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.
Capture California, the Game-2013
Trail: John Muir Trail, Day Two from
Sunrise Creek to Long Meadow
