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.
I woke up with frost on my tent. I thought it was supposed to be getting warmer this week, not colder! I also woke up with my pinky toe hurting. Just like a couple years ago when it was broken and I had to hobble 20 miles back home. It was not broken this time but it was certainly hurting. Should I go home now, while I still can?
I tried to hike down to Piute Falls. I did not make it. It was very difficult, it was very brushy, and before too long, I got cliffed out. This was very disappointing. This was the primary waterfall I wanted to visit on this trip. The sole reason I came up here. If I did not make it to Piute Falls this trip would be considered a failure despite all the other waterfalls I saw. I wanted another crack at it. I could get another crack at it tomorrow if I stayed a second night at Table Lake instead of continuing on to my next planned destination. This would also let me rest my toe for the entire day. It would be a NERO day as through hikers call it, a little bit of hiking involved but mostly zero hiking. My toe really needed to rest for a whole day and I really needed to try this waterfall again. It was the best decision I made on this trip.
But it would be a boring day. I had nothing to do for the entire day. I could not go on a hike, not even a little one. All I could do is listen to the birds all day long. Which ones were most prevalent and which had the prettiest song? I heard the Fox Sparrow, Mountain Quail, Mountain Chickadee, and Western Wood Pewee, among others, but the Fox Sparrow won on all counts.
The photo is Middle Piute Creek Falls from the previous day, one of the two waterfalls I saw that day. It is about 40 ft. high. I almost missed this one on my research. I saw it but thought it was less than 20 ft. high so was not going to bother. I checked again just before I left and realized it was much bigger and definitely worth a visit. You can get right up next to it (which is cool) but in order to photograph it I had to go all the way around to the other side of the big pool. It was getting late by this time and I still had to go to the upper falls so I did not spend much time here. Day 5 of Yosemite backpacking trip complete.
Refreshed by a good night’s sleep I now had the energy to climb 3100 ft. up the mountain. It is a killer hike. I was not going to count them, but I did anyway: 104 switchbacks. You heard me right: 104. I took it slow and easy and I got to the top in 3 hours. I had to carry extra water because I was not sure if there was any along the trail. There are no creeks marked on the map until the spring at the top. Carrying extra water makes my pack much much heavier. As it turned out there was water so I did not need it. Ah well, better safe than sorry.
Table Lake is not a very nice lake or a good place to camp. There are plenty of spaces to set up tents but access to the water not easy. It is very brushy all along the lake side and only a couple places where you can get to the water. It took me awhile to find a spot and even so I had to walk a bit to the water. I noticed later there were a lot of mosquitoes right by the lake but not where I camped. They were not biting yet but it will not be long. Probably just a matter of days.
In the evening I figured I would do my easy hike. Easy, ha! It was far from easy. The hike was very brushy with a lot of off trail scrambling. It took over an hour to get to the waterfalls and I arrived just in time for photographing them, not a minute to spare. It was getting late. Both the waterfalls were good ones and worth the effort to see them but I wonder if there was an easier route. I thought I should not go back the same way but instead return to Table Lake via Irwin Bright Lake. Surely there would be a trail from Irwin Bright back to Table Lake. Yeah, right. There was no trail and it was just as difficult and brushy. It also took over an hour. Finally I got back to camp just as it was getting dark. Day 4 of Yosemite backpacking trip complete.
I saw footprints on the trail as I hiked down to the river from Morrison Creek camp. I only saw them going in one direction. Strange because I was pretty sure there was no one ahead of me. It would be odd for anyone to go down here at this time of year. Besides the Madman of course.
May is my favorite time of year to hike. No mosquitoes. No people. Waterfalls roaring. But creeks can be dangerous. The Morrison Creek crossing was my big concern on this trip. My only concern. When I was here 3 years ago it was very easy. This time the creek was higher already and the temperature was about to sky rocket, which means the snow melt was also about to sky rocket. I estimated the flow could potentially double by the time I returned later in the week and if that happened I would not be able to cross. However … there was a log on which I could shimmy across. I tested it out with my pack on and it was easy. This gave me confidence to continue. If the creek was too high to wade I could use this log to cross. If there was no log there I would have definitely turned back. It would have been too risky otherwise.
I made it down to the river around noon. I did not have the energy to climb 3500 ft. up the mountain in the afternoon. I would not have been able to make it all the way to my planned camp. This was a lesson learned. I can hike up 3000 ft. and then down 3000 ft. in a day but not the other way around. Maybe if I was in better shape but not today. I decided to camp at Far Lower Piute Falls again, which is what I did 3 years ago. It is a beautiful place along Piute Creek. In the evening I went up to photograph the lower falls and was on my way back down to photograph the far lower falls before sunset. That is when it happened…
Directly across the creek from my camp I saw a bear coming up to the creekside. A small black colored bear. It soon became clear that the bear wanted to cross the creek. He really really really wanted to cross the creek. However, Piute Creek was not a creek, it was a river and it was raging, and he wanted to cross right above a small waterfall. All the while I was across the creek watching him and filming him on camera. He saw me watching him. He considered the roaring creek for a long time before venturing out into the water. He got to about the middle of the creek. What is he doing, I thought? He is not going to make it. Finally, he decided to turn around. He climbed out of the water and walked back down the mountain where he had come from. Whew. I was 99% certain he would not make it if he had tried to continue. The creek was much more dangerous on this side. The odd thing is that he probably could have crossed if he had tried further downstream below the waterfalls. I wondered why the bear tried to cross here and what effect (if any) did I have being there (though I was more than 150 ft. away from him). My thought is that it was a very young bear and he probably crossed the creek here last fall when the water was low enough. Now spring is here but he has never seen the creek this high in his life before and had no idea it would be like this when he came to cross it. That is my theory and I’m sticking to it. It was easily the most incredible bear encounter I have had yet. Day 3 of Yosemite backpacking trip complete.
I was 3 miles ahead of schedule thanks to the previous day’s early start. This should make today’s hike much easier. Three years ago the hike to Harden Lake was horrific. Now? I was extremely happy to see that the trail was cleared! It was not perfect and there was still a lot of brush and blowdown, and the last half mile up to the ridge was not cleared at all, but overall it was 1000 times better. I was surprised. I thought the park service had left this trail to rot. I am glad because this is the only early season access to the Tuolumne River. I would certainly hike this trail again, especially if they can finish up the work.
I had lunch at Harden Lake. I saw a hawk chasing a raven. Then they seemed to make up and hang out together in a tree. What is interesting about it is that on the hike back 4 days later I was about 8 miles from Harden Lake and I saw a hawk and a raven together. When they saw me coming they took off together for different trees. The hawk landed on a bad branch which snapped off into a dozen pieces making a loud sound. I am certain it was the same two birds as before. So strange. 8 miles isn’t so far to go for these birds, right?
I made it all the way to the Morrison Creek camp three miles past Harden Lake. This is a very nice campsite beside the creek. How was Morrison Creek flowing? It was deep and fast. I put a couple twigs in the ground at the edge of the water to measure the level. It was up in the evening and still up in the morning. What does that mean? Probably nothing good. I would have to cross this creek in the morning and then again on Friday. The temperature was heating up and so was the snow melt.
I went up to photograph Upper Morrison Creek Falls. This is a difficult waterfall photograph and it not very photogenic. I climbed up on the hillside for a better viewpoint. I’m still not sure I like it very much. Day 2 of Yosemite backpacking trip complete.
