R02 TR: 2012 Yosemite Slam Trip Pics

[oldranger]

Days 7 and 8

One more sunset pic

Another sunset pic and another view of Half Dome

On day 8 we headed up to Middle and Upper Florence.

Humping up to Middle Florence

Ah sh!t, I thought we were there

looking back on Middle Florence enroute to Upper Florence. Funny thing about this pic is that in High resolution version I noticed that I caught mark with his pants down! You can barely (pun intended) see his silhouette in the expanded but low resolution pic

After negotiating one of the nasties talus field I've ever encountered Upper Florence turned out to be a shallow tarn that was not particularly attractive. Mark in the meantime stayed at Middle Florence and eventually returned to camp. I returned to Middle Florence then to camp via a different route that provided some unexpected returns.

Erratics and another view of a Yosemite icon

For Tehipte Tom, some wildflower pics…..

Paintbrush

Natural Bouquet

Wildflower Garden

To be continued

Mike

[oldranger]

Days 9-10--Florence to Harriet lakes

On day 8 we went down Florence Creek aways before traversing west to intersect the High Trail. Saved a few hundred feet of vertical but not sure the cross-country route saved either time or energy over dropping down to the trail.

Creek Below Florence

The following are views off of the High Trail

Mt Clark

Looking toward Gold!

Up the Merced toward Triple Divide Peak

Whre the f*** are we?

Actually route from trail to Harriet was a piece of cake! Original Itinerary called for a layover day at the Harriets but the days at Florence Lakes put us behind schedule so we just a single night at the Harriets

Nearing Harriet Lakes

Big Harriet

Clark Range from above Big Harriet

Mt Clark from Highest tarn in Harriet Basin

Streamside Flora

more to come

Mike

[oldranger]

Days 11-13 Harriets to Merced Peak Fork/Edna Lake

On day 11 Mark and I headed around Big Harriet to the sw corner then over and down a little pass where I sampled the fishing (Thanks Rogue for noticing fish when you passed by! I passed this lake by on my previous visit, which may have been fortuitous since on my arrival at big Harriet on that trip I witnessed the frolicking of a pair of naked nymphs). From this lake we worked our way down to the high trail but forsook the roundabout trail and plunged down off trail and traversed our way down to the trail just above the junction of the Merced River trail and the Red Peak Pass trail. A nifty piece of navigation if I do say myself! We then followed the trail up and over the ridge then down to The Merced Peak fork, Mark whining the entire way. We establish a camp a hundred or so yards below the trail crossing. We would spend 3 nights here.

Big Harriet Lake

Looking ne across Big Harriet, Forester and Peaks around headwaters of Lyle Fork and N. Fork San Joaquin

Lap Pool at our camp

Narrow Lake 1/2 mile n of camp on Merced Peak Fork, looking nne

Edna Lake from top of Cliffs at N end of lake

Looking E across N end of Edna, Banner and Ritter peeking over ridge

Looking NE across Edna from w inlet, McClure and Lyle Peaks

Interesting Rock

To be continued

Mike

[oldranger]

Days 14-16 Merced Peak Fork to Adair, layover day, Adair to Washburn.

Before this trip I had been to Adair two times on both occasions I arrived and departed on separate routes, this would be no different, This time we started on the route we took with Tehipte Tom in 2009 but just as we got to the place where we began a long traverse to go around the ridge that separates Red Peak Fork from Gray peak Fork we called an audible and decided to follow a sparse treelike that went almost directly up the ridge.

Tree line followed to get from Red Peak Fork to Gray Peak Fork Drainage

View across Merced

Before we knew it we topped out and were confronted with a few hundred feet of steep but not too nasty talus.

I'm getting too old for this!

At the bottom it was a piece of cake to Adair. In my 3 trips there is only one photo of Adair! It was taken in 2007 on a trip with my daughters. So for the sake of giving you a view here is the pic from 2007.

The route Mark and I took involved dropping in from near the top of the right hand edge of the photo.

What always stands out at Adair is the evening views of the southern end of the Cathedral Range--Florence, McClure, and Lyle.

Sunset on Cathedral Range

After our layover day we would hike the next 4 days to the conclusion of our trip. From about day 12 on we were both lamenting that we were down to a week or less on our trip! Our exit from Adair was to head down canyon a bit then head over the ridge and travel e until we returned to the Red Peak fork. Dropping down the canyon wall was a bit dicey but we managed just fine. There were lots of great slabs at the bottom of the canyon and fish in the creek (never spotted any in Red Devil or the upper reaches of Red Peak Fork).

Great Slabs in the Bottom of the Canyon

Sometimes it was hard to get mark moving!

Washburn from almost to the Bottom of Red Peak Fork

Due to low water the ford across the Merced was only about knee deep. We managed to find a passable campsite just below the outlet of Washburn.

Washburn from Outlet

Moonrise

to be concluded!

Mike

[Jason]

This is AWESOME!!! Thanks for posting the photos and commentary. I'm looking forward to summer even more now.

[oldranger]

Day 17-19--Washburn, Merced Lake, Echo Lake, Tuolumne meadows

Day 17 was a really short day, almost a layover--Washburn to Merced Lake backpackers camp. pressure was on, though as we had yet to catch a brown trout. So we had to set up camp then head out to fish.
Fish caught the fishing was completed though I did have the option of fishing at Echo Lake (but chose not to).

Mark in front of Merced Lake Dining Hall

Merced Lake from near inlet

On day 18 we split up. Mark heading down to the valley via little Yosemite Hikers Camp and I heading up Cathedral Creek to Echo Lake.

Hot going out of Merced River

Off trail nearing Echo Lake, Echo Peaks

Last day

First view of Cathedral Peak. took a while to recognize it because it seemed too short from this angle

Looking nne across Upper Cathedral Lake

Mt Conness

19 days worth of cobwebs on the 4 Runner

The, the thats all folks!

Stay tuned for 2012 car/great lodge/ hiking trip to Glacier NP/ Waterton Lakes

Mike

[FeetFirst]

What an awesome trip. Great pictures too. Thank you both for sharing.

[Shawn]

Sometimes it was hard to get mark moving!

LOL, who could blame the guy.

[sparky]

You two are quite the pair!

[LMBSGV]

Great report and photos. That was a creative, fascinating route - a lot of my favorite Yosemite places. Thanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to the Glacier report.