Take the Road Less Traveled—OR DON’T: My Hetch Hetchy Backpacking Adventure

Going to Hetch Hetchy has been a goal of mine for a long time now, probably ever since we talked about it in my first-year seminar class at Coe. I finally had the opportunity to make it happen now that I’m in Yosemite for the summer, so I ordered a backpack, borrowed some supplies, and packed everything up for a little over two-day backpacking trip.

When I went into the Wilderness Center here in the valley to get my permit, the ranger told me the route I was taking was on unmaintained trails. He said it’d probably be a little overgrown and there’d be some trees across the trail. He and the other ranger working said there hadn’t been any patrols out there in a while, so they wanted me to do a trail condition report when I got back. They seemed pretty interested in my trip, and told me to come talk to them right away when I got back.

This whole unmaintained business set off little warning bells in my head, and it made me more nervous for my first backpacking trip, especially since I was doing it solo. Regardless, I was still really excited to go to Hetch Hetchy and go backpacking!

I bought a 55L Teton Scout 3400 and filled it with my sleeping bag, tent, water bottles, a couple clothes…and then the giant bear canister. It was so light until I added that dang bear canister! When I had it finished it weighed about 30 lbs.

Shelby dropped me off at the White Wolf trailhead after work on Thursday night. (Shelby’s a real pal!) We got there around 8:00 and I started off on the trail. I needed to hike about 3 miles until I was one air-mile away from the road. That put me just past Harden Lake. I ended up going about another mile past Harden Lake before setting up camp for the night. So far, the trail had been really easy—a service road and then an obvious trail, especially since I was using my headlamp. Peggy let me borrow her tent, so I was good-to-go on that front. It was pretty chilly, so I actually had to wear a sweatshirt, Abby’s sweatpants, my stocking hat, AND be in my sleeping bag with a blanket. Crazy Tuolumne area.

Campsite Day 1, NW of Harden Lake

I packed up and headed out around 6:30 on Friday morning, calculating my miles and hoping to be to Hetchy Hetchy a little after noon. About a mile past my camp, the trail started getting pretty overgrown and there were some stretches underwater. It became kind of slow-going. Somewhere between 1.5-2 miles past camp (so 2.5-3 miles past Harden Lake), the trail died completely. This was 7:30 in the morning.

Before the trail disappeared forever...

I tried to pick my way through the brush in the direction that I thought the trail was going, and probably made my life a whole lot worse in the process. I ended up climbing up, through, and around a whole ton of stuff and it was terrible. I decided to battle my way up onto a peak so I could try to see the trail. I should mention that a rim fire two years ago took out most of the trees and vegetation, so right now all that’s there is a bunch of fallen, charred logs and brush (including thistles and thorny plants). Well, when I got to the top of that peak, I saw what I reasoned to be Smith’s Peak in my NE direction. I figured if I could get there, I might be able to find the trail again, so that became my new game plan.

Unfortunately, getting there was not so easy, and since I had to go down to get there, I could no longer see it. I kept making my way in that direction and then came upon a creek. There was a creek on the map, so I figured if I used that, then it might take me in the direction I needed to go. I soon realized there were dozens of creeks like this, so this wasn’t the one on the map. Around that time, I came across a mama bear and her cub. The worst bear combination possible. And I’m lost. And by myself. So I did what the rangers suggest and I clapped my hands and shouted…and the mama bear got up on her hind legs and looked real ticked. So I went with Plan B and became very still and silent. The mama bear turned and ran away, and I scrambled across the creek, hoping she didn’t follow me. Yosemite Bear Encounter #1 in the books.

Another few hours past and I decided that given that I was still very far away from Smith Peak, I would instead change tactics and move in a WNW direction until I eventually ran into the road sometime that night. By this point, I had put myself on a water ration of one swig every few hours, and my legs were more red than white in most places…because who wears pants? (Rangers do…that’s who.)

I ate my pb&j for lunch while looking at my map. Then it suddenly dawned on me that bears can smell peanut butter from four miles away, and I most definitely hadn’t put four miles between that big mama bear and I—so I stuffed the last two bites of sandwich into my mouth, put my map back into my pack and headed out again.

I was having serious mental issues at times with this whole thing. I brought a whistle, but I was in the middle of nowhere and had no way to call YOSAR if I indeed did end up needing to be extracted (phone=dead/not activated). Also, no one would know I was missing until Sunday morning at work, even though my bus driver friend who was planning on picking me up at Tamarack Flat on Saturday afternoon to take me down to the valley would be puzzled if I wasn’t there. Serious stress…

After a while had gone by and I had changed socks after I picked all of the thorns out of my shoes (I did this numerous times.), I sat down at a rock next to a creek and started praying. Judge me all you want, I truly don’t care, but at this point I needed way more guidance than the sun, my map, and my brain. I only had one liter left of water and I didn’t know when I’d be by a stream again, so I used one of Shelby’s little tablet things to fill another liter. Not fifteen minutes later, I stumbled onto the trail. It took me 7.5 hours to find the trail again; it took God 15 minutes. (This was 3:00.) Believe what you want, but I don’t think that’s a coincidence—He’s really watching over us all.

I only had a guess as to what path I was now following, but I didn’t really care—it was a path! I followed it for a few miles and then reached a sign, an actual sign! And even better, there were humans by the sign! They probably thought I was a nut, but I was so excited to see people again!!! After that, it was only 2.5 miles to Hetch Hetchy! I was sooooooo excited, I was going to make it to Hetch Hetchy after all!

First glimpse of Hetch Hetchy from trail

I got down the 1.2 mile trail down to the road, and a ranger is just driving by. He sees me and asks if I need help; I told him that I was just deciding which way to go to get there. After he tells me Hetch Hetchy is to my right, he looks closer and goes, “You look exhausted.” I said, “That’s what being lost for 7.5 hours does to someone.” Long story short, after much protest, he gave me a ride (a “courtesy escort”) to the backpackers’ campground at Hetchy Hetchy. Ranger Ivanhoe to the rescue. :) I got to Hetchy Hetchy around 4:30, well after I intended, but still with enough time to walk to the O’Shaughnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Wapama Fall was still going strong, but unfortunately Tueeulala had already dried up for the season. The sister valley to Yosemite Valley was beautiful, and one can only imagine what it would be like today if it hadn’t been dammed. Humans were being humans though, doing what humans do best, and putting themselves first—above everything else on the planet. It’s unfathomable to me that a dam was placed in a national park and no amount of protest from preservationists like John Muir could do anything about it. What a crazy, crazy world.

 

O'Shaughnessy Dam 

 

 Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

 

View facing West off the dam 

O'Shaughnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir

In order to be one air-mile from the road, I would’ve had to hike another like eight miles that night, which just wasn’t happening. I checked with the ranger at the ranger station there to see if he had heard anything about the trail to Tamarack Flat. He hadn’t heard anything negative he said, so he figured it was fine. No news is good news, right? I ate the gourmet meal of raisins, beef jerky pieces, a mint chocolate power bar, a beef stick, and trail mix. I stayed in the campground there and went to bed around 8:00. Long day. I was so warm that even in my cut-off and shorts, I still had to sleep on top of my sleeping bag. The temperature difference throughout Yosemite is nuts.

Left leg after Day 1, didn't bother to take a picture after Day 2...too terrible

I pulled out over 30 thorns that were embedded in the bottom of my shoe on Friday night.

I had calculated that at a super slow pace of 30 min/mile with a little bit of cushion, I needed to leave before 5:30 in order to get to Tamarack Flat by the time Stephanie’s bus went by around 2:40. I set my alarm for 4:00, and was headed out by 5:00. The first little-over-a-mile was a piece of cake; it was all on the road, so my headlamp and I had no problems. Then the sun was coming out enough that I didn’t really need my headlamp anymore, right as I was turning onto the trail going up switchback city. It was there that I had Yosemite Bear Encounter #2, a small little bear that scrambled off as soon as it saw me. No problems.

 

 Sunrise above Hetch Hetchy Saturday morning

I took a right at the fork and headed east around the loop to take me to the trail to Aspen Valley. This trail was semi-overgrown and then extremely overgrown. The brush was taller than I was and it basically made a wall around me. I was staring at the ground, tracking footprints to try to make it through. I had difficulties with the trail numerous times, but only lost it once. That lasted about 15-20 minutes, and then I found it again. Whew—I was about to have a panic attack that I was going to repeat yesterday’s experience! The trail cleared out a little and I made it to the next trail junction without a hitch, then I took a service road for about .3 miles until I had to turn off that onto the trail to Aspen Valley. Warning bell: I had to search for the sign to the trail to Aspen Valley because it was almost entirely covered by the brush—the only reason I knew it was there somewhere was because of the sign going in the other direction.

I made it about a mile or so (roughly) in that direction, picking my way slowly and following footprints. By this point, I was extremely nervous that I was going to be late and miss the bus, stranding myself in the Tuolumne area. Well, I lost the trail as I needed to cross the creek on the map, and after searching for it, I knew that I couldn’t mentally or physically handle another experience like yesterday, so I turned around to retrace my steps. Well, I failed miserably at that too and couldn’t find the path going back. Again, I headed in the NW direction so that I’d eventually stumble upon that service road.

Picking my way across the peaks again was not my idea of a good time—my legs were already shot from the day before and I was not in the mood. I was also guzzling water today because I hadn’t drank very much yesterday. I went through both my 24 oz. bottles fairly quickly and only had my liter left. At some point, I hit a stream and drank a whole ton of water without filtering it first. I didn’t really care at that point, and I haven’t felt any repercussions yet (it’s 9:00 pm). So we’ll see.

I also stumbled across these giant tarp things, held in the ground by those big metal stakes that we use for snow fences. No idea what they were for—some kind of research?

Weird research thing?

Super luckily for me, my plan worked and I wandered back onto the service road. I took that path back to the path that I had been on before, then took a left to go west to the Mather Ranger Station. I had concocted a new plan, and none of it involved me hiking to Tamarack Flat.

I got to Mather Ranger Station, the entrance to the Hetch Hetchy area, around 12:20. The rangers there were super duper nice! Ranger Santiago something-or-other took one look at me and took me with him to his tent to get me a glass of water because there was no public potable water in the area. He and his older coworker David were coming up with plans to get me back to the valley. I talked to them both for a while. They both said that in all their years here, they have NEVER made it from Smith Meadow to Harden Lake without getting lost. They said they put in a request last year to either have it removed from the map or redone. Why that didn’t appear in Ranger Joe’s database search, I do not know. Santiago was very upset that he didn’t call up to them first before sending someone out there. He also said that the trail past Bald Mountain and Aspen Valley is terrible, and he doesn’t recommend anyone go out there either. Good to know, right? :P

If they couldn’t find me a ride, Santiago was going to drive me to the Big Oak Flat Station on the 120 so that I could find a ride from there. I really didn’t want to trouble them, but they both said they didn’t mind—they just thought their female supervisor might snicker at them and ask why they were giving me special treatment. I really didn’t want that…

So then I broke my promise that I made to my parents and a solid majority of my other family members. I figured they’d rather have me hitchhike than have YOSAR have to come get me. Although technically illegal for him to be the one to ask, Ranger Santiago secured me a ride to Big Oak Flat with this nice family that was headed that way. I thanked both rangers profusely for all their help, and wished them both the best of luck. The family that I rode with was from California and had been to the park quite a few times. The dad said that he hitchhiked from trailhead to trailhead whenever he was backpacking, so he felt like he was paying back part of that by helping me. We all had a really interesting conversation, and they were super nice. We even stopped at the iconic Yosemite National Park sign so that I could take their family picture. :)

From Big Oak Flat, I caught a ride to the valley with three people, two of which were going to be hiking the JMT (John Muir Trail) for the next 21 days. Again, really interesting people, and one previous hitchhiker while backpacking. The traffic was absolutely atrocious, as one can imagine on a Saturday, so once we got into the park, we were at a semi-standstill. They were headed to Curry Village, but I hopped out at the stop sign to take me over to the Wilderness Center. I had a stupid trail condition report to have filed.

Ranger Joe was not at all surprised when I told him my story, and he made notes of what I said the report. The ranger with him at the desk said, “Oh yuck,” when we told him the area I’d been in. IF EVERYONE KNOWS IT SUCKS—WHY NOT DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?!? So in the report under “Work Needed,” he wrote, “trail work.” You can say that again.

I then went back to my tent, showered, attempted to scrub my legs, gave up, and then started on first aid. I’m pretty sure I used ¼ of the tub of triple antibiotic ointment on my legs. They’re so bad. I don’t have any hydrogen peroxide though, so there’s a good chance a couple of the deep ones are going to get infected. Shucks. Then I was craving two things—a cheeseburger from the Lodge cafeteria and ice cream from the Coffee Corner. Check and check.

Random little tidbit—I met a guy on the bus tonight who works at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids!

All in all, it was not the trip I had planned. It definitely accomplished the wilderness-y part of wilderness experience though! Ranger Santiago gave me his number before I left and told me to call him if I was ever in the area and wanted information on real backpacking trails. First backpacking trip—complete!