Becoming Odyssa: Epic Adventures on the Appalachian Trail by Jennifer Pharr Davis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Becoming Odyssa is another great trail memoir that inspires me to get out and hike! Jennifer Pharr Davis does a good job of balancing the details of her daily life on the trail with the personal growth she experiences while hiking. Compared to the Barefoot Sisters books (which I also recommend), Becoming Odyssa feels grittier – it stays closer to the trail with less of a filter.

I’d suggest skipping the preface and forward until after reading the book so they can be enjoyed in better context – the author matures into their praise during the story, but some passages come across as extremely self-absorbed and even unkind, reflecting the youth of the author at the time of her journey. Like any journey, Odyssa’s thru hike had good days and bad, she presents them to us authentically while telling a great story about her life.

The trail is that way!

The trailhead is a couple miles north of the Iron Mountain trailhead on route 67, near the driveway of a fire station. There are helpful signs like the one above that point the way to the trail. After following a short path that parallels the highway, we turned onto the main trail up the mountain (basically a fire road, paved with varying degrees of smoothness), and started winding our way up.

Wildflowers along the trail

There were more wildflowers than I expected along the trail – maybe because I’m more used to hiking in the fall, when several months of dry heat have toasted all the plants, but I’m always surprised to see wildflowers surviving into June and July in the coastal desert areas.

Mt Woodson trail

Mt Woodson is very recognizable from the road, as a boulder-strewn mountain topped by a bank of antennas. The boulders are just as fun to see close-up, except when they look like they might crack and fall on you:

Cracked boulder hovering over the trail

One of the boulders is nearly cubic – evidence of cracks long since cleaved.

Boulder on Mt Woodson

Some of my favorite rocks are the ones with the honeycomb-like impressions (fossils or water features?):

Fun impressions in the rocks

After winding our way around the switchbacks (the last few feel the steepest!), we found ourselves at the summit amidst the antennae. After a quick stop at the top, we started back down, retracing the path back to the trailhead.

View of the summit from the trail

Half Dome and beyond, from Clouds Rest summit

Clouds Rest was the final long hike (and final overall hike!) of our Yosemite trip. Because our hiking guide claims that it is 14 miles rounds trip and over 3200 feet of elevation gain, I was really kind of dreading the hike, but the sheer joy of climbing the final ascent of Clouds Rest and the incredible views from the top, where it feels like you’re looking down on the whole world, made it all worthwhile.

Scenery near the beginning of Clouds Rest hike

This was another hike that started near Tuolumne Meadows, so we woke up early and left the lodge around 7am to arrive at the trailhead around 8:15. The trailhead was already crowded when we arrived, a mix of day-hikers getting an early Saturday start and people camping in the wilderness and even in the parking lot.

Scenery near the trailhead

We started from the Sunrise trailhead, as our hiking book seemed to suggest a phantom “Tenaya Lake” trailhead that we were simply unable to find. We started our hike, with the initial sign promising us 7.1 miles to Clouds Rest, starting off in a pine forest as so many of these hikes do. We passed a mini-meadow, traipsed along a flat trail, then descended a little bit after about half a mile.

A pretty pond along the Clouds Rest Trail

the other end of the alpine pond

After some minor undulations, we began the first of two eeevil uphill sections that I had been dreading based on the trail profiles in our book – this ascent was shown as a mile and a half of steep climbing. It started out on a mild ascent, a sandy pine-covered trail climbing slowly onto a rockier ridge. After some climbing on the rocks, we soon came to…steps! I do really dislike steps on trails, but I was already in ultra-slow mode, prepared for the mile-and-a-half long slog I believed this to be. We made our way ever so slowly along the rocky trail, stairs intermingled with rocky inclines, upward and onward until finally the ascent started to lessen, rocks and stairs fading into another shady wooded trail. Right about then, when I had hope of reaching the top soon, the top of the ridge in sight, Chuck said that we still had almost half the climb to go, and I fell into despair at the thought. Alas it was a false panic, created by the ridiculous exaggeration of our hiking book, and we truly were only about a tenth of a mile short of the ridge.

Our first view of Clouds Rest from the trail

We reached the junction at the top at 2.5 miles from the trailhead, instead of the 2.9 miles the book would have us believe, and took a break for a snack on top of the hill. Shortly after the junction, we descended steeply for about 300 feet of elevation – it wasn’t nearly as steep as the descent to the base of North Dome, but we could tell it would hurt a little on the way back! From there the trail had a few more undulations, past a peaceful looking pond (well below its high water mark so late in the season) and a few “creeklets” that actually did still have water; we then climbed steeply up again for a few minutes before settling into a more gentle slope for our final long ascent to the base of Clouds Rest.

Chuck and I at the beginning of the final ascent

As we passed the final trail junction, we noticed something peculiar – according to the trail signs, the distance to Clouds Rest from the trailhead kept increasing! First it was 7.1 miles, then 2.5 to the trailhead and 4.7 to the summit (for a total of 7.2 miles), then finally it was 5.3 miles to the trailhead and 2.5 to Clouds Rest – a total of 7.8 miles! Either someone is bad at math, or the Clouds Rest trail exists in some sort of space warp. That was both odd and somewhat discouraging, but we kept trekking onward.

Me climbing to the top of Clouds Rest

Before too long, we got our first glimpse of Clouds Rest from the trail, and it certainly appeared to be close enough to inspire us to keep moving!

Chuck ascending to Clouds Rest summit

We rounded the ridge and started approaching the east shoulder of Clouds Rest, ascending up the rocky shoulder then dropping a little to the side until we came to a spot just below the summit trail, where some hikers waited for their companions to return from the top. From the summit trail sign location it was perfectly clear that reaching the summit would be ultra-fun, and much less scary than Half Dome.

Ascending Clouds Rest summit

The ascent stretched out before us, a series of ever higher granite pillows flattening each other as they led up to the top. We set off on the summit path gleefully, each slowly finding our path up the final ridge. For a while I stuck to a lower path on the right, but as I became more comfortable I started to walk along the highest part of the ridge. That was quite exhilarating, as the cliff edge seemed to fall away rapidly on either side.

View from top of CLouds Rest I

I was still enjoying the top-of-the-world feeling as we reached the summit, where we again had amazing views of Half Dome (to our west this time) plus the Sierras and the previously unseen Merced River valley.

View from top of Clouds Rest II

View from the top of Clouds Rest III

We fought off some bees as we ate our sandwiches at the summit, and enjoyed the windy views for a while before heading back down.

Me at the top of Clouds Rest

Chuck at the top of Clouds Rest

As we descended, we passed a few more people making the trek out to Cloud’s Rest, and tried to give them encouragement to reach the top. (The summit, by the way, was only 6.1 miles from the trailhead according to our GPS, nearly a mile shorter then the most conservative sign claimed – bizarre!).

The pine-flanked trail on the way back...

On our way down, I almost stepped on a chipmunk that Chuck spotted – it was upside down with hind legs sticking our of a hole on the trail, then it suddenly broke free and darted right past me to hide in a tree.

Gooey sap on tree trunk

We made sure to stop for lots of pictures of the high sierra scenery on the return trip – topping out at over 9900 feet, this was our highest hike by about 500 feet over Lembert Dome.

High-Sierra scenery

We fortified ourselves with some beef jerky before the big ascent back to the trail junctions, and only stopped to let descending hikers pass as we trudged up our last big hill.

an alpine meadow

Moments later on the perilous (to my ankles) mile-long descent, I was actually surprised that I made it up that ascent with so few stops along the way. Certainly descending was faster than the steep climb up, but picking our way safely through the rocky switchbacks was still tiring going downhill.

A few wildflowers still blooming in the meadow

Once we reached the bottom, we had only a few minor undulations and a tricky trail junction (I almost went the wrong way! GPS to the rescue) left, and we found our was back to the car triumphantly, happy with the twelve mile trek and our cloudless trip to Clouds Rest.

Rocky terrain and bendy trees

Cliffs and breakers, Torrey Pines

A few weeks before our trip to San Jacinto, I spent a wonderfully cloudy (apparently there are some people in San Diego who do not like May Gray and June Gloom, our famous late spring coastal fog phenomena, but I love them!) Saturday afternoon exploring some of the trails at Torrey Pines state reserve. I’d been to the park before, but only walked along the beach, so this was my first time exploring the sandstone cliffs that overlook the ocean.

There are quite a few trails on top of the cliffs, and I wanted to hike them all but chose just two loops since I only had a few hours to spare. The first hike I chose was the Guy Fleming trail, which was enthusiastically described on the web site. At 0.7 miles with only minor ups and downs it’s a quick walk, but there are so many opportunities to stop and take a closer look along the way! I was happy to see that there were so many wildflowers blooming in mid-May, and I stopped to take a lot of pictures as I made my way along the trail.

Guy Fleming trailhead

eroding sandstone peaks, Guy Fleming trail

bench overlooking the beach

view of the beach, looking north from Guy Fleming trail

Wildflowers on the cliffs

Another field of flowers

Cliffs and beach, looking south from Guy Fleming trail

After finishing my Guy Fleming loop, I walked up to the top of the hill and took the three-mile Beach Trail/Razor Point Trail/Broken Hill Trail combo.The trail to razor point itself was closed for maintenance, which was kind of disappointing, but I still had fun walking through the incredible sandstone formations and enjoying the flowers along the way.

Map of the Torrey Pines trails

Cactus and orange flowers

trial markers

caves forming in the cliffs

Yucca Point overlook from the beach trail

sandstone formations on the way to the beach

You can get there from here: Flat Rock from the beach trail

Flower, cliffs, and waves

My favorite flowers - lavender and dreamy

tiny blue butterfly

I thought my tiny blue butterfly might be an El Segundo Blue butterfly, (as found by a Google search on “tiny blue butterfly“), which is on the national endangered species list and has only started increasing in population in the last few years according to the articles I found online, but there were no references to the El Segundo blue as far south as Torrey Pines, and this article burst my bubble by saying “Some populations found on the immediate coast, as at Point Loma, strongly resemble the ESB in appearance. This pattern is in all likelihood a convergence and does not represent monophyly with the ESB (Mattoni, l989)“, and then I was sad, and also still not entirely sure what kind of butterfly I saw. But at least I got a good picture, even if my dreams of finding a new population of endagered species are dashed for the moment.

Another wildflower closeup: orange

sage plant in bloom

Broken Hill trailhead - the end of the trail for me

More trail info

It’s certainly not the most hardcore hiking destination in San Diego, but the trails at Torrey Pines are definitely worth the trip, especially when the flowers are blooming. I took about two hours to hike about four miles, with lots of stops for scenery gazing and picture taking.

Yikes!

One week before our backpacking adventure to San Jacinto Peak, Chuck and I went for a training hike in Mission Trails Regional Park, one of the best hiking locales in San Diego. We hiked up Cowles Mountain, one of the most popular trails in the county, and then added another three miles to our hike by taking the trail to Pyles Peak, which is 200 feet lower than Cowles but accessed by a trail that goes down and up, and then climbs steeply to reach the summit. It was a little warmer than I would have preferred that morning, but the trails were fun and I was happy to see that wild flowers were still in bloom in the park in late May. Despite the crowds on the main trail to Cowles, the extension to Pyles Peak was almost empty – the only other people we saw on the way out were members of the San Diego triathlon club, and they were trail-running all the major peaks in the park in one day (wow! and also, crazy!).

The most significant part of the day for me however, was the disintegration of my hiking boots. I usually wear a pair of lightweight Merrils for day hikes, but on this hike I was wearing my more hard-core hikers, an eight-year-old pair from LLBean. By the time we reached Pyles, I noticed that the soles were separating from the boot on the inside of both boots; by the time we reached the bottom, a four-inch long piece of metal had fallen out of one shoe and I felt lucky to make it to the bottom with the soles still attached, even if I did almost trip on them a few times!

Old boots!

From fine to falling apart in one day!

Hmmm…so I definitely wasn’t wearing these boots on our trip to San Jacinto! I was just glad they fell apart on the training hike instead of during our three-day weekend trip – I’d last worn them on our Yosemite trip last year, and hiking 3 miles with falling apart shoes was bad enough – if we were on the ten-miler it might have been better just to switch to bare feet (or the flip-flops I brought along as camp shoes).

So, one week to go until our hardest weekend of hiking EVER, my hard-core hiking boots have fallen apart, and my comfy lightweight Merrils are not quite backpacking caliber. Luckily, there was still one day left in the REI Anniversary sale, and I had a 20% off one item coupon to burn. So I headed off to my local REI and tried on three types of hiking boots, finding my almost-perfect match in the Asolo Power Matic 250. They were ultra-comfy when I tried them on in the store, and didn’t feel too bulky or heavy despite being a pretty serious pair of backpacking boots. There was no way I was wearing these on a big trip without at least attempting to break them in (a few websites recommended wearing new boots for 50 miles of dayhiking before using them for backpacking, but that certainly wasn’t going to happen in one week!), so I woke up early that week and went hiking twice in the mornings before I went to work. I first tried out my new boots at Florida Canyon in Balboa Park, a pretty easy three mile trek, but enough to start getting a feel for them. (Also, I got to see the velodrome – smaller and more run-down looking than I was expecting, but I still want to go watch the racing there!) I also went out to Mission Trails again and hiked Kwaay Paay peak, a short-but-steep hike starting accross the street from the Mission Dam parking lot (it took about an hour and a half, but only because I wandered around the summit trails for a while trying to figure out where the true summit was…).  I got in enough hiking to know that my new boots are pretty comfy, but need to be tightened often, and tend to give me blisters on my pinky toes if not well-tightened while going downhill – just enough info to get me through our three day adventure!

My New Asolos

Tagged: Asolo, backpacking, Balboa Park, Cowles Mountain, Florida Canyon, hiking, hiking boots, Kwaay Paay, Mission Trails, Pyles Peak, REI, San Diego, San Jacinto ]]> http://hoppyokapi.com/2009/06/06/in-which-my-hiking-boots-fall-apart/feed/ 1 Amanda IMG_2759 IMG_2757 IMG_2758 IMG_2788 http://hoppyokapi.com/2009/04/03/wildflowers-in-anza-borrego-palm-canyon-trail/ http://hoppyokapi.com/2009/04/03/wildflowers-in-anza-borrego-palm-canyon-trail/#comments Sat, 04 Apr 2009 05:35:11 +0000 Amanda http://hoppyokapi.com/?p=807 ]]> After our tour of Galleta Meadows and lunch at Carlee’s (home of yummy burgers and yummier homemade potato chips), we headed out to Anza Borrego state park to claim our campsite and do a bit of hiking. We headed out on Palm Canyon trail, the most popular one in the park, and the same one that we started on on our backpaking trip last fall. Anza Borrego during the wildflower bloom is a lot different than Anza Borrego during late fall – more water, more green plants, and way more people. The flowers themselves were pretty impressive once we got about half a mile down the trail – almost every leafy plant in site was blooming, and the buds were just starting to come out on the cacti. We were sad to see a troop of boy scouts playing strange gladiator games and running amok over the delicate desert landscape (I thought the point of camping during scouting was to learn to like and respect nature, not destroy it, but apparently times have changed), but otherwise had a good time exploring the canyon and taking pictures of the flowers. We hiked a little beyond the oasis to a small waterfall, and then took the trail less-traveled on the way back to camp, hiking along the western edge of the canyon. Even though the main trail was pretty crowded, there was no one else on the longer trail back to camp, and we almost lost faith a few times when it took counter-intuitive twists, but ultimately stuck with it and enjoyed the alternate view.

View from the top of North Dome

Yosemite Flashback #3: North Dome, September 18, 2008:

We woke up early for another hike near the Tuolumne Meadows area of the park (and therefore a 45-minute drive to our trailhead). As we pulled onto the road to drive out of Yosemite Valley we were stopped to wait for oncoming traffic, half of the road being closed for a proscribed burn going on about half a mile away from our room. As we waited for our turn to go, we saw a bachelor heard of mule deer – there must have been at least eight of them: two with larger racks indicating older bucks, most with six or eight points, and one who had lost an antler in a fight. We watched them go by and take their breakfast in the neighboring meadows before we got to drive along the valley floor. We watched the burn area as we rode slowly by, realizing that we’d been hiking in the area just the day before as part of our six mile Valley Loop rest day walk, where now there were red embers and smoldering undergrowth, hot enough to melt our hiking boots for sure!

Proscribed burn

After leaving the valley, we made our way to the North Dome trailhead. We were the first car to arrive there that morning, with a second car pulling in just as we started off.

North Dome trailhead

We made our way downhill from the trailhead, following a crumbling paved road that apparently dates back to the Porcupine Crek campground that closed thirty years ago. The first part of the hike was pleasantly shady, even a little cold given our relatively early start. Before too long we came to the end of the road, where the campground used to be. We continued on the trail, climbing and descending leisurely through the forest. After about a mile and a half, our trail met with others that descended into Yosemite Valley via Mirror Lake or Yosemite Falls – it’s fun how so many of the trails actually go from the valley walls all the way to the bottom. We did another mile or so of mostly shady ups and downs, finally rising up to Indian Ridge and the Indian Rock spur trail.

Looking ahead on the North Dome trail

We decided to save the side-trip for the way back, and so prepared for the more-exposed section of trail ahead by reapplying sunblock and shedding our coats and pantlegs. We continued on down the side of the ridge, where we got our first panoramic view of Clouds’ Rest and Half Dome, then came out onto a mini-dome just before North Dome.

View from the ridge, North Dome trail

We descended further until we reached another trail junction (and our last chance to head down to Yosemite Falls instead of North Dome) – only half a mile left from the junction to North Dome!

Half Dome, from North Dome trail juntion

We headed down the surprisingly steep trail to our left, dropping about two hundred feet of elevation in only about a tenth of a mile. Managing to reach the bottom with ankles and knees mostly unscathed on the uneven path, we descended a little more through a small pine forest and then climbed up the broad, gently sloping back of North Dome.

On top of North Dome

At the top, we took lots of pictures of the great view (and the smoke rising up from the proscribed burns), chatted with the pair of hikers who had passed us on the trail, and enjoyed our pack-flattened sandwiches. From our spot on the top we could see people on top of Half Dome – some of them got really close to the edge!

Smoke rising up from the valley floor

A cairn on North Dome

View from North Dome, to the northeast

Finally we headed back, dreading the steep climb back up to the trail junction, but we took that sharp ascent slowly and made it to the top safely and fairly quickly.

Two-thirds of this hike’s elevation gain is on the return trip, so we braced ourselves to climb the ridge again. As we headed back, we begain to see a trickle of people heading out to the dome – far fewer hikers than we had seen on the trek to Half Dome. We plodded along back to our trailhead, happy to see the Indian Rock arch from afar rather than climb higher to get closer, and happy to get out of the sun as we descended into the forested part of the trail again.

Almost back!

We reached the junctions with the Valley trails fairly quickly, and were happy to see the sign marking the campground road – only 0.7 miles to go.

Decaying stump along the trail

The final ascent was not quite as steep as we remembered from the walk in, except for the final two-tenths of a mile. Just as the slope was cranked up beneath our feet, we were close enough to see the cars parked at the trailhead through the trees, providing us with the final burst of energy needed to finish the hike.

Half Dome and meadow, just before sunset

After returning to Yosemite Village and grabbing an early dinner, we took a sunset walk around the valley and headed over to the amphitheater at Lower Pines campground (unless it was Upper Pines or North Pines) for a ranger talk about bats. The program was super-fun, with lots of up-close slides of different species of bats – it was my favorite of the evening activities we attended at the park. It was even better because we saw bats flying around the bridge near the campground just before the talk.

Half Dome, sunset

buck in the meadow

bridge near the campground - bats live here!

Having packed our bags and made our sandwiches the night before, we woke up at 5am on Tuesday to get ready for our trek up Half Dome. We drove over to the trailhead parking area and left the car just before six. It was dark enough that we had to backtrack and walk along the road to the trailhead, as the narrow path through the woods was obscured. There were around two dozen people starting out at the same time, including a big group of about twelve people. We made a quick stop at the Happy Isles trailhead, then started up the paved path to Vernal Falls. The darkness was fading into shady morning light as we climbed that first mile, the sometimes-steep 430 foot climb a good warmup for the trail ahead.

Vernal Falls, almost dry in mid-september

Unlike Yosemite Falls, which was entirely dry, Vernal Falls still held a trickle of water in mid-September. While that made for less spectacular pictures, I was quite happy with the lack of water on the stairs leading toward the top of the falls. Our guide book claims that there are about 300 steps on the trail from the bridge to the top, but it felt like a lot more as I was climbing them. I went at a slow-but-steady pace, counting out 40 or 100 footsteps before pausing for a rest. The steps are only about 0.6 miles, but they were steep! Still, I was fairly well energized and felt triumphant when I reached the top.

Top o the Falls (Vernal, that is)

We paused for a bit of GORP before heading up the trail to Nevada Falls. Although it’s a higher climb and longer than from Vernal Bridge to the top of those falls, the path to Nevada Falls was made more palatable by friendlier switchbacks, sometimes with granite stones providing a ramp with some traction but rarely resorting to the cursed stairs of Vernal Falls.

Approaching Nevada Falls

After a quick break for beef jerky and pictures of the falls, we headed onward to Little Yosemite Valley, a relatively flat mile or so of trail that was a welcome respite from the endless climbing. Just before we got to the valley floor, we saw three mule deer – one watching us for any sudden moves, another eating away without a care, and the third hiding behind a fallen tree, poking it’s head up to watch us every few seconds.

Deer in Little Yosemite Valley

After a mile of mostly flat sandy trail, we began ascending again, relatively gradually through a shady pine forest with pine needles and acorns and pine cones strewn along the trail.

the back of Half Dome from the trail

After climbing for a while, we reached a sign – Half Dome: 2.0 miles – hooray! From there, we continued climbing through the pines, the trees gradually thinning as we got higher. We stopped for a sunscreen break at the edge of a cliff, where we could look out toward Clouds Rest and other cliffs along the northern edge of the valley.

Half Dome, getting closer!

After a few more minutes of ascending, the walk getting tougher from the high elevation, the granite steps up the shoulder of Half Dome started without much warning. Incredibly steep, and in a seemingly endless series of short switchbacks, these made for a touch climb and I stopped for a break about every twenty steps. After finally reaching the end of the stairs, we had to find our own way up to the top of the shoulder, as the trail all but disappears on the final ascent. On the top, we found a sort of staging area, where people took breaks before the final summit push, and gathered their courage or waited for others who pushed on.

Half Dome - the cables

After a five minute break to gather up some energy and decide whether to go forward, we made our way across the gap to the true base of the climb. After an initial bout of apprehensiveness I decided to try the cables, but there were ominous clouds gathering and the wind was growing. Not wanting to be caught on the summit in the rain (or lightning!), we waited for most of the clouds to pass, then started to ascend.

the beginning of the climb

I soon discovered that the cables were even scarier than they looked; incredibly steep and with granite worn smooth by thousands of hikers, there was very little traction. After three or so pushes upward, I decided there was too much scary ascent (and an even more terrifying descent) ahead, and decided to turn back. Chuck went onward for a few minutes, but then began getting cramps in his forearms and was unable to grip the cables well, so he headed down without reaching the summit as well.

ominous clouds...

the sunny side of the valley

the stormy side of the valley

We climbed back up to the top of the shoulder to eat part of our lunch, but the wind was picking up and we decided to get down to safer ground in case it started raining. As we made our way carefully but quickly down the wind got worse, forming twisters here and there along our descent, picking up dust and debris and sending it flying into our faces. We took a break again once we had safely descended, thinking that the people who were just starting up the slope in the wind and intermittent raindrops were a little bit crazy.

from below the treeline, looking back at the trail

view to the north

We traipsed back down through the pine forest and into the valley, noticing that the river looked quite inviting – it seems like Little Yosemite Valley would be a fun place ot backpack and stay for a night or two, relaxing in the river and maybe trying the crazy Half Dome hike again. In any case, we were soon ascending out of the valley, and then descended back to the Nevada Falls trail junction.

This time, we took the John Muir trail to the edge of the Falls, where a bridge crosses over just above the spot where the falls begin.

Top of Nevada Falls, John Muir trail

above the falls, a peaceful stream in mid-september

Presumably the whole area is wet with spray and the pools above the falls are churning violently in the spring, but at this time of year the falls were fairly docile and people were swimming in the pools above the falls and playing on the rocks just below the bridge, making a mockery of the signs imploring you not to do either of those things.

beginning of Nevada Falls

looking at the edge of the falls

This too seems like a fun destination for a hike of its own, and it was a good resting point before the final descent of our hike.

view of the valley

From the falls, we had almost four miles to go; the first three were semi-shady switchbacks along the Muir trail, first along more exposed ridges and then through a forest as we got closer to the Vernal Falls bridge. This part of the trail was mostly uneventful, except for passing an ultra-noisy school group and a small group on horseback. I was quite happy to be back at the Vernal Falls bridge, about nine hours after we first passed through. I filled up a bottle of water, having drunk my last bit on the descent to the bridge, and we set off again, only one more mile to go!

It was funny on the way down, passing all the people whose only destination that day was the bridge, and knowing what we were coming back from. we also passed a lot of people who were also heading back down – we were moving faster just because we were so much more eager to be done hiking for the day! With a longing glance at the now-open snack shack at the trailhead we slogged the quarter-mile back to our car, and collapsed there with relief. It took us just about 9 and a half hours for the trip, and we took breaks for probably 45 minutes or an hour of that, so it was about eight and a half hours of hiking for the day.

On the first official hike of our Yosemite trip, we headed to the Tuolumne Meadows area of the park – a long, slow drive out of the valley to the north and to higher ground. It was the day before our planned trek to Half Dome, so we figured that this hike, which mostly took place at elevation higher than the top of Half Dome, would be a good warm-up.

Pandora is ready for the hike!

We started just after 9am in cool, crisp mountain air. (My car thermometer claimed it was less than 50 degrees, but I didn’t quite believe it was THAT cold!) The steepest climb of the hike was at the beginning – we spent the first 0.7 miles trudging slooowly up forested switchbacks, breathing heavily as we ascened in the thinner air. It was good to start out at a slow pace – I think it helped us acclimate to the elevation by not over-exerting.

Chuck takes in the view

After the junction at .7 miles, we turned off toward the domes; the trees started thinning out as we bassed the broad back of Dog Dome, and we soon came to the saddle between the two.

the back of Dog Dome from the trail

The path to Dog Dome from the saddle was closed, so we tackled Lembert Dome, the higher of the two, first. There was a trail heading off around the Dome, but we decided to try the more direct ascent, which involved a little bit of scrambling up the Dome and a lot of rocky fun.

the start of our path up Lembert Dome

Nearing the top: Lembert Dome

We found a pretty good path to the top – there was only one spot where Chuck had to help pull me up – and celebrated our ascent with lots of pictures and some beef jerky.

A View from Lembert Dome

Chuck at the top of Lembert Dome

Pandora Enjoys the View

Me with Pandora on Lembert Dome

After a few minutes, we headed back down, taking a more indirect (but easier) line back.

We found an accesible path to Dog Dome on the way back to the saddle, and were able to walk right up its far gentler slope, no scrambling required.

A tree grows on Dog Dome

These cairns lead to nowhere!

The ridge leading to Lembert Dome, from Dog Dome

Fun Rock Lines on Dog Dome

We got some more good pictures (yay, pictures of rocks!), then headed back down the trail to start the easier stretch of our hike. At the junction again, we headed off toward Dog Lake, uphill a little more and then down again. We passed a shallow pond along the way, right at the base of Dog Dome.

If a tree falls in the woods...

I like pictures of bark!

After a leisurely half-mile through the forest, we came onto the shore of the lake, where we dipped our hands in (it was chilly!) and got some more pictures before heading back.

Dog Lake...starts getting colder in September...

Pandora decides not to go for a swim!

Lembert Dome, Dog Dome, and Dog Lake, Yosemite National Park
September 15, 2008
Hike Stats:4.38 miles, 1153 feet elevation gain

Looking ahead to the canyon from the trailhead

After driving the long and windy road from Highway 8, through Julian and to Borrego Springs, we stopped for lunch at Carlee’s Bar and Grill, where the sandwiches were good and the homemade potato chips were brilliant. We then headed to the Park Visitors’ Center – it was big and well-appointed, with information exhibits on par with those at Grand Canyon – maybe not surprising considering that the park is California’s largest state park, covering 600,000 acres!

Palm Canyon Trail Description

We started our backpacking adventure on the Palm Canyon Nature Trail, one of the most popular hikes in the park. It was mid-afternoon when we started out, and it felt like summer instead of the first day of November – it was about 92 degrees and very sunny when we started out along the desert trail.

Trailhead

There are trail markers at strategic spots along the trail, but we hadn’t picked up an interpretive brochure and so tried to guess at what we were supposed to be learning (rocks? plants? dust mites?) as we made our way to the first palm grove.

Clear skies over the valley

There are a number of trails branching off along the valley floor, and so we only saw about two-thirds of hte markers as we made our way into the canyon. After about a mile of very slow hiking (those backpacks are heavier than we remembered!), we got to the shadier part of the trail, protected from the sun by the canon walls.

Oasis Ahead!

The official trail ends on the other side of the palm grove,

End of the Trail

but we continued on deeper into the canyon, scrambling over boulders and through thorny acacia shrubs.

Heading Upstream

As we got further up-canyon, the streams were running at slightly more than a trickle and the pools were more numerous, and most importantly, we saw a lot of frogs! They were fairly tiny and hard to get pictures of, but it seemed like there were at least two different species hopping around.

Have you seen my frog?

It was fun to come accross the pools of water, but everytime we saw one, it meant there were more boulders to climb over as we made our way upstream – four days later, and my legs still have bruises and scratches!

the stream pooling along the trail

After a while (making sure we went further than the other backpackers we knew about, since Chuck is all about competitive hiking…), we came across our chosen campsite. We could see another grove of palms another third of a mile ahead and around the bend, we had a nice little pool of water to relax near and soak our feet in, and there was a sandy stretch for us to set up the tent:

The view to the north of our campsite

Our very own wading pool

Our wading pool had some frogs and water bugs, but as we were getting out we noticed an ultra-scary mean looking bug on the rocks right below where we were sitting – it looked kind of like a rhinoceros beetle, except it was under water – ick! Normal water beetles and little black grubs were ok, but this guy was creepy!

Chuck set up out tent

Good color coordination!

The downstream view

Since it was still pretty warm in the evening, we left the rain fly off our tent and huddled in our sleeping bags and enjoyed the breeze coming through the tent…until one in the morning, when we were suddenly awoken by…raindrops! in the middle of the desert. The rain only lasted a minute or two, but Chuck threw the rain fly over the tent just in case there was more. We didn’t get swept away by a flash flood, but in the morning it was interesting to see how the stream had surged overnight, with the rocks and sand around our wading pool showing new high-water marks. After a night of tossing and turning (I still haven’t figured out how to sleep comfortably in the tent, even with my new packable feather pillow), we woke up early in the morning and headed out in the morning light.

Morning sun over the canyon

A baby palm tree growing near the stream bed

Ocotillo

We didn’t spot any bighorn sheep on our hike, although they were rumored to be in the area, so that’s another reason we have to go back to Anza Borrego. We did come across the skeleton of a baby sheep, presumably killed by a mountain lion – it looked like it had been laying in the stream bed for quite a while. We also heard a scary growling noize once on our way out of the valley, and quickly movedaway from that spot to the other side of the stream bed in case we were being stalked by a mountain lion ourselves!

We got back to the car shortly after eight am, and stopped at Los Jilbertos in Borrego Springs for breakfast burritos before driving back to San Diego – it was the perfect post-backpacking breakfast!

Our trip to Anza Borrgo allows me to cross #59 off of my 101 Things list. Now that we’ve made the trip and know how much fun it is, we’ll definitely be going back!