Big heat wave. No trail. Two rattlesnakes (almost stepped on). One bear (a problem bear). Heavy brush. Cliffs. MAJOR creek crossing. This adventure had it all. Epic waterfall. Epic camping location. Epic beauty. Zero people. Bucket list waterfall bagged. This is YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK.
First things first. It would take two full days of hiking just to get to my waterfall (two and a half actually). My first night would be spent at Lake Vernon (a popular spot). I arrived at Hetch Hetchy entrance before 7AM. Since they are now open at sunrise (this is a new thing for this year), I thought that I could pick up my permit early. It was going to be a very hot day and I had 3000 ft. to climb. I wanted an early start. Nope. There was no one at the booth that early. I could not pick up my permit until 8AM. I waited for an hour. Thankfully the ranger was nice and let me get my permit about 15 minutes early after he started up all his machines and cleared out the moths (his words).
He said he needed to physically see my bear canister. This has never happened before but it was for an important reason. He said there was a problem bear at Lake Vernon causing havoc. (actually there were two problem bears – I learned from a second ranger later). One was a small black colored bear that was sneaking up on people and stealing food and running away with backpacks that have food in them. The second was a medium brown colored bear that apparently tore apart someone’s tent because they left sunscreen in it. I got the whole spiel from both rangers about what to do if I encounter these bears and if they cause problems. I did not mind. It is important. These bears are only problems because of dumb things that backpackers are doing and not minding or storing their food properly. I did see the brown colored bear up at Lake Vernon (not the black one). He did not cause me any problem, however. He ran away when he saw me and was about to climb up a tree. He stopped when he finally realized I was just a human. I took a quick picture and left him alone.
I saw two rattlesnakes both of which I almost stepped on. The first on the trail up to Lake Vernon. It was a big one and it did not even rattle. It was right in the middle of the trail and I almost did not see it. The second was up at Lake Vernon and this one did rattle when I almost stepped on it. Yikes! These things freak me out more than bears.
Anyway, I started my hike at about 8:30AM. Last time I went to Lake Vernon I started at 7:30 and arrived at 3PM. This time I arrived at 3:30PM. That is not too bad but I was dead tired. It was about 95 degrees this day (at the reservoir). It is a 3000 ft. climb up to Lake Vernon. It was excruciatingly hot. There were plenty of people. One big group I passed said they were going to Laurel Lake. The funny thing is there was one guy in the group that was a speed hiker. He would go way ahead of his group and then wait for them to catch up. I kept seeing him as we passed each other back and forth. He caught up with me at the junction to Lake Vernon. I wondered about this because it is two miles past the Laurel Lake junction. Sure enough he shortly came trudging back saying he went too far. Yikes that is an extra 4 miles he had to hike! On this hot day!
There were a lot of people at Lake Vernon spread out along both sides of the lake. There are plenty of spots but I prefer camping below the lake along the creek. It is much more pleasant to me to camp along a raging creek than beside a lake. I was the only one down there and had the area all to myself. Also, my primary thought was that there would not be any mosquitoes down away from the lake. I was wrong about that, there were plenty of mosquitoes, but they only came out at dusk just prior to me getting in the tent for the night.
After I ate dinner I hiked to the end of the lake where Falls Creek Falls is located. My objective here was not to go up to the big waterfall which I have done before but I wanted to get a better photo of the Middle Falls Creek Falls. I did not go to the very bottom last time which I thought was a mistake. When I arrived I realized why I did not do that before. It was difficult to get down and there were no views of it from the bottom anyway. Well I would try to rectify that nonsense. I scrambled down to the bottom, worked my way up the creek and then climbed up on a big rock at the corner and right beside the bottom of the waterfall. I got a decent view and photo. Not bad.
I returned to camp and went to bed. Tomorrow would be a very tough day …
