, which was understandable. So we took some short breaks and this helped us firm up our plans for our wilderness hike. May Lake is similar to the lakes we planned to camp at during our trip so it was great to be able to see one of these lakes in advance. Here is one pic.
May Lake
We also did a short hike at Lukens Lake late on Sunday afternoon, but that wasn’t particularly memorable so no pictures to share. On our way out to Lukens Lake we had two women flag us down on the drive from YC campground to Tioga Pass. They had nothing other than a map and asked us if we were headed towards Tamarack Flat Campground. At first we told them we were not - Lukens Lake is in the opposite direction - but when it became pretty clear they were totally unprepared for the heat and realized how far away they were from their campsite we decided to give them a lift. They didn’t have a single bottle of water between the two of them. It wasn’t entirely clear how they ended up where they were, but we didn’t ask too many questions and dropped them off at Tamarack Flat.
For the beginning of our hike on Monday we decided to get up early and start when it was still cool. The trailhead is at 8,700 feet and we would be ascending to 10,600 feet our first day. We picked up our permit on Sunday so we could start as early as we liked. With breaking down our campsite and then driving to the parking lot, we ended up starting our hike at 7:30am. The plan was to hike to Boothe Lake for lunch and then hike to Evelyn Lake where we would spend the first night. The hike on that first day was probably a bit more than we should have attempted. All told with one off-trail adventure was 11 miles, so we both wanted nothing more than to get our backpacks off our back towards the end of this hike. However we were rewarded with an alpine lake all to ourselves for that night. Here is one pic.
Evelyn Lake
I am happy that we stayed at Evelyn Lake first, as it ended up being my least favorite of the three lakes where we camped. It was a really nice camping spot, I simply liked the other two better. From there we passed through the Vogelsang high Sierra campground and descended through the Vogelsang pass. The pass traverses Vogelsang and Fletcher mountains, with a great view of Vogelsang lake. Here is a pic:
Vogelsang Lake
The pass was the highest elevation we hit, roughly 10,700 feet. There was some modest elevation through the pass and then the backside was all downhill and pretty steep. Again, the trekking poles came in handy. From there we hiked to our next campsite, Bernice Lake. The path to Bernice Lake was uphill and much less visible than most of the paths within Yosemite. We lost the path both going up to Bernice Lake and coming back the following day. It wasn’t too bad and we were rewarded with my favorite campsite of our whole trip. Bernice Lake is surrounded by mountains and the water is totally clear. The state of California stocked many of these lakes with trout so there were lots of them popping their heads up throughout the day. If you are a competent fisherman you could eat for free with no food to store in your backpack. Here is a pic of Bernice Lake during the day and one at sunset.
Bernice Lake
We had this beautiful lake all to ourselves. The sky was as full of stars as I have ever witnessed and I’ve stayed at quite a few National Parks and dark sky areas. Once the moon fell behind the mountains between 2am and 4am the sky was perfectly dark. This campsite was the highlight of the trip.
The next day we hiked from Bernice Lake and backtracked and hiked up the Vogelsang pass. We got an early start to avoid the worst of the heat and that worked our really well. The climb back up to the pass is short and very steep, but we took appropriate rest breaks and make relatively quick work of this section. We both feared for the worst when climbing that much at ~9,000 feet but when we reached the top we both agreed it wasn’t nearly as bad as we had feared. We met an old timer near the top, a guy who is 70 and was headed to Bernice Lake. We told him we were there they previous night and he tipped us that Babcock Lake was a great swimming spot. We weren’t going to make it there on this trip but we thanked him for the heads up.
From there we passed back through the Vogelsang High Sierra campground and worked our way back to Boothe Lake for our final night. My buddy had to catch a flight to Houston very early on Thursday evening so we decided to get up early on Thursday so we could complete our hike before heading off to the airport. Based on our first visit I wasn’t super impressed with Boothe Lake, but that was likely a combo of being a bit soured on our first day of hiking and going a bit off trail, and also by the fact we didn’t really explore the area around Boothe Lake. On our return visit we found a great spot to set up camp that provided a small beach directly in front of our campsite and some great views of the surrounding mountains. I greatly preferred this vantage point. Here is one pic.
Boothe Lake
So Boothe Lake ended up working out very nicely and exceeded my original impression. From there we hiked back to the Rafferty Creek trailhead to complete our trip. We saw lots of wildlife, including deer, chipmunks, a bird called Clark’s Nutcracker that is obsessive about pecking at pinecones, grouse hens and marmots. Unfortunately we didn’t see a single bear although we did hear some loudly cracking sticks shortly after leaving our campsite on the final day but saw no site of a bear. It rained on two of the days we were hiking but we had already set up camp and were able to ride out the storm inside the tent.
We had a great time and are in the very early stages of planning a trip to Glacier National Park.