EPISODE II. THE MIDDLE FORK MENACE
Don’t you love my clever blog titles from my Yosemite trip? I thought they were clever, anyway. Maybe I’m the only one. Sigh.
In the morning, I thought I would try to find this new waterfall on the Middle Fork Tuolumne River. It was not my first choice but my first choice was X’ed out due to a big snow patch I encountered on the road. I was thus late getting started down to the MF Tuolumne. There were clouds, though, so perhaps it would be ok. Then there were no clouds. Then a few minutes later there were clouds again. And on and on it goes. Crazy weather. For photography, it was touch and go all morning long.
The first part of the hike was easy enough, hiking along a road. Then I had to get off the road and head down the mountain. The wildflowers were abundant through here, and it was pretty much unavoidable stepping on them. It was like hiking on Table Mountain in Oroville, but minus the killer cows. I suppose there were killer bears around but I did not see any. As I got down closer to the waterfall, I found it was far too cliffy to continue any further. It is a fantastic 60 ft. waterfall but I could see no way to get any clear view of it. Perhaps I will try again another day, but I think the only way is to repel down to the bottom. Not my cup of tea. I like living.
Speaking of living, it was really nice to hear that the missing hiker (Cody Michael) and his dog were found today. They were backpacking in the Sierra and were missing for a few days. The area is very close to where I am planning to hike next weekend. But I don’t really understand what happened. He was not injured. So it seems he just got lost. Well, I don’t get it. Why did he not have GPS? And why no rescue device? It does not seem like he was very well prepared for backpacking in the Sierra Nevada backcountry. I always bring GPS with extra charged batteries, as well as my SPOT device on every hike I do, backpacking or not, easy hike or not. And not to mention, bear spray as well. You never know what will happen. Anyway, he seems like a nice guy, so I am very happy he is safe home now.
Back to the MF Tuolumne, here is one weird thing: While I was down there, I saw a backpack down by the brink of the falls. There was no one around. It seemed to be hanging on the cliff edge (I was a distance away, but I saw it clearly). Did someone accidentally drop it off the cliff, and then could not get down to get it? After this, I moved away to a different spot and when I looked again, I could no longer see the backpack. What happened to it? I know I did not imagine seeing it! I looked and looked but could not see it. I just have no clue.
By the time I got back up the mountain to the car, I was quite tired. My big backpack trip was starting the next day, and I was already tired. Perhaps I should not have done this pre-trip hike. But it was certainly fun.