Our 2007 John Muir Trail Attempt (Day 2)
Day 1 detailed our arrival to Yosemite and our first day's hike...
Day 2: A Campsite Just Past the Half Dome Junction to Sunrise High Sierra Camp [Pictures]
Distance: 7.6 Miles
Elevation Changes: 7,020 - 9,320
The first night out in the wilderness is the hardest as you are spent from the first day's hike and have not yet become accustomed to sleeping outdoors. The main elements that detract from a good nights sleep are:
- Temperature - if it's exceptionally hot or cold it can be hard to get to sleep and stay asleep.
- Noise - other campers, thunder, wind, and animals all contribute to background noise. The most common source of noise that prohibits sleep comes from other campers. It may be a party passing through late at night or early in the morning. It could be a larger hiking party that is pretty rambunctious (although this is rare). Or it could be that your neighbors have a bear poking around their campsite and need to resort to yelling and banging pots to chase the bear off into the night.
- Sleeping surface - few hikers actually sleep on the ground. Most everyone takes a sleeping pad as it provides some cushioning as well as a layer of insulation from the ground, which can be very cold when sleeping on rocks in higher elevations. Of course, picking a good campsite is key. On our trip we had one night near the end of our trip where there were very few adequate areas to pitch a tent. The spot we chose had a large, dome-shaped rock about in the middle of the tent that made that night very sleepless.
What makes the first night so hard is that your brain and body still remembers what it feels like to sleep on a mattress in a noise- and temperature-controlled environment. And, sure, your body is tired from the first day's hike, but it has not yet become exhausted to the point where it no longer sends messages to your brain like, "Hey, this sleeping surface is uncomfortable."
As a result, for me the first night usually means about six hours of sleep spread out over four or five blocks. When I wake up, I fall back asleep quickly enough, but waking up every hour or so greatly detracts from the overall quality of sleep. The sleep schedule for the first night of this trip was slightly better than usual because the temperature was really nice (and was equally as nice virtually every night spent on trail). We were never cold (like we were often in last year's trip), and some nights it was so hot that a sleeping bag was not needed at all. However, the bears were especially active this year due to the low rainfall. We never had a bear in our campsite, but on several occasions we could hear other campers shooing away bears who had started poking around their tents.
In any event, after yesterday's brutal uphill hike during the heat of the afternoon, we decided to make a concerted effort to leave earlier. We woke up at 5:00 AM and were on the trail by 6:30 AM. Like yesterday's hike, today's was virtually entirely uphill, continuing the climb out of Yosemite Valley. Most of today's climb was below the tree line, so there weren't many views of the mountain scenery. We did, however, see a bit of wildlife, crossing a family of deer feeding in the early morning and then later being greeted by a lone buck. The buck, like the ground squirrels yesterday, came disturbingly close to us as we ate our breakfast. At a couple points he was a mere 15 feet away before we shooed him off.
In the afternoon we finally crested the tree line and enjoyed our first views of the mountains for the day. This picture was taken on our way to the Sunrise High Sierra Camp and provided a view into tomorrow's itinerary. The sharp point in the far left is Columbia Finger, which we would pass by tomorrow morning. The next peak, to its right, is Cathedral Mountain. Our path tomorrow took us through Cathedral Pass, the stretch of ground between the two peaks.
In Yosemite National Park there are a series of High Sierra Camps. There are five camps spread out along a 49 mile trail. Each camp includes tent cabins, pit toilets, and includes a kitchen and a small backpackers store (the camps, which are miles away from the nearest road, are resupplied by pack animals every other day). The camps sell dinner, breakfast, and sack lunches to their guests. Hikers doing the High Sierra Camp Loop need not carry a heavy load. There's no need to carry food beyond the sack lunch; no tent is needed, nor is a bear cannister. These campsites are very popular; reservations are determined via a lottery process.
Today's terminus was the Sunrise High Sierra Camp. We arrived in the late afternoon and descended on the kitchen where we enjoyed fresh nectarines and ice cold lemonade. And we were delighted to discover that due to some cancellations they had enough dinner spots open to accommodate our party! I was a little worried that the quality would be suspect, but dinner was amazingly delicious and fresh. We enjoyed meat and mushroom ravioli, fresh salad, bread, and some kind of cobbler/pie dessert. Of course, shipping in and preparing such food is not cheap - it was $24 per person for dinner - but it was worth every penny. Not only were we able to enjoy a delicious meal, but the campground had very clean pit toilets. No digging holes tonight!
Sunrise Camp has a beautiful view of Sunrise Meadow. In wetter seasons, Sunrise Meadow is a lush, green stretch of earth with many small streams slicing through the meadow floor. Wildlife and wildflowers abound. This year, however, was extremely dry, as the following picture illustrates.
Today's hike was pretty hard (there was an especially brutal set of switchbacks in the early afternoon about two miles south of Sunrise Camp) and not very scenic. But the meal and toilets at Sunrise more than made up for it. And best of all, we had made it out of the valley! We would never be below 7,800 feet until we were on our way back to Southern California. Furthermore, tomorrow's hike promised to be easier with a short uphill stretch in the morning, followed by downhill to another developed area: Tuolumne Meadows. I'll continue with Day 3 in a future posting...
UPDATE [2007-09-22]: Read about Day 3.