Finally I went to Yosemite. It becomes an embarrasement that I told people that I've never been to Yosemite. Hetch Hetchy is outside of valley and located near to North entrance. We camped out at Hodgedon Meadow. Wondering why the camp site was half empty and the trip wasn't filled out at all, I found answer right after I got to the park on that Friday afternoon. It's cold! It's still like winter over there. It was sunny but chilly with a temp around 50 degree when we got there . The park is absolutely huge, 2 hours drive thru from south to north. A couple of gals beat us on camp site. Sascha, Sherry, Don and I went on a small hike to Wawopa fall in the same area that afternoon. The dam and falls are pretty. When we came back to camp ground, people started to arrive. It was getting really cold that night, with a temp near to freezing point. I kept waking up from the cold and swore that I would never ever camp in the freaky cold.
It was cloudy on Saturday and it was said of 50% chance of shower. We started the Smith Peak hike as originally planned around 10:00 am. It's a 14 mile out and back hike with 3000 feet elevation gain. It's supposedly the most strenuous hike in the Hetch Hetchy area. It started snowing and raining about hour after we started to hike. Something like hail ( I heard later it's called "corn snow" a term for this kind of snow) fell down. Then the hail-look-like became snow flakes, flying through the trees and branches. It's beautiful! The temp dropped to near freezing. The last mile came up after we passed "Smith Meadow" point and it became very steep. We lost trails a few times since the trails were covered by snow. We had to scout around and scramble back to right trails. Last half mile is really tough with the straigh-up slope and deep snow. Sneaker energy bar saved me! The view is fabulous on the peak as always is . With cloud cleared out, we were able to overlook the mountain ridge. Going back is a lot faster. With elevation getting lower, snow became rain. I was pretty wet through when I got back. The entire hike took us 7 hours! It's one of greatest hikes I've ever had. The snow made the hike more beautiful as well as challenging.
We had pot luck dinner around bonfire on Saturday night. Great good. The salmon and apply cobber were winners! I had to end up sleeping in 4runner that night with 2 sleeping bags on and fully dressed in snowboarding outfit to survive the cold.
I couldn't wait to flee from the swamp to dry land on the following morning! During the one- hour of driving through to valley, I felt I went through four seasons. We did a little hike and sightseeing at valley before heading back. It was sunny and a bit chilly and abosultely beautiful.
Great outdoors never ever brings me down. Everytime I'm in there, I'm just so glad I'm there. Afterwards, I feel good about myself! No matter how tough a hike could be, how much danger it could put me in, how cold and uncomfortable sleeping in a tent could be... When I'm marching step by step closer to a peak, I'm a happy and full-filling person.
It was cloudy on Saturday and it was said of 50% chance of shower. We started the Smith Peak hike as originally planned around 10:00 am. It's a 14 mile out and back hike with 3000 feet elevation gain. It's supposedly the most strenuous hike in the Hetch Hetchy area. It started snowing and raining about hour after we started to hike. Something like hail ( I heard later it's called "corn snow" a term for this kind of snow) fell down. Then the hail-look-like became snow flakes, flying through the trees and branches. It's beautiful! The temp dropped to near freezing. The last mile came up after we passed "Smith Meadow" point and it became very steep. We lost trails a few times since the trails were covered by snow. We had to scout around and scramble back to right trails. Last half mile is really tough with the straigh-up slope and deep snow. Sneaker energy bar saved me! The view is fabulous on the peak as always is . With cloud cleared out, we were able to overlook the mountain ridge. Going back is a lot faster. With elevation getting lower, snow became rain. I was pretty wet through when I got back. The entire hike took us 7 hours! It's one of greatest hikes I've ever had. The snow made the hike more beautiful as well as challenging.
We had pot luck dinner around bonfire on Saturday night. Great good. The salmon and apply cobber were winners! I had to end up sleeping in 4runner that night with 2 sleeping bags on and fully dressed in snowboarding outfit to survive the cold.
I couldn't wait to flee from the swamp to dry land on the following morning! During the one- hour of driving through to valley, I felt I went through four seasons. We did a little hike and sightseeing at valley before heading back. It was sunny and a bit chilly and abosultely beautiful.
Great outdoors never ever brings me down. Everytime I'm in there, I'm just so glad I'm there. Afterwards, I feel good about myself! No matter how tough a hike could be, how much danger it could put me in, how cold and uncomfortable sleeping in a tent could be... When I'm marching step by step closer to a peak, I'm a happy and full-filling person.
1 comment:
That looks cold, brrrrrr. Don't worry I have been battling the snow and cold here in my RV outside of Bishop. Looks like winter will finally end this week with temps in the 90's. Yeh!
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