Southforkriver.net

2005 Backpacking Trip - Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite

Introduction

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Photo Album

Map

NG Topo Map

Day 1

We headed out of Tuolumne Meadows on the first day after getting our permit the day before. Hiking along the Lyell Fork is an easy hike but it is certainly not level. We headed down the path saying goodbye to the wives and thinking of the fishing to come. Out trip took us up the Rafferty Creek trail towards Tuolumne Pass. The Rafferty Creek trail is a nice trail but has some good pulls up the hill in the beginning. Once up the major pull it is gradual ascent towards Tuolumne Pass. We encountered only a few groups that day and word from the trail was that the skeeters were terrible. We had not encountered any as of yet and took it in stride. We made our way up to Tuolumne Pass and took a break and then continued up to Volgesang High Sierra Camp. The camps were closed that year due to the heavy snow, so it felt like being in a ghost town. We looked around and then headed back down towards Fletcher Creek. The route up and over Volgesang Pass and Lewis Creek had too much snow for us to consider, so we headed to the lower elevations. As we headed down the trail we started to notice that maybe the reports about the skeeters were true. It was as if we walked into a wall of them at our lunch break along the creek.

We stopped and had some lunch (soup and tortillas) and then fixed up the fly rods for some lunch time fishing. We both did pretty good along the creek but the skeeters were bad and it was time to pack up and hit the trail. The water was also flowing very fast so there were not many places to fish, except in the meadow areas where the skeeters were hatching. We made our way down the trail and forded Fletcher Creek in the meadow and started our trip down canyon. We found a nice flat spot in the meadow area downstream to camp but found the skeeters too thick to handle so back up the trail we went looking for a dry spot in the rocks in hopes of getting away from them. We found a nice spot off the trail on the hill that seemed to fit the bill. The skeeters were heavy but not as bas as down the hill. We setup camp and then headed down river to do some early evening fishing. In my pack the cheap pair of reading glasses I use to tie my flies with had broken so it was somewhat comical trying to tie a fly on my line with one lens out and skeeters hovering all around. We both managed to get in some good fishing and then headed back up the hill to fix dinner. Dinner that night was around a fire in hopes of smoking out the skeeters. It worked to a certain extent but since it was hot outside the fire was a little too uncomfortable. The skeeters were so bad at times, that when you took a bite of food, four or five of them would get swallowed up with your food.

From my past days of backpacking I always remember how waking up in the middle of the night was too easy and the sounds of nature took on a different tune. A good nights sleep seemed hard to get out in the woods. That tumbling water in the nearby stream during the day sounds so nice but during the wee hours of the morning, it sounds like critters ravaging through the campsite. The mind can wander and play tricks on you late at night. I had always attributed that to just being young but now that I was older and sleeping in the woods again, I found age had no bearing on the matter. Those same critters were back and very active the first night. Sleeping in the tent gave me some comfort knowing that the 3 mil nylon wall would protect me from the evil hungry critters that roamed the woods at night. During the middle of the night I felt a strong nudge from the outside wall of the tent. It felt as if some of the critters were sniffing around and had found our safe haven. That was definitely a nose nudging my arm and elbow!

I laid there trying not to wake up Mike with my screams of terror but a return to sleep was long gone. That critter's nudge had taken care of any attempt to fall back into a slumber bliss. I laid there and felt the nudges happen periodically through the next couple of hours and since they were not advancing I figured we had them at bay. At about 4 in the morning, nature was calling my bladder to come out of the tent but I would not give in. I would hold that wee morning pee as long as it took so as to avoid the evil hungry critters! Finally Mike woke up about 4:30 to use the facility outside, so with the strength in numbers I too found the courage to relieve myself and drain the bladder! Once outside I noticed that the breeze was up and blowing fairly hard down the canyon and shaking the tent rather nicely. It even pushed the outside wall hard in the very spot those critters were nudging my arm. Good I thought, the wind can scare off the critters so I can get back to sleep. We hit the tent and fell back to sleep and woke up with the sun. I looked around the camp for footprints but found none. The wind must have brushed them clean. With the yellow orb pushing up over the mountains, the evil critters had no choice but to retreat until the next night to play their games of terror on us innocent backpackers.