We were a group of 6 late 30s / early 40 something men living in OC and SD. We drove up Wed night and some stayed in Bishop hotels, 2 of us van camped in the Tri County Fairgrounds which also happened to be where the high school Rodeo was happening so our sprinter van was dwarfed by all the horse trailers
Traffic in Tuolumne was one-way so we got a very late start to permit pick up, and didn’t hit the trail head until around 1:30pm. The road to White Wolf was closed so that added an extra mile or so. We also had to find some bear boxes up the road so our vehicles were scent free. We had dropped a car in Tuolumne as we'd heard that YART might not yet be running.
About 10 min past the White Wolf trailhead we came across our first bear. A yearling about 40 feet out, who quickly darted away upon hearing us. “Fun” way to start the trip. Weather was pretty perfect; high 70s and plenty of shade. Mosquitoes around White Wolf were minimal except for a few stagnant water spots where they got up to a 3 so we quickly hustled through.
The 5k foot descent to Pate Valley was a leg buster, but manageable. Late afternoon made the Sun tolerable, and the views of Hetch Hetchy were epic! One buddy started to hurt a bit, more on that to come.
It was getting dark by the time we approached the Pate Valley campground area. We saw another Mama bear, this time with two small cubs. That freaked us out a bit, but thankfully they also darted away upon seeing/hearing us. Entering with headlamps on we stumbled across another group of friendly hikers with their kids and a couple of hammock UL backpackers. Given the "crowd" we decided to retrace steps to a cool group spot we found before the bridges on the southern side of the Tuolumne, that had an awesome log campfire and somehow magically the Yosemite fire restrictions weren’t in place yet so we had an awesome first night with a raging campfire, under the stars.
Day 2 started out quite flat with some peaceful lush vegetation and awesome fishing/swimming holes. Saw one small snake swimming in the river, thankfully not a Rattler. The trail was quite overgrown in parts, but generally manageable. After a few miles we started our first ascent, staying super vigilant for rattlesnakes as we had heard about many sightings from other hikers. Unfortunately one guy in our group hadn't been able to sleep much and was struggling to keep water down, so we took it slow and helped him offload as much weight as he could into our packs.
We did a little swimming under a stunning waterfall, and took our time to soak it all in.
There were beautiful views along the switchbacks, and just before Cathedral Creek “Lake” (a wide spot in the Tuolumne at the base of Cathedral Creek) we crossed some of the same group we had seen in Pate Valley who told us about another awesome camping spot just up the way that overlooked an awesome fishing hole and had a nice campfire ring. We were tempted to push on to Cathedral Creek, but the group was tiring and sun was going down so we set up camp and again enjoyed an awesome night.
Day 3 was shaping up to be a doozy as it had the most elevation gain (over 2k feet from Cathedral Creek to Glen Aulin High Sierra camp) and our buddy was really starting to struggle with what looked to be dehydration. Boy, did it deliver. After a quick detour to check out Cathedral Creek, we began the ascent. The views were absolutely incredible; stunning waterfall after stunning waterfall, with amazing fishing holes tucked in between. Unfortunately our buddy was really turning south, so we fully divvied up his gear and the strongest in our group carried up his pack so we could get up to High Sierra Camp and hopefully get some help from the Rangers. Despite the nerves of his ailing health, we tried to appreciate the beauty we were surrounded by as it was truly one of the prettiest places I have ever been.
A day hike to Glen Aulin in the fall of 2020 was what originally inspired me to do this hike, so I tried to take in all of the breathtaking views on this 3rd day. As we finally approached High Sierra Camp, we came across 2 women who seemed to be "out of their element." Camped ~10 feet from the water, illegal campfire and quite inebriated. One looked to be dangerously drunk, so we made the tough call at ~9pm to send an SoS from her Garmin. It was the first time we'd done that, so we weren't sure what would happen but it felt like the right thing to do. We found out the next day that the absolutely amazing Yosemite SaR team hiked out that night, got there around 11pm, gave her her an IV and stayed the night to make sure she was ok. Absolute heroes.
High Sierra Camp was quite "crowded" compared to the prior 2 nights, but we found a nice spot up in the 11-30 area and after setting up camp and eating dinner made some friends with a nice group out of Portland at the community fire pit. We celebrated the Golden State Warriors winning the NBA Championship and tried to enjoy our last night.
In the morning, our buddy had gotten even worse so we went down to the main camp and were super lucky to find the SaR team still there, tending to the women. We asked them to take a look at our buddy and they were happy to help. He was deemed to be suffering from pretty severe dehydration with very weak vitals, but they were out of IVs (used the prior night) so they did the best they could and sent for backup from their counterparts up in Tuolumne. Two of us rushed out so we could pick up our drop car at White Wolf, and the rest stayed back with the Rangers.
Our final hike out to Tuolumne was peaceful, beautiful and uneventful. We passed a kind Ranger bringing a mule down to Glen Aulin which we assumed was for one of the women, but ended up being for our poor friend
. I honestly can't say enough about how amazing the Rangers and SaR team was, so incredible. Our buddy got home safe, and after a few days of R&R is thankfully back to normal with no further medical attention needed. Just a bruised ego perhaps. All in all it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 4 bears, luckily no rattlesnakes, a bit more weight/anxiety than expected but offset by more beautiful back country scenery than I could have ever imagined. Oh, and all of the water crossings were 100% doable without getting wet. The (nearly) perfect trip!