Well, it wouldn’t be a Bethany adventure if things went
according to plan, right? Right. My last trip was no exception.
I really wanted to go to the Vogelsang area, and because I
only had one weekend left in Yosemite, I schemed a way to get myself there. By
the time I was actually standing waiting in line for my wilderness permit, I
had Plan A-H ready, with Plan I as “start somewhere, end in valley.” Somehow, I
actually got my Plan A—Start at Sunrise trailhead, exit via Lyell Canyon with a
backup exit via Rafferty Creek. Awesome. Doing great. I decided to try
hammock-camping again because I didn’t feel like lugging around a tent.
Well on Friday morning, it turned out that Stephanie’s hiker
bus was overbooked, so there was a giant standby list of people trying to get
up to Tuolumne. Luckily for me, Stephanie let the three employees onto the bus,
sitting in aisle. (I laid down—I haven’t been sleeping well the past few days.)
Due to all the chaos, the bus was running late so I didn’t get to the Sunrise
Trailhead, just west of Tenaya Lake, until around 10:30. My plan was to hike to
Sunrise High Sierra Camp, Merced Lake Sierra Camp, and then spend the night at
Vogelsang High Sierra Camp—summit Vogelsang Peak in the morning, hike back down
to Tuolumne, and catch Stephanie’s bus at 2:00. Sounded reasonable to me.
The first day was a lot of miles, a little less than 25, so
starting at 10:30 wasn’t exactly my favorite option…but I didn’t have a choice,
so away I went. I booked it to Sunrise HSC and made it there in 2 hours. My
friend Moose let me feed the mules while I was there. Another guy that I played
volleyball with asked if I wanted to know the shortcut to Merced Lake, but I
told him no thank you (given my track record with going offtrail…).
View from Sunrise Meadow—Matthes Crest
So after a brief lunch, I hiked down to Merced Lake HSC. I
believe this was the biggest HSC that I’ve been to. There are tons of tent
cabins there! The Merced River on the way to the lake was absolutely beautiful,
and there were constantly waterfalls along the path. Since it was about 5:00, I
ate some pistachios and a granola, and changed my socks. The pistachios were a
bad idea because they took forever… :P From there, I just had like 8 miles left
to Vogelsang, so I was feeling pretty good.
Some of the many falls along the Merced River
Merced Lake
A day may come when I learn to take elevation into account
when planning mileages, when I actually allow myself more time to go uphill
than downhill or flat, but it is not this day. An hour of time where I cover
the same amount of ground no matter what, when I can travel all distances at 20
min/mile. But it is not this day! This day, we hike! By all that you hold dear
on this good Earth, I bid you hike, Bethany of Yosemite!
Silly me forgot to take into account when calculating time
that Vogelsang is ~3000 feet higher than Merced Lake, so going up all those
switchbacks at the end of the day wasn’t going to be able to be done in the
usual 20-22 min./mile. I met another ranger on that trail (the first was on the
Sunrise trail—checking people’s permits for Cloud’s Rest/Half Dome I’m
guessing) that asked where I was going, etc. He said something about me taking the
Merced Shortcut…and I was like, “No, I went around,” and his eyes got all big
as he told me that I was putting in quite a few miles today. Yep……He thought I
would probably get there around dark. Then a little bit late I met my new
friend Sean, who was another employee on the bus. He was doing something
similar to my loop, but backwards and ending in the valley I believe.
I had talked to two people with LA County SAR at lunch who
were hiking the JMT and the guy strongly recommended that I take the west fork
to Vogelsang, so at this point I decided to listen to him. He said it was
prettier and easier. That, I can handle. And man oh man was he right about it
being pretty! (I don’t have the other one to compare it too, but it was
definitely pretty!) Wow.
View from trail above Merced Lake
View south from the trail from Merced Lake to Vogelsang
A crappy picture of the beautiful flowers along the trail
Falls along Fletcher Creek
A valley on the west fork to Vogelsang HSC
Vogelsang Ridge
My goal was to get to Vogelsang HSC by 9:00, and 8:59 wasn’t
exactly what I had in mind…but I guess it counts. Darn elevation gain. This
backpacker’s camp was in no man’s land in relation to the HSC. I also couldn’t
find the water, so I went and asked the employee still working, and he was
astonished that the rangers hadn’t told me when I picked up my permit that a
boil order had been issued for their water supply. Lucky for me, being a fellow
employee has its perks, and he let me use their jugs of water and hang out in
the kitchen with other people after I had eaten my very late supper.
At this point, the temperature had dropped quite
dramatically and I was very cold. Luckily for me, I threw in my sweatshirts,
legging, pants, and a stocking hat in addition to my sleeping bag and blanket.
I STILL froze my butt off! I woke up so many times because I was cold and my
teeth were chattering. I was wearing two pairs of socks and I still couldn’t
feel my toes! When I finally got up in the morning, there was frost covering
everything, so I swear it was actually cold. I’m usually a very warm person, so
for me to have to wear that many clothes was a real struggle—that’s how you
know it’s cold. Again…elevation. (I was just told that by putting my sleeping
pad in the bottom of the hammock, it would reduce the amount of heat lost
beneath me. Never thought of that. Try it next time, whenever next time might
be!) Also, thank to the temperature, my camera and iPod decided that they hated
me and died. The camera I had extra batteries for. The iPod…not so much. No
music for Bethany today. :(
Warning: As I continue with this post, included in the
truth-telling, it will sound like I’m complaining. Please note that this is not
my intention.
Also when I woke up, I realized that I had very limited
actual muscle strength in my legs, particularly the hamstring/quad pair.
Lifting my legs became a task for my arms. I hate those days—they’re miserable.
I walked up the stairs to the bathrooms in the HSC and found myself wishing
they had a handicap stall. Then I basically starting laughing at myself because
I sincerely doubt a handicapped person could make it to one of the high sierra
camps—unless they’re only occasionally handicapped, like me—so why in the world
would they put in handicapped bathrooms? They wouldn’t.
Anyways, I felt terrible and I knew that today was going to
be very interesting and very challenging. And that it was. I had talked to some
of the employees last night and they thought that it would take about an hour
and a half to reach the top, so three hours round trip. They also said that it
would take 2.5-3 hours to get back down to Tuolumne Meadows from Vogelsang.
Going off those numbers and adding in an hour for my legs’ crumminess, I left
at 7:00 and gave myself a turnaround time of 9:05.
Vogelsang Lake on Saturday morning
Well…I don’t know if you’ve ever had to manually lift your
legs over every obstacle that comes in your way, but if you haven’t—let me tell
you it’s pretty time-consuming. The route to the top that I was taking was a
Class 2/3 scramble up the kind-of northern gully. Normally—piece of cake.
Today—anything but a piece of cake. I was keeping an eye on the time and
getting really frustrated, especially when at 9:00 I looked up and decided
there was no way I could stop now. I made up my mind to go to the top, and
there was no way that I wasn’t going to make it. My new slogan of the day
became #HYPPCan’tStopMeButItCanMakeMeMissMyBus. So I chanted that to myself as
I picked my way up to the top. Then, when I finally finally FINALLY reached the
top, I remembered that the true summit was to my left. With all the balance of
a toddler, I worked my way along the ridgeline to Vogelsang Peak’s summit. I
was very disappointed that the summit log was gone. However, I was not
disappointed at all with the view! Oh. My. Goodness. WOW! It took me three
hours in my condition to summit Vogelsang Peak, but I was so glad I did it.
That was probably my favorite view in Yosemite.
Half Dome from Vogelsang Peak
View east from Vogelsang Peak
View west from Vogelsang Peak
The "Look I'm Still Alive" shot from Vogelsang Peak
Vogelsang Lake and HSC from Vogelsang Peak
After staying there not as long as I would have liked, I
remembered a Class 1 descent that I had read about through a more southern
gully. I knew my muscles couldn’t handle going down what I came up, so I
decided to give it a try. In a few spots, it was still covered in snow, so I
slid down on my butt and had a grand time doing so! This gully led to a part of
the trail a little ways further away from Vogelsang HSC, but it was much
shorter time-wise for me today. After stopping and picking up my sweatshirt,
pants, and hat that I had ditched as soon as I left the trail, I got back to
the camp in about an hour and fifty minutes.
Great snow slide down :)
Back down to the trail with Vogelsang Lake behind me
After eating lunch, putting things back in my pack (because
I had only taken a drawstring with me up to the peak), I set out again for
Tuolumne. At this point, it was 12:45 and I had about 8 miles left. Aka there
was no way I was going to make it to Stephanie’s bus at 2:00, so my plan was to
either catch YARTS back to the valley or to hitch-hike. (Sorry, not sorry to
all my relatives that still don’t realize that hitch-hiking is one of the most
common forms of transportation in Yosemite.)
Well, any progress that had been made in the morning
regarding my lifting muscles was immediately shut down by the addition of the
pack. Back to square one. I was tripping over everything. You know the saying,
“dragging your feet” in whatever commitment it is—well go ahead and try
actually having your right foot drag along, and then rethink that saying. Or
you know the eggbeater version of treading water—yeah, that’s how I had to walk
with my right foot to step over things. Guess how many times I fell flat on my
face? 3. Guess how many more times I would’ve fallen flat on my face if my
hands hadn’t done such a marvelous job of catching me on anything nearby? At
least 50. I don’t care how downhill that trail was (and honestly, it was so gradual
that I didn’t really notice), I could not keep a decent pace to save my life.
And at one point, this man was talking to me and he ended with, “Have a good
last few miles of your Yosemite experience.” Honestly, I didn’t think I could
go any slower…but I could because I got so sad. My last miles that I’m going to
hike in Yosemite and I’m struggling through them so much and I’m in so much
pain and I’m so dang tired and I have no idea how I’m going to get back and I’m
ready to be done lifeguarding but I’m not ready to leave and I want to visit my
family but I’m nervous about Grandma Thelma and I want to see my friends at
school but I don’t want classes to start and I’m nervous I’ll suck at golf
because I haven’t played in forever and I can’t decide whether I’m happy or sad
to leave…Honestly, I was such a wreck that I cried multiple times, which if you
know me at all is just the most abnormal thing ever.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I did not have a good
last hike. It took me until a little after 5:00 to get to the Tuolumne
Store/Grill. I didn’t get to even look at the scenery very much through the
Rafferty Creek area because I was staring at my feet trying not to keep falling
(I decided I didn’t have the miles in me to go back via Lyell Canyon). The
Grill closed at 5:00, so from the Store I had a giant apple, chocolate milk,
and two It’s It ice cream thingies. The last YARTS bus to the valley left
around noon, so I missed that one by a whole lot longer than I missed
Stephanie’s bus. I almost always miss Stephanie’s bus. I think I’ve made it
once, and that was when I was with my parents.
So after ingesting all that sugar, I crossed the road, stuck
my thumb out, and the very first car stopped and picked me up. This guy’s name
was Tim and he was a retired guy that had been doing some hiking with his
friends. He picked my brain for trail information about a few specific areas.
He took me to the Crane Flat gas station, where I went in and said hi to Peggy
and Laurence. Fallback plan: if I can’t get a ride back to the valley, wait a
few hours and ride with them once they get off work. Well it turns out that a
YOSAR guy named Drew Smith picked me up and took me back to the valley. On our
way down the 120, we saw his friend Miranda stopped by the side of the road
having van problems. It took like half an hour to fix it because it had
overheated and then the battery had died. Fun fact: Miranda Oakley just recently
soloed the nose of El Cap in less than 24 hours, becoming the first female ever
to do so! So basically I just met someone famous! :D Another fun fact: Drew
knew four people that live in the Ahwahnee Dorms that I’m friends with, and
he’s the one who just married Patrick and Sarah up on the top of their climb.
Pretty cool, pretty cool.
I got back to my tent, dead tired, and ate an entire package
of Ramen, these two people’s leftover pasta with chicken, half a loaf of garlic
bread, and two packages of trail mix. Tired and hungry basically summed up my
life right now.
So to all you worrywarts out there—yes, I am alive and I am
fine. My muscles may suck, but I am fine. Life lesson: you can do whatever you
set your mind to do. Almost always. Just try to get a good night’s sleep first.
;)
Which is what I’m going to do right now (hopefully)—so I’ll
post this later! Good night everyone!
