I did not sleep well. It was not because of the new quilt. I was quite warm. The new quilt is a winner. I also had my sleeping bag liner which I always bring when it is below 40 degrees. For the first part of the night I was in fact too warm with the liner so I had to shed it but I put it back on when it got colder. I think the reason I could not sleep was because it just got dark too early (5PM). Even though I tried to do some reading I still was not tired. Eventually I drifted off late in the night.
I woke up at about 5:30AM and packed up all my gear. As soon as I exited my tent, all of a sudden the temperature was much colder. Significantly colder. The new Durston tent seems to hold a lot of my warmth. Interesting. I never noticed that with my old tent.
When I got back down to the brink of Chilnualna Falls it was still dark but it would start to lighten up soon.
My goal #3 for this trip: View the massive Chilnualna waterfall unlike anyone has done before. You can view Chilnualna Falls from the main trail but it is a long distance away. When you come to the top of the falls on the trail there is no view of it to be had. I have wondered for a long time whether a better and closer view is possible. My initial idea for this weekend was to attempt to get up to it from the bottom. It seemed an impossible task. I don’t know if it is or not but it definitely would be extremely difficult. When I got to the brink of the falls the previous day I came up with a better plan. Hike down the ridge on the opposite side of the creek. It looked do-able. Very do-able. Crossing the creek was easy. I did not even get my feet wet. The route was brushy but I found a way around it. I descended the ridge to find this amazing viewpoint.
The main drop of Chilnualna Falls is 231 ft. high. At this time of year it is a magnificent and stunning waterfall. I could not quite see the bottom of the falls from here. It would have been possible to continue further down the ridge but I knew the further down I went the less I would see of the bottom of it. This was the best viewpoint that could be had. I have seen just one other photo of Chilnualna Falls from this side but they rapelled down the cliff. Admittedly they had a better viewpoint but rapelling is not in the cards for me. No rapelling needed! My route was steep but not cliffy. This trip was a massive success in my books.
It was very cold and windy on the ridge as I took my photos. I did not linger. I still had to go back and photograph the middle falls before the sun came up. I hiked back up and made my way over to it. I got right up to the base of the middle falls this time which I did not do before (and would have been impossible at high flows). Afterwards I made some coffee at the brink of the big waterfall before hiking back down the trail to my car. I saw just one group coming up the trail and there were no cars in the parking lot at the bottom. When the sun came out it was very warm and I was hiking in shorts and a shirt. It is funny because when I got back home it was so much colder! I needed long pants and a jacket! That darn Tule fog has been lingering in the valley for a long time now. I wish it would end and we would get some rain and snow instead. This winter has started off horribly. The snow pack is currently at 7 percent of normal (north), 23 (central) and 63 (south). Please God, let it rain! We have a weak La Nina but only the northwest is getting the rain so far this winter. Send some of it down south please. Anyway, it was an overwhelmingly successful overnight trip at Yosemite National Park.
I bought a new sleeping bag because the old one was not keeping me warm on cold nights any more. Actually I bought a quilt this time. This is unusual for me. I have always liked bags but I did the research and figured this time I would get the quilt. Off I went to Yosemite National Park to try it out. It would be 41 degrees at night. Not too cold but cold enough to give it a good test.
My plan: Chilnualna Falls for one night.
I arrived at the trailhead at 9:30AM. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot. There had to be at least 7 or 8 groups ahead of me but I saw no one on the trail for the entire hike. I did not even see anyone when I finally got to the top of Chilnualna Falls. Where did they all go? It was not until the very end did I finally see some people coming back down.
One person in particular needs to be talked about: He said to me, Oh are you just starting out your backpacking trip? Ah no, obviously, I started at the bottom. But you are going on a long trip, then? No, just one night. Ah, so it is a training trip, then? (Now I’m thinking, what is the deal with this guy!) Not a training trip, just seeing the waterfalls here. But your pack is so heavy! Ummm, actually 32 pounds is not very heavy at all when you have camera equipment but thanks for letting me know, Mr. Know It All. I may or may not have said that last phrase. Really people, have you heard the phrase Hike Your Own Hike? Not that it even matters but I did not take anything that I did not use or need on this trip. Oh wait. That is a lie. I had a couple charging cords with me but I left my battery pack at home (intentionally). So I guess I could have shed a couple ounces and left the cords at home. And I had one luxury item: my Kindle. All those things are not even a half pound. I think I did very well, actually.
But it would have helped if I was in shape. It is a 2200 ft. climb and I was very tired by the time I reached the top of Chilnualna Falls. I found a spot to camp near the upper falls. It was a great spot mostly hidden off the trail although you could still see my camp from the trail if you were looking. I did see a couple people go by but I don’t know if they saw me. I set up camp and made my dinner.
I have been to Chilnualna Falls before in 2009 (and at a better time of year). So why return, you may ask? Well, I had three goals for this trip. All were successful. The first was to see a new waterfall on the North Fork Chilnualna Creek. I did this on day one but the creek flow was pretty low. This one would be much better to see in the spring. The second goal was to get (some!) photos of the upper falls. I have been to it before, obviously (or maybe not so obviously), but somehow I lost all my photos of it. It is a mystery. After going to the first waterfall on the north fork I came back to the bottom of the upper falls. This gets very late sun so I had to wait until almost sunset before I could take photos. I was about 45 minutes ahead of time. It was very cold waiting in the shade at the base of the waterfall. Finally I could take my shots. You can only see the bottom section from here so I went back up to where I could see the entire length of Upper Chilnualna Falls. It is 145 ft. high with all the tiers included. It was sunset now. My hands were very cold. Thankfully it was a short walk back to camp. I hopped into bed. It was only 5PM. I did some reading for awhile. I tried to sleep.
For goal #3 you need to wait until my next post. It was a fantastic first day at Chilnualna Falls in Yosemite National Park.
There’s nothing you can do to shut me out when I’m speaking the truth. – Kutless
Tara, Journey and I drove all the way to Yosemite National Park to play fetch. Ha ha. Well, not exactly.
The real reason we went is because I thought Horsetail Falls might be flowing and I wanted a photo of it in October. Two inches of rain this week. Yosemite Falls was flowing decent (it was dry earlier this month). A foot of snow at the top which would be melting. I really thought Horsetail Falls would be flowing, at least a little bit. We arrived at the park in the early afternoon. Horsetail Falls was completely dry. Shut down. Darn. Well, there are other things to do in Yosemite, right? Such as play fetch!
Journey was antsy after the long car ride. She needed exercise in the most severe way. As I have said before she is a very high energy high maintenance dog. We love her to bits but she needs exercise every day. We stopped at the El Capitan picnic area and found an awesome spot for her out of the way from everyone else. We put her on the long rope and fetched. ONE AND A HALF HOURS. Pretty much non-stop. After an hour we tried to get her to stop and lay down for awhile but she was like: What are you doing? Throw that ball already!
Of course as you know, Yosemite National Park is in shutdown. I have read horror stories in the news recently as I am sure you have: base jumping off El Capitan, squatters, etc. Let me tell you what I saw there: I did not see anyone base jumping and we were there for the entire afternoon (I’m not saying it did not happen). The campground we passed was pretty full and I am sure some people (maybe a lot?) were there illegally. This did not bother me, though. If people were squatting illegally along the Merced River or some other such place, then that is different. I would have been mad about that because it is an environmental issue but if they are in the campground, who cares. There were quite a few people in the park overall but nothing out of the normal. The shuttle bus was running regularly. I saw one ranger making his rounds through the valley (a couple times). The bathrooms were clean and stocked with toilet paper. There was no overflowing garbage anywhere. Frankly, I was surprised. Very surprised. And very pleased.
Another thing I was surprised about was that the Fall Colors were already showing in the valley. Mid October is very early for color in Yosemite Valley. Indeed, I have a friend who was just there a few days before me and I asked him specifically if there was any color yet in the valley and he said none. Ugh! There was a lot of color! If I had known this then I would have come early in the morning at sunrise and spent more time in the valley photographing the colors. Ah well, c’est la vie.
At 3:30pm we went to see the Lower Yosemite Falls. This is one hike (walk) which Journey is allowed to go on. Tara is on crutches at the moment so we took it easy walking up to the falls but she made it. There were a lot of people there. All over the place, including up on the rocks near the waterfall. Even someone climbing up beside the waterfall (which I did not even notice until I got home and looked at my photos). There was no way to photograph the lower falls back at the viewpoint because of all the people so I had to scramble up on the rocks as well. Amazingly I found a pretty good spot with no one else in my viewpoint even though there were a ton of people all around me. After this, we drove all the way back around the valley again and stopped at Swinging Bridge to take this photo of Upper Yosemite Falls. We stopped at Bridalveil Falls viewpoint on the way back but I did not take photos there. Then the long drive home. It was a glorious afternoon in Yosemite National Park amidst the government shutdown.
The photo is Far Lower Piute Creek Falls, where I camped on night 3 and saw the bear.
I was worried about the Morrison Creek crossing. I should not have been. I had already estimated that even if the creek flow was double I should still be able to cross it with no issue. But would I? What if I made a mistake? The Tuolumne River was substantially higher and overflowing onto the trail. I found out later it went up from 2000 cfs to 2900 cfs from Sunday to Thursday. (that is a 45% increase). I prayed to God to take my worries away and let me sleep. It was all in His hands now. But it is hard. I kept thinking to myself, it’s in God’s hands, it’s in God’s hands. I did end up getting a decent amount of sleep (but not great).
I woke up early and was on the road by 6:30AM. All the creeks leading up to Morrison were only “slightly” higher. But Morrison is a different beast. I knew from looking at the satellite beforehand that there was still a lot of snow in the Morrison Creek drainage. When I finally got up there I saw that it was actually no higher than before! Maybe just “slightly” higher. I did not even need to use the log to shimmy across the creek, I easily waded it. God’s word to me: “I told you so”. I do not understand why the creek was not much higher. It should have been 45% higher. With the temperatures rising and the snow melting at a high rate, it just does not make sense. Or maybe it does. And God had something to do with it.
All good things … must come to an end …
It is a 3300 ft. climb to Harden Lake where I initially had planned to stay the night. It was only noon when I arrived and I still felt really good after the big climb. Surprisingly. At most it is a 7 hour hike from here back to the trailhead (if I am hiking slowly). I could easily make it back and get home a day early. The deciding factor: pizza. I could not stand another night of ramen noodles. I had it 3 nights in a row and a 4th seemed revolting to me. I will not make this mistake again, bringing so many noodles. It took 5 hours to get back to the car and I arrived at 5:30PM. It was 19.3 miles in total this day. I drove straight to Pizza Factory. Day 7 of Yosemite backpacking trip complete. It was an absolutely amazing trip in the Yosemite Wilderness.
It was my 26th wedding anniversary today. Happy Anniversary Tara. I love you. Wish you were here. You may wonder why I was out backpacking on my anniversary instead of being at home. Well, it is not my fault! I initially planned to do this trip a week earlier but both my wife and daughter wanted (needed) me home that week, so this week was my only other option. Probably just as well because it was raining the previous week.
My pinky toe was much better today. The NERO rest day really did the trick. It took 2.5 hours to hike down to the waterfall. I thought it would be much less, more like 1.5 hours or 2 at the most. It was extremely difficult. Lots of brush. One class 3 maneuver. I really wondered if it was worth the effort or if I’d even make it.
I descended down the final approach ridge. I could see the waterfall. I thought WOW. This is going to be absolutely amazing. Thank you, God. Oh wait. Maybe not. I was on the wrong ridge. I could only see the top half of the waterfall from here. Doh! It was still an incredible spot and I took some photos but I really should try to get to the bottom of this thing, I thought. More steep scrambling. More thick brush. I was running out of time. Finally, I made it to the bottom. The sun was almost hitting the top of the waterfall. I made it just in time. Piute Creek Falls is absolutely incredible, about 220 ft. high. There was a lot of mist at the bottom making it difficult to find a spot to photograph it. I am almost completely certain that no one has ever been down here before. It is just too hard. But man oh man is it ever awesome. This easily made my entire trip worthwhile.
Time to go back up the mountain. I finally got back to the trail at 11AM. I rested and ate my lunch. I still had another 1000 ft. to climb out of Pleasant Valley and then a descent of 3500 ft. to Pate Valley. I made it down to Pate Valley at 5PM. The Tuolumne River was now very full, quite a bit more than 4 four days prior. It was almost overflowing its banks, and indeed it was overflowing onto part of the trail. I literally had to wade through a fast flowing little creek to reach my campsite. This was going to be a big concern for tomorrow. I saw a rattlesnake right on the trail. Thankfully he let me go by. There were also mosquitoes down here as it is a much lower elevation but there was a bit of a breeze which kept them away. Thank you God for that. Time for bed. Tomorrow would be a big day. Day 6 of Yosemite backpacking trip complete.
