As I sit here musing about my past month’s Yosemite adventure, it was an amazing Sierra epic saga, I feel the need to ramble on a bit, sort of a short dissertation on my take on some of the current conditions/amenities offered for wandering backpackers in Yosemite National Park, with a few added observations on some of the more notable denizens met. Sorry, I do take pictures…do not carry a camera; I leave that task for others much better adapted. So you just have to imagine you are with me now, in Tuolumne mid July, across from the well known Store/Café, sitting on a well used picnic table, hamburger and a cold one working. (Maybe I can give you a little help too.)
It is a zero day; there are the various prides of the PCT hikers coming through now, going northbound. With names like Hawkeye, Brown Eyed Girl, Buffalo Farts, and Spare Parts, they mill about the Meadow parking lot complex, backpacks strewn about, (Mostly ULA I noticed,)… drinking beer, eating the hamburgers, and laughing…(BTW, among this self-proclaimed, elite clic of hikers, bombastic, ostentatious farting while posing seems to be highly encouraged and permissible behavior). FYI, The café serves a generous soft cone dessert now…most popularly served just before closing…funny to see the diverseness that is Tuolumne, all standing around in the late afternoon sun, milling about the parking lot, eating the tall chocolate and vanilla swirl cones… (Like some bizarre Kafka play.) The store, open till 8:00, still stocks it all…well not all but, just enough to restock a Bearikade and adequately pig out for a day, (including some respectable offerings from some good local Mammoth brewers). The store has now also added, for those that may use it, a meager hiker’s box too in the right corner…FYI, I saw a few hikers throwing in food into the box from off the store shelves…then another buddy grabbing this food up, and walking out… (Maybe some kinks in the system here still need to be worked out.) The JMT hikers are also present, southbound…bigger packs…a different strain of backpacker, not as trail jaded…eagerly unpacking boxes recently sealed, tearing open Post Office presents…chocolate and Humboldt. There were always the blue hiker busses pulling in…bigger Tourist busses pulling out…tourists from around the world, Germans and Asians briefly pausing, digital cameras and rental cars. The climbers are here, incessantly sorting out gear, hours after hours sorting; also contently idle now just sitting in the grass. There are noticeably fewer family units hiking this year…maybe it is too early in the season...bugs are still bad but getting noticeably lighter. It is finally warm now though, and last week’s cold front/high winds, thankfully used only a reference point, as in…”Where were you last week when the winds hit?” A Ranger on horseback moseys along, (nice job to have), taking a warm moment among a few bikers wearing colors…cold beer and smiles all around…Tuolumne.
Interesting that there seems to be only 3 types of hike plans active, going on here in Tuolumne right now. Everybody today is only doing the big hikes…The PCT or the JMT, maybe 60% of all the responses to, “Where you headed?” The rest are either going up to Voglesang or Clouds Rest…then congregating in mass at LYV before heading down…long-planned 5 day adventures. Funny, nobody carries fishing rods…plenty of other diverse gear though…lot of those “fold-up” sleeping pads – (the old-school accordion style…thought those went out years ago), maybe a total 50% of all sleeping pads seen…lots of “old-School” external packs too, loaded high and heavy…incidentally, most backpackers around today are now using hiking poles.
Early evening now, just before the canvas-sided Tuolumne store shuts its doors, this is a good time to grab something, perhaps a bag of chips and some fresh salsa, and maybe a 6-pack of Coronas before heading up to the backpacker’s camp…civilized and close…located behind the store and right next to the fireside Ranger circle in Tuolumne. Yosemite contains two available (non Wilderness) backpacker camps (that I know of), no reservation needed, one in Tuolumne and in the Valley; both cater to backpackers. I availed myself of both. The one in Tuolumne, it was self-policing, never once saw a ranger there in three nights of stays…everybody kept it clean and usually quiet…the PCT hikers notwithstanding. The one in the Valley though, located behind the stables, is a little more tightly run and a lot more strictly patrolled; often the Rangers came by 3 times a night there…still the best situation for a wandering backpacker to spend a night…no cars, quiet, and a safe place to leave the gear unattended…bearboxes everywhere. Be warned though, you must have a Wilderness Permit to stay over at either site.
This brings me to my first rant…the PCT Hiker mentality. I like these guys…their orneriness, endurance, and general who-gives-a-rat’s-ass attitude about anything else but their personal trail agendas. I laughed with them, partied amongst them, heard the stories, and even drove a few down to TPR for pie and ice cream…they are fun people to be with. My complaint is that along the way, specifically, the next night in the Valley BP camp, I was in the process of restocking and had bought a bottle of Grand Mariner for my next day’s, early morning, Red Peak Pass trek bus ride, (sheesh - $25 for a one way trip to Mono Meadows)…filling up my 20 oz nalgene, stashing it away safely in my pack in the bear box, and offering the rest of the bottle into that night’s general Yosemite Valley backpacker camp debauchery fund. Alas, the next morning the filled nalgene was mysteriously gone…along with the PCT hikers…trust here is fleeting.
Speaking about restocking mysteries, you would think that for all of the “one liter” nalgene water bottles sold to backpackers, (most hikers carry one, I do…fits in the hip belt of my Gregory), someone would market, especially in Yosemite Valley, a packaged powdered drink mix unit (with sugar or not…doesn’t matter) designed specifically to fill a one liter nalgene…a no brainer. Yosemite store only sold those large plastic tubs of Kool-aid - grape….that and Crystal Lite Raspberry Tea…what gives? No Wyler’s…no Tang…no variety?
Speaking again of the backpacker camp – in the Valley this time, this brings me to a second rant…Headlamps. We all carry one…great piece of necessary gear – replaced the flashlight, but perhaps we can turn them down a setting or two when entering into a crowded, sleeping campsite. Nobody really minds it when hikers come in late…often after midnight getting into a crowded camp…setting up tents… etc, long after most there have gone to bed. But when you walk through the entire camp searching for an available free site, or just turn your head an any direction, with your headlamp on stun-blind setting high, you are shining your light directly into all the tents around close for 15 minutes…why? Perhaps a little consideration for other fellow campers might be in order here…Turn down the headlamps to low or take them off your heads, please.
Another minor gripe is the Valley backpacker’s camp restroom light…on a timer and uber-blinding…motion sensitive, it goes on after dark whenever anybody enters the john and stays on 15 minutes after they leave…unfortunately, the light is also set on camp blinding, high-intensity mode…oppressive and piercing. Since we all now carry a headlamp anyway, why not dispense with the blinding restroom light after 10:00, (or all together), and let the individual personal headlamps carry the load…just a thought.
FYI, in the Valley, next to the old Bank of America building, the Yosemite Art Institute now offers art classes for free…world renown artists…big time artists (mostly oils and watercolors), somehow these artists, they are enticed/ lured into Yosemite to give FREE, 4-hour classes, 5 days a week…starting at 10:00am and going till 2:00.
(If you were in the city, such a class opportunity if available would cost $100/class day)…a great opportunity if artistically inclined and it pleases your hiking schedule. I had come prepared to do some watercolor work but alas, the only available classes offered in my 2, short Valley stays were classes in Pastels…for those days…I just listened, watched the demonstration, and then sketched away in pencil, not wanting to spend the necessary $25 for additional art supplies.I sketched Half Dome that afternoon, and I also offer up here a few more sketched impressions of various other Yosemite stopovers.
Next, maybe a quick mention of some of the available Valley food providers, currently serving up/ answering the need for something that doesn’t need cooking.
Degnons Deli still serves great lunch sandwiches…Pastrami and Swiss on an onion roll was $6.00. If you talk nice to the sandwich makers, (overwhelmed and underappreciated kids), and special request double meat/ double cheese, and smile, they twice somehow forgot to add the price the addition…still $6. I do not think the kids really care about any corporate profit margins. Curry breakfast cafeteria is still a great deal… $10.50…all you can eat…lots of fresh fruit and unlimited bacon and sausage available. Curry also has a new Mexican Food stand…not too bad cuisine, (next to the Mountain Shop)…but it closes too early at 5:00 PM. The Pizza/ ice cream deck zoo always has a continuous line, extending well off the deck…the pizzas sold there are still just marginal at best…tourists line up to suck these up…who knows why. The Curry deck bar does not sell pitchers of beer anymore…and their prices have escalated…a 20 oz bud - $6.00…better to just buy a 6-pack and take it back to camp.
A few other random miscellaneous Yosemite observations, in no particular order:
There seems to be less backpackers this year hanging out in the Valley…and a lot more global tourists. Showers (located at Housekeeping and Curry) now cost $5. The Wilderness parking lot, (between Curry and Happy Isles), where you are supposed to long-term park while backpacking, was continuously full of cars (a sign posted said so)…I left my car in the Curry lot for 14 days with no problems…no sticker in the window either. A new condo unit has been built between Housekeeping and Curry (some employee housing but mostly big buck accommodations…so much for the Valley’s master plan not expanding the facilities (getting everything back to pristine nature), especially when there is money to be made. Of all the hundreds of backpackers seen in my 3 week stay, I only counted 3 that were African-American, out of all those who donned regular overnight backpacks.
Lastly, I would be remiss if there were not some special mention of the HSC at Merced. John Rogors is the chef there…has been for years, arguably the best of all chefs currently working at a HSC, and a friend. We met years ago, shared an evening or two along the way, always a pleasure to stop in and say hi…I do not know why but from all the thousands of people he has met, he always remembers me…this time he even introduced me to everyone in attendance that night during the after dinner introductions. Anyway, I had stopped in earlier to see about possible dinner availability – yes!…next thing I know I am peeling potatoes in the kitchen – (Nice Mural going on back there) with somebody’s Grandma (who BTW was a PHD in Physics), all the while discussing Yosemite lore, past and present. Did you know the going rate for a Merced HSC employee to take a fully loaded pack up to Voglesang or Sunrise? $150…and they do it quite often too…interesting.
It turns out that John was hitch hiking last summer in Tuolumne and was fortunately picked up by some “Cutie.” The next week, coincidently, he was driving along near El Portal and surprisingly, he picked up the same woman…now she was hitching. To make a long story short, she said she would marry him, if he passed Calculus. As soon as he saw me up there he cornered me, bribing me with all available HSC options (Thanks John) just so I would possibly send him up a good Calculus text when I got home…ultimately by mule mail all the way up to the HSC, from the Valley…done…in the mail.
I ate well that night…seconds on fresh salad and warm bread with garlic and rosemary, chicken and fresh greens, and a gooey chocolate cake. Afterwards I partied with the crew…they seemed to have a hankering for (and an unending stash of) Makers Mark available…poor mules… Best meal I had all trip.
Pardon my ramblings...Mark