Laurabelle's Blog

Friday was a holiday at Jeff’s work, so I took a day off too, and we made a day trip to Yosemite National Park.

The day commenced at 3:30am, and we were on the road by 4:40am. The highways were empty that early in the morning, so we made good time and reached the trailhead shortly after 8am. It isn’t much of a trailhead, just a little gravel parking lot with a couple of road signs that there’s a trail somewhere around. It was 8:30am when we hit the trail.

The guidebook described the first half-mile as punishing, but we found it to be nothing of the sort (possibly because it was still early and the air chilly). Before we entered trees, the top of the hill featured lovely views of Yosemite Valley, including El Capitan and Yosemite Falls.

We trod through sun-dappled woods. Not much to say about that, really; it’s more about just being there.

We passed through a wet area (apparently fed by a spring) and over a few tiny rivulets, but our first obstacle was Tamarack Creek. It was a bit full from snowmelt, though not quite impassable. I plunged in somewhat rashly and ended up knee-deep in the stream (not quite what I had planned). Jeff took a more delicate path over rocks.

My boots were then filled with water. Wringing out my wool socks helped a bit, but my feet were still very squelchy. Luckily, by that time we were not all that far from the turn-around point. At a tributary of Cascade Creek (very close to Cascade Creek itself), we rock-hopped over the water and then settled on a big sunny rock next to the stream. I peeled off my socks and hung them out on a bush to dry; the insoles also came out of my boots. We ate lunch (it was 11:30am by this time) and thereafter settled in for a short nap.

By 12:30pm my liner socks were dry; the insoles had dried immediately. By sheer luck I had brought an extra pair of wool socks along, so I hung the wet ones on my pack and donned the dry. They worked well enough, although my boots were still fairly damp. My feet were a bit wetter than usual when we reached the car, but not unbearable.

From our lunch spot we hiked the short distance to Cascade Creek, which was not terribly impressive itself at that point. Then we turned back toward the trailhead.

We had to re-cross Tamarack Creek, of course, but this time we used a log over the water. Neither of us got wet.

For more photos, see my Flickr set for Tamarack and Cascade Creeks.