Gary's Winter Blog: February 2013

Title: February 23, 2013 - General Grant Area

Trail head: General Grant Tree

Hike Info:

Trail: Dead Giant/North Grove Loops

Destination:Dead Giant

Distance: 3.3

Travel Time: 2:11 (1.51 mph)

Moving Time: 1:36 (2.06 mph)

Elevation Rise: 664'

Maximum Elevation: 6,419'

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Trail head: Big Stump Parking Lot

Hike Info:

Trail: Big Stump Loop

Destination: Big Stump Area

Distance: 1.8

Travel Time: 1:26 (1.26 mph)

Moving Time: 1:01 (1.77 mph)

Elevation Rise: 212'

Maximum Elevation: 6,423'

Description:

Today's forecast is for a bright and beautiful day. And that is how things started. Sherri and I met with Karol, our fearless leader, and Beth for breakfast at the Blossom Tree Cafe in Sanger. I had the morning breakfast special of eggs, French toast, and hash browns. Filling. Then the other seven meetup members joined us at 8:30. Up we go to Grant Grove in Kings Canyon.

We stop briefly at the Visitor Center, then on to the General Grant parking lot. We decide we do not need snowshoes or snow tracks, the snow does not seem to be that deep; it does not go over my boots. We head down the Sunset Trail. We pass by the North Grove cutoff. Karol asks if I would like to lead since I know the way. So I go in front. Snow is not to bad, it snowed Tuesday and the snow is still pretty light, not packed yet. The trees are also full of snow, and it is not melting on us.

We get to the bottom of the road down, and the North Grove Loop takes off to the North, but we first want to pay a visit to the Dead Giant. So we head south. The road level's off. We go around a meadow, at least that is what it looks like in the Summer time. Now, there is standing water here and there. But we do not get wet as we are able to navigate around it.

This brings us to the Dead Giant Loop. This is a nice trail, a little elevation gain, but not too much. But instead of a road to follow, now it is a summer track. So I look for the indentation where the trail is, and the clearing which the trail follows. We quickly come to the Dead Giant and properly survey it, even getting a picture in.

Onward we go, continuing the loop. There is a nice lookout where you are able to see Sequoia Lake. But today, it is cloudy-sort of looks like we are in the middle of fog. So all we see is white. We complete the loop and start following back the trail to the North Grove Trail.

On the North Grove Trail, we are seeing more animal tracks. Looks like some rabbit, maybe squirrel. Then some deer tracks and some other animals. Wandering through these redwoods are always an amazing. But I find it particularly moving during the winter with the snow grace their branches and clothing their base. Today is no exception. These trees are just awesome. As we return back up the trail, we see more evidence of animals moving around in the snow. Some pretty recent. Then we look up and there are deer bounding above us. Great stuff. We get back to the cars a little after noontime.

Off to the cafe by the Visitor Center. I only had ice tea, and mooch a bit of Sherri's potato-bacon soup. Pretty good stuff. I was still pretty content with my breakfast still. It has gotten colder, and the clouds are still pretty thick. Down we go to Big Stump.

Lunch has made us a bit lethargic. But once we get going, we enjoy this walk. The snow is a bit deeper than the North Grove area. Some folks put on tracks, but I am doing ok without them. This area is beautiful, but a different kind of attraction. We descend down into the meadow, and wander around on the trail. We pass several stumps and wonder what kinds of stately trees stood where these stumps are.

Some of us climb up on the Mark Twain Stump. (What stumped Mark Twain?) The debate after the stump is where does the trail go? We decide it crosses the road, and we make for it. After that the trail climbs up. Now we find more tracks, this time, it is of a larger size animal. Koral identifies it as a bear. We see these tracks several times. There is a bit of concern, mostly because these are recent. But we do not see the bear. We complete the trail with a lot of good feelings. Not because it was strenuous, but because we enjoyed our time together and the beauty of the big trees.

Title: February 2, 2013-Yosemite Valley
Trail head: Tram stop 17

Hike Info:
Trail: Mirror Lake Road
Destination: Mirror Lake
Actual Destination: Snow Creek Trail Jct
Distance: 6.2
Travel Time: 2:54 (2.14 mph)
Moving Time: 2:19 (2.68 mph)
Elevation Rise: 675'
Maximum Elevation: 4,203'

Description:

We met up with the hiking group at Kohl's around 7:30am, after getting gas. Karol is leading this expedition. Then the 17 of us got into four cars and started up the road to Yosemite Valley, stopping in Oakhurst along the way. We have Annie with us, making it four people in our car-Steven, Sherri, Gary and Annie. Got to the Valley and parked Curry Village at 10am. We will meet up with Jerry K at Tram stop 17.

We all have snow traks on, or some variant of them, and it is a good thing. The road up to Mirror Lake has ice on it, with a layer of water. With the traks, we do not slip. But the traks I am using are bit small for my boot and keep on flipping up. After awhile I trade out with Rosé who is using my YakTraks. They work a lot better, but they do come off once-Leslie finds it for me.

It is a short walk to Mirror Lake, maybe a mile plus. At the Lake, a family from Columbia takes the group's picture-it is the family's first to see Yosemite. The snow draped over the granite on Half Dome's shoulders looms above us. Snow and ice cover the remains of Mirror Lake, forming a white blanket for us to enjoy. We continue up Tenaya Creek, since the canyon is here for our taking. Some ice, some snow, some dirt and rock are our trail. We play leapfrog with another couple and then meet up with a bunch of people from Doctor's Medical Center in Modesto.

At the Snow Creek trail junction, we make a decision to turn around rather than to continue around the loop. I think the potential that the loop was closed because of a rockfall a couple of years ago, and the potential for a longer hike caused people to want to go back. But it is a pretty Winter hike. We return back to the tram and have it take us back to the car.

We drive over to Yosemite Lodge and have a late lunch. Beef chili seems to be a favorite. Then across the road we go to take a short walk up to the base of Yosemite Falls. Always refreshing to see these Falls, particularly since the last time we saw them in September, they were dry. It today, there is a base of frozen mist and the Falls are going pretty good.

We return back to the cars and go to the base of Eagle Pk. We spend about half an hour puttering around amongst the snow, rock and ice on our snowshoes. While this is Yosemite, this portion is to get a bit of experience on snowshoes on this trip. For some, it was their first experience with tennis rackets on their feet.