Yosemite

[Super Novacaine 2228]

Went to Yosemite this weekend and backpacked about 50 miles with a buddy of mine. Figured I'd post the cruddy phone-camera pictures I took here instead of spamming up the Post You thread.

 

Got our wilderness passes early Friday and decided to do some quick climbing before we headed out.

 

 

Drinking and climbing is a perfectly safe combination.

 

 

Got to the top of the climb and it had a pretty nice view.

 

 

So after a few hours of climbing we headed out. We grabbed a map at the wilderness station earlier when we got our permits and picked out our path right there. It ended up being almost twice as long as we expected. Here's a picture of our trail, with the black points being where we camped out each night.

 

 

The first mile or two were pretty chill, but then we got to some switchbacks that climbed for a good while. When we reached the top of them we had a pretty good view of Nevada Falls.

 

 

After that though it was a few more miles of shitty switchbacks and we got even higher up. We finally reached the top of those and had a relatively flat hike for a while. We found a path with some cool flowers and I had to let some of my inner faggot out.

 

 

We hiked for a few more miles and we were running pretty low on water. Our map showed that there were supposed to be some creeks along the way that we were going to fill up at, but they ended up being all dried up. We finally came across a small river and we set up camp there for the night. We set out at about 9 the next morning and had a pretty chill 10 mile hike to the Ottoway Lakes, where we had chili for lunch and relaxed for an hour or so.

 

 

 

Only brought one shirt for the whole trek so I had to get that thing off of me.

 

 

Feet were definitely hurting the most out of anything. I needed some better hiking shoes.

 

 

After lunch we reached another crappy set of switchbacks that took us to the top of the Red Peak Pass, which would be our highest point at about 11,700 ft. Yosemite Valley sits at 4,000 ft so we had climbed a shitton. Gave us a great view of the lake though.

 

 

After we got to the top it was nearly all downhill from there, so we thought we had it easy. But then we saw the stormclouds start to blow over us.

 

 

So we pretty much had to run down the entire mountain with hail and rain coming down on us. Wasn't much fun since I only brought a pair of shorts. At least I brought one good jacket.

 

 

We wanted to make it to the next intersection before dark, which was the Triple Peak Fork, so we were going at a really heavy pace for an hour or two. We ended up missing the signs for the intersection and went way farther than we intended, setting us up for a pretty easy third day. It was about 9pm and we were being eaten by mosquitoes so we threw up our tents as quick as possible and didn't want to get out to make dinner because the bugs were so bad. And all my clothes were soaked, so I just slept naked in my sleeping bag (bow chicka wow wow).

 

The next day we realized just how far we had made it when we ran into the lake right before the ranger station. We stopped by to refill our water and have a snack. It was pretty awesome.

 

 

After that my feet started to really kill me and I spent the last 13 miles crying like a little baby. There was also some dude that was hiking completely naked, though my phone had died so I couldn't get a picture (sorry Mimic).

 

Anyone else ever do any backpacking or visit Yosemite? It's a great place and I'm lucky to live about 3 hours from it.

[Goldentongue 3616]

I'm so damn jealous. I've done some hiking and backpacking in Alabama and a little in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, but it's obviously nothing like what Yosemite has to offer. I used to go camping a few times in Yellowstone when I was younger, but it's been a long time.

Thanks for this post, Yosemite is now definitely on my bucket list if it wasn't already.

[Ichalvl 1752]

 

That tree totally has a face, and has seen some SERIOUS shit.

[Goldentongue 3616]

Btw, did you go near/up Half Dome? I recently read about that place. It seems absolutely wild.

[Super Novacaine 2228]

I'm so damn jealous. I've done some hiking and backpacking in Alabama and a little in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, but it's obviously nothing like what Yosemite has to offer. I used to go camping a few times in Yellowstone when I was younger, but it's been a long time.

Thanks for this post, Yosemite is now definitely on my bucket list if it wasn't already.

It's a beautiful place. Everyone should go there at least once in their life. I have a hard time driving whenever I'm there because I just want to keep staring out the windows the whole time.

 

And we passed by the base of Half Dome in the last few miles. We were thinking of going up to the top, but we were so tired we figured we'd save it for another day. Definitely is one of the hikes I want to make soon though.

[n2fwa 605]

I fucking hate you...

I've been trying to get a group of friends to go backpacking in Yosemite with for months. I only live a few hours from it too.

My grandma did the high sierra loop at 65 years old, I've always wanted to do that.

I've been there twice for family get-togethers but I was too young to do any serious hiking.

Definitely going to do Half Dome too.

 

Edit: I'm also trying to go to Big Sur, I'm sure you've been there too.

Edited July 22, 2013 by n2fwa

[BananaPeelz 709]

Damn man I've always wanted to go backpacking in Yosemite, but I went to the Maroon Bells in Colorado this summer. We also climbed three other 14000 foot mountains which were all pretty damn awesome (Sunshine, Red cloud, and Handies peak). Pretty jealous of you right now.

[fps_trucka 1715]

Awesome post, I've never tried backpacking any sort of trail. I definitely want to give it a try now.

[Illogical 1126]

FUCK. TAKE ME WITH YOU NEXT TIME.

[blob 1985]

Climb with me NOVA!!

[Dojima 7619]

Hike too OP for me. It is beautiful out there though.

ahaha, nice reppin' those DVHS gym shorts.

[Super Novacaine 2228]

/>ahaha, nice reppin' those DVHS gym shorts.

Oh man excellent catch hahahha.

And blob, maybe if you hit me up when you were in California then I would have >: (

Edited July 23, 2013 by Super Novacaine