Mount Davis / Half Dome
A backpacking trip from Mammoth Lakes to Yosemite Valley, along John Muir Trail, with ascents of Mount Davis (Southeast Slope, class 1-2) and Half Dome (Cables, class 2), with Claire Wacziarg, August 2-8, 2021.
Timeline:
August 2, 2021. We started from the Mammoth Pass trailhead at 8:29 and quickly covered the distance to the Reds Meadow pack station (10:10). We then continued among numerous tourists past Devils Postpile, and then up toward Minaret Falls and beyond. We stopped for lunch after crossing Johnston Creek, and again for a nice break at Rosalie Lake. We continued on down to Shadow Lake, learning there that camping was not allowed along its shores. While I was looking for campsites on the right side of the trail, Claire ran into a female ranger who advised her to continue for a bit, to the junction between the JMT and the Lake Ediza Trail (17:43). There, numerous parties were camped, and we found a nice campsite at a reasonable distance from the others. We settled comfortably for our first night. (A 9:14 hour day, 7:11 hours moving, 15.70 miles, 3,200 feet of elevation gain).
August 3, 2021. Our plan this day was for us to hike a relatively short distance to Thousand Island Lake, and for me to set out to climb Mount Davis. We left camp at 8:25, and hiked past Garnet Lake, Ruby Lake, Emerald Lake and on to the use trail on the northwest shore of Thousand Island Lake. We found a nice established campsite on a narrow strip of land extending into the lake (11:45). We set up the tent, had lunch, and I left camp around 1:30 to hike up to North Glacier Pass. I was at Lake Catherine at 14:35, skirted its North Shore and gained grassy ledges that afforded access to the Southeast slope of Mount Davis. It was an easy climb, and I reached the summit at 16:20, enjoying great views of Ritter and Banner, Thousand Island Lake, Rodgers Peak, Mount Lyell, etc. I stayed on top for a while, then retraced my steps to Lake Catherine and North Glacier Pass (18:00). I then descended at a good pace back to camp, reaching it at 19:05. Claire was reading in the tent. (A 10:40 hour day, 9:12 hours moving, 14.75 miles, 4,550 feet of elevation gain).
August 4, 2021. This was to be a relatively short day up to Island Pass, Donohue Pass, and a planned camp just below the Lyell glacier, some distance from the trail to avoid crowds. We left camp at 9:56. There were indeed a lot of people on the trail that day, including a family of four that we kept meeting at regular intervals. We reached Donohue Pass in good time at 16:30, took a break there, and then hiked down to the beautiful tarn that lies below the drainage North of Lyell glacier. From this point, we set out cross-country southward, in search of a lake basin where I had camped in 2015 with René. Much to my surprise, there was a party of two camped there too. We looked for a campsite far from them, and after some searching we found one at the northern edge of the basin. It was a comfortable evening in camp, enjoying outstanding views of Lyell and its glacier, but the night was very windy and we did not get much sleep. A coat of fine silt covered our sleeping bags in the morning – it was so fine that the wind had blown it right through the tent's mesh. (An 8:10 hour day, 5:38 hours moving, 10.52 miles, 2,360 feet of elevation gain).
August 5, 2021. We expected a short day on this, the fourth day of our trip, as we simply planned to hike down Lyell Canyon to a spot not too far from Tuolumne Meadows, where we were supposed to pick up our Half Dome permit the next day. We left camp at 10:40 after a leisurely morning, and the hike down beautiful Lyell Canyon was uneventful. We found a nice campsite not far from the Lyell Fork, and away from the crowds, around 16:30. We took a bath in the river, washed our clothes, and settled down for a decisively more comfortable night than the previous one. (A 5:47 hour day, 4:22 hours moving, 10.20 miles, 400 feet of elevation gain).
August 6, 2021. We left camp at 9:00, aiming to pick up our new permit from the Tuolumne Meadows ranger station not too late that morning. Upon reaching the road, we took a wrong turn that took us to the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge (under renovation). Once at the wilderness center, we had to go through the little course that rangers offer to those who pick up permits, and went on to the Tuolumne store for snacks. We had a nice break there, which included liberal consumption of iced tea, chips and fruit. We then continued on along the JMT toward Cathedral Lakes, reaching the higher of these shortly before 15:00. There, we had a lunch of tuna and tortillas, and took a foot bath in the lake. In the afternoon, we hiked a little further across Cathedral Pass, into Long Meadow. Water there was very scarce, but we found the meager remains of a stream that served our needs. So we stopped and set up camp just South of Columbia Finger, near a hidden tarn that I dubbed "Black Lake" during an evening stroll around camp. This is one of these special places in the Sierra, with a distinct, almost ominous atmosphere. (An 8:29 hour day, 6:14 hours moving, 13.80 miles, 2,200 feet of elevation gain).
August 7, 2021. We left camp at 8:24 and hiked toward Sunrise High Sierra Camp, finding it closed and abandoned, due to the pandemic. We continued on through a burnt forest, the site of the 2014 Meadow Fire that scorched the area between Mount Starr King and Clouds Rest. We continued along Sunrise Creek, down to a trickle, till we found a suitable campsite not far from where the JMT meets the Half Dome Trail. We set up our camp, had lunch, played cards in the tent and waited till about 16:30. At that point we set out to climb Half Dome. My plan was to leave camp late enough that we would avoid crowds on the summit, and enjoy the evening light on Yosemite. This worked well. We met a ranger near the base of the steeper climb. She checked our permit and warned us about food-stealing squirrels near the cables. She also said a large party was ahead of us. This turned out to be an REI-led outing. Its members sang loudly as they climbed up the steps to Half Dome's foresummit. But Claire and I overtook them at the beginning of the climb, and they never caught up. A we reached the base of the cables, a few stragglers were descending, but they were soon gone and we carried on. We reached the summit at 17:50 and, as I had hoped, we had it entirely to ourselves. Well, almost –two climbers were topping out from the Northwest Face after 12 hours of climbing. I chatted with them a bit, and we then hiked down the cables as the sun was starting to set. We stopped in the evening light to have a snack at the base of the cables. As the ranger had forewarned, a squirrel managed to get a hold of Claire's cereal bar. Oh well. We returned to camp around 20:00, had dinner and went to bed, thankful for a wonderful afternoon on Half Dome. (An 11:14 hour day, 7:07 hours moving, 14.15 miles, 2,460 feet of elevation gain).
August 8, 2021. This was to be our last day, and a relatively short one. We left camp at 9:15 and made our way through a steady stream of hikers, along Little Yosemite Valley, down the Merced River, past Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls, and finally to Happy Isles. There, we looked for a shuttle to take us to Yosemite Village, only to realize that they were not running, on account of the pandemic. We hiked two additional miles to the Visitor Center, where we had burgers and lemonade. Our YARTS bus was slated to leave at 17:00, but we managed to catch an earlier bus. There, we met several interesting JMT hikers, including a family of five whose father had taken each of his three kids to hike the entire JMT as soon as each turned thirteen. The bus stopped in Tuolumne Meadows, where we had chips and iced tea, and finally dropped us off at the Vons in Mammoth around 17:30. We walked the remaining miles to our home. (A 3:39 hour day, 3:31 hours moving, 8.90 miles, 170 feet of elevation gain).
Trip totals: 57:13 total hours, 43:15 moving hours, 88.02 miles, 15,340 feet of elevation gain.