Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne June 25 - insane?

[Dave_Ayers]

The nice picture AT posted is of the Bridge over Conness Creek to get to Glen Aulin HSC from the PCT. It is not the bridge over the Tuolumne. Note that in Markskor's pic, which is of the bridge over the T, the rails are all metal, it is a single span on tall supports, and White Cascade is in the background. In AT's pic, the bridge rails are mostly wood, the bridge supports are much smaller, the bridge has more sections, and the campground area is in the background. Thus, the outage will affect folks who want to camp at or near the HSC, but not through hikers, bringing rlown's workaround into play for those that want to camp by the HSC.

The bridge over the Tuolumne below White Cascade is intact per various postings and photos from PCT hikers.

[SSSdave]

Beyond the center metal span, in high water, the river runs over the elevated rock works at the west end of the bridge at 8330. Not too dangerous a couple times I was there but at a couple feet deep with stong flow, an unpleasant wade. Satellite view here:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.90101,-119.41319&z=19&t=H

Anytime I go down the Tuolumne, I park west of Pothole Dome then cross country down the river, because it is significantly shorter. In fact for decades that has been what numbers of the workers at Glen Aulin use.

One year the Glen Aulin Bridge was also underwater at its west end too:

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.90921,-119.42034&z=19&t=N

To avoid both bridges above, given topo skills, one can cross country well east of the river all the way down to Glen Aulin. And the 2 crux wall sections at 5700 of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.93416,-119.50272&z=19&t=H

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=37.93329,-119.49767&z=19&t=H

For the neophyte, the second spot will be more convincing haha, if viewed with Google Earth.

David

[mrphil]

Hi AT,

That's the pic I wanted to see. Hey, duct tape and a few 2x4s and they should have that Conness bridge fixed right up in a couple hours.

Zoltan- I was up in the Trinities a couple weeks ago and you would be surprised at how little snow there is except at higher elevations. Although, the creeks and rivers are running high. It's definitely worth thinking about.

As for Morrison Creek and the descent to Pate from WW, pshaw. It'll be no problem there. If the bridges are still up down there in Pate Valley, you'll have trail flooding not far beyond. Anytime soon, and Register Creek will be the one to worry about...aside from flooding, it's the leading cause of trail closures in the area. If the bridge is still up at Return Creek, well, it's a bridge. Then more trail flooding and slop above the falls complex.

As far as up the May Lake Trail from GA on the way up to Tuolumne Peak and Ten Lakes goes, yeah, the snow does tend to drift and mound in the forested areas up there, with no shortage of slop where the snow isn't, but your bigger issues are going to first be Cathedral Creek, then after descending from Tuolumne Peak (once you get out of the snow up top) you'll then have what's likely to be an unpleasant, if not potentially dangerous/impassable crossing on the south fork of Cathedral Creek.

[mrphil]

Markskor-

So we have both the bridge into the campground over Conness Creek, and the one over the Tuolumne below White Cascade out? Hence "bridges"?