Backpacking in the High Sierra

So it's been awhile since I did any kind of regular updating of the blog - mostly I've been posting to Facebook. Just little things, and then I get obsessed with how many people clicked like and I go to FB a million times a day and I just want to be spending my time doing other things. So for awhile, when I have something to say I'm going to try posting it here instead.

About a week ago Jen and Ben came out for a trip that had been many months in the planning.  Originally we were going to go to the Lost Coast, but at the last minute a September rain storm came through.  Such a freak occurrence because it hasn't rained since last March, we're in a drought, and it's not predicted to rain again for awhile.  In addition to the rain Jen and Ben both came down with some awful cold that had them concerned about popping their sinuses (!) while flying, so we replanned the trip for the High Sierra in Yosemite.  My thought was that this would be better weather and less driving (by quite a few hours due to the necessity of a car shuttle in the Lost Coast).  And doesn't it look like it worked perfectly?

There are some things you can't tell from a photo though.  Or you know, maybe you can:

Like that it was so cold our water froze in the bag after we pulled it out of the lake in the morning to filter.  Actually the whole water filter froze; I had to pour boiling water over it to get it to work.  Actually the welds on my glasses froze and then the glasses snapped when I tried to put them on. And my contact solution froze.  And the olive oil froze.  (Which I just looked up and apparently it congeals at 37 deg Fahrenheit, so that data point isn't as impressive as I thought.)  Here's another gorgeous photo:

This is Young Lake where we camped in Yosemite.  It's about 6 miles north of Tuolumne Meadows, which I thought sounded like an easy hiking distance even though there was 1500 ft of elevation gain.  I wasn't really counting on my own sensitivity to altitude - I'm slow uphill under the best of circumstances but my pace was truly agonizing going uphill here.  Tuolumne starts around 8300' and Young Lake was at 9800'.  By the time I arrived up there my head was hurting excruciatingly and I was so nauseous I had to skip dinner and go straight to bed.  Of course this way I skipped the worrying over how many bears our salmon packets were calling down after dinner.  Here's another gorgeous photo:

The whole trip was a classic example of type 2 fun (for me anyway).  Oh, did I mention that our entire hike up and while we were trying to fall asleep the wind was literally howling through the trees?  But oh, the views.

  

And the hike down was very pleasant - it went totally smoothly and I felt better every step.  We drove by Yosemite Valley because Jen had never seen it before (how is this possible?!) and we got home early, took hot showers, and had lots of time to hang out with the kids and get in-house massages.  Just not really that big a loss.  I am already in my head planning another backpacking trip, next time with the kids.  Next time I just need to factor in the altitude.