Adventure: 008, Hike 036 -Sunrise to Tuolumne Meadows

Capture California, the Game-2012

Adventure: 008, Hike 036 -Sunrise to Tuolumne Meadows

Team: Thing One, Thing Two

Date:  July 12, 2012, Day Three of JMT, Sunrise Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows

 Location: Yosemite

Hike Info:

Trail: JMT, Sunrise Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows

Distance: 10.9 miles

Duration: 8:16

Elevation Rise: 1,385

 





Description:
Got up at 5:40. Day is breaking. Thing Two's pad has a leak, so Thing One slept on it. It stayed up most of the night, but he could feel rocks this morning. Today is practice in getting an early start for the coming days.

The trail wanders up the creek, through Long Meadows. Then we start our 400+' climb. The map shows Cathedral Pass as being 9,700', which an unobservant person would assume that is the top and that is where the trail gos. But that would be wrong since our intrepid trail builders felt that we needed to climb another 200' past the Pass, to just short of 10,000'. In reality, they needed to do that to get over a ridge and drop into the Cathedral Lake basin. Also this route does does provide us a pretty good view—both into the upper end of the Merced River Basin and the Cathedral Lakes area. This view is just plain great. But I go up toward a mound, about 100' above the trail. From there it was just DDG—a 270 degree view. From Echo Peaks to Tressidar Peak. Just so jaw dropping great (JDG). Coming down off of the pass, we see Cathedral Meadows with Cathedral Peak, looming behind it. What a backdrop! We have a gorp break at Upper Cathedral Lake.

Down we go to the junction with Lower Cathedral Lake. We met a couple from Asbury Theological Seminary. They asked if Thing One was professor. His answer? It depends—not a teacher. So Thing One has a collection of resembles now: John Muir, Ansel Adams and a college professor. Not bad for just a plain old man.




A little bit of up and down, and down, and more down we go. But around 9,200', we saw a little creek. Where did that come from? A spring is coming out, right beside the trail. The temptation is just too much for Thing One. He gets out his cup and drink of liquid heaven—cold, clear, and sweet. Thing Two sees the delight Thing One has on his face and has some as well. According to Thing Two, “What Water!”



 More down hill. We meet a volunteer with NPS who checks our permit. We pass inspection. We also are able to get phone reception with Steven—well for a little while. Thing Two orders up a new pad for her. We made it down to Budd Creek and have lunch around 12:45. Steven will meet us in the Wilderness Center parking lot.



Even though the area is flat the trail to the Visitor Center goes on an uphill. This is a bit energy sapping. But we make it and emerge onto the meadow proper (Tuolumne Meadows). We can travel pretty well on level ground. In no time, we walk to Parsons Lodge and talked with the docent there. Then onward to the Wilderness Center. We make it by 3:00pm. Success! We have made the first segment of our trip. Next segment is Red's Meadow.



Steven comes in at 3:40, fully packed, ready for any contingency which Mom and Dad have for him. Except we now need to stuff our packs in there as well, as well as our two bodies. We get to. Tuolumne Meadows is fully packed and we are ready for a hotel room. So we go down to Lee Vining and get a motel there—the Lee Vining Motel. The shower feels good, but Thing One notice later, parts of him are still dirty. While we all are interested in Steven's steak dinner, but it will be a bit to find a BBQ. So we go down to the Mobil Restaurant—in reality it is named Whoa Nellie Deli. It is a filling dinner. We come back and get repacked and talked with family. Off to bed we go at the late hour of 9:00pm.



Today's JMT Lesson: Find beauty while you take time to breath.