The Adventures of T&A

This hotel has an outdoor kitchen/common area.  An outdoor kitchen is pretty cool and we may have to have one at our place.  At least, an outdoor bar!  We’re expecting papers to be delivered on our property, but they won’t be here until later, so we’ll enjoy the day.  

After breakfast, we headed into King’s Canyon National Park.  We did a short hike, 3 miles, from Zumwalt Meadows to Roaring Falls.  The falls can be accessed by a shorter trail near a parking lot and when we met up with this other trail, we found the crowds.  We took a few pictures and hiked back.  We then hiked around Zumwalt Meadows for another mile or so.  The meadows were beautiful, surrounded by these huge granite cliffs.  We wanted to be back in time for a little computer work tonight.  We had a tailgate dinner again outside our hotel room.  

We got out of our hotel early and headed back into Fresno, CA for a trip to our favorite store, Trader Joe’s!  We loaded up on a case of Charles Shaw wine selling for $1.99 per bottle, fondly known as Two-Buck Chuck.  It’s not bad and it really fits our budget.  We also picked up a few other things and went to Circuit City to check out a new camera.  After comparing prices and features for a couple of hours, we chose an Olympus SP-320, 7 mega pixel for $199.00.  We’ll see how it works in King’s Canyon.  

We found our hotel, the Squaw Valley Motel, just outside King’s Canyon/Sequoia National Parks.  It’s sooo much better than the place in Sanger.  It’s an older place, put in much better shape.  It had a swimming pool, air conditioning that works, and continental breakfast is included.  It’s more like a  Bed and Breakfast.  The lady we met is taking care of the place for her parents while her father is recovering from surgery. We’re still on a budget, so we cook dinner on our tailgate, outside the room (getting a few strange looks).  We talked with a couple next door who had an adorable 18 month old little girl.  They are from Paris, France and had exchanged houses with someone in LA.  Sounds like a pretty sweet deal!

We left our campsite and headed to the south end of Yosemite to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Trees.  We got there with a few hundred others and took a short walk thru the big trees.  There are crowds on all of the major areas of the park, but when we took a different trail back, we were practically alone.  Weird.  On the way out of the park, we realized we were lucky to get a parking spot at all.  they had closed the road and others had to park in a remote lot and take a mandatory shuttle.  We left Yosemite with all of it’s crazy crowds!

Our next stop is King’s Canyon, but first, we need to deal with pertaining to our land in Colorado.  We tried to find a cheap motel to stop for a couple of days to have some papers sent.  The first town south of the park is Oakhurst and the prices were more than what we liked.  

We called several places between here and King’s Canyon and found a couple of cheap places.  When we drove into one small town to check out the hotel, there were bars on all the windows and a liquor store across the street that also had bars on the windows.  

We left there and looked into two other places in a town called Sanger, CA.  This seems to be a blue collar/migrant town.  We went to look at our two choices and we chose the one that looked a little better kept.  When we got into the room, we found the smoke alarm was disabled and three bullet holes were in the bathroom window.  One of the two windows in the front did not lock.  We discussed these facts and (while cussing our cheapness) made a reservation for tomorrow night at Squaw Valley Hotel, a much nicer place (we hope!) nearer to King’s Canyon Park.

We had no bear problems last night, so we may use this site again tonight.  We won’t cook here, to keep it free from the smell of food.  Instead, we’ll go into the park and find a day use area for breakfast.   

I feel we were kept safe last night because of Tumbleweed.  Tumbleweed is our traveling buddy, a small stuffed bear hand puppet that I “rescued” in Alpine, TX.  We were behind a little internet cafe using their Wi-Fi connection.  It was springtime and the wind in the desert is incredible.  I stepped out of the truck and I saw this small brown thing tangled up in a tumbleweed, rolling across the parking lot and stopped next to a dumpster.  I pulled out this rumpled little bear, very dusty with tumbleweed seeds stuck in his fur.  I brushed out all the seeds, gave him a good bath and named him Tumbleweed.  Another traveling buddy we have with us is Teresa (I didn’t name her).  Teresa is a stuffed dog I sent to my grandmother, Momo, while she was recovering from a broken hip.  She used Teresa in her physical therapy.  When Momo died in the spring of 2005, Teresa found her way back to me, just before we began our trip.  So Teresa and Tumbleweed keep us company while we are on the road.

We went into to northwestern part of Yosemite called Hetch Hetchy.  This area has a dam across the Tuolumne River creating a huge reservoir, supplying San Francisco with water.  We were planning to take a hike to Rancheria Falls, passing three waterfalls along the way.  However, when we got to the trailhead, we found out that the 6.7 mile distance we read on the hike description was one-way, not round trip.  So, rather than a 13 mile hike (ouch!), we went out to Wapama Falls, only a 5 mile round trip.  The falls were beautiful and powerful.  The trail went right to the base of the falls and several bridges went across thru the mist.  On the way back, we stopped at a trickle of a stream that formed a shallow swimming hole.  We stopped to chat with a guy there with his son.  Andrew slid down the sliding rock with the kid and soaked for a few minutes.  The guy is from Riverside, CA and he told us of a couple of free camping areas near Nappa.  We may have to check this out when we are there.  After our hike, we stopped at a day use area near a nice stream for a bath and dinner.  We bathed in the chilly water of the stream and then made dinner on the tailgate.  We noticed a sign stating that the day use area closed at 7pm, just about 10 minutes from now.  Usually, these places are closed at dark.  When a truck pulled in right about 7 o’clock, I said, repeat after me, Andrew, “I’m sorry, we didn’t see the sign, we’ll leave right away”.  The attendant was nice enough, but he did ask us to leave.   “I’m sorry, we didn’t see the sign, we’ll leave right away”.  Andrew chatted with the guy while I quickly washed the dishes and we were out of there.  We went back to our spot in Stanislaus National Forest.  The mosquitoes were pretty bad until dark, then we all went to sleep.

We have a dilemma this morning… we didn’t go to the ATM before entering the park and now we have very little cash.  These campgrounds have a self-registration, you chose a site, put money in an envelope and put the receipt stub on a post at your site.  So Andrew was told there’s a gas station just 20 minutes away with an ATM.  I stayed at our site and started breakfast while he drove down to get cash.  We still haven’t really decided whether we want to stay here again, but we need cash anyway.  Andrew was gone for over an hour and I was beginning to worry.  When he finally got back he had good news and bad news.  Good news: the gas station had ice and he got a bag for our cooler.  Bad news: the gas station didn’t have an ATM and the closest one was another 30 minutes from where he was, meaning he’d be gone over two hours if he had gone there.  So we packed all of our food back into the truck and headed into the Visitor’s Center in Yosemite Valley to find out what’s happening.  

Along the drive, we stopped at a few scenic vistas and overlooks and they were all packed with people.  We got to the Visitor’s Center, finally got a park newspaper and found out they have a free shuttle that services many locations in the valley.  We caught the shuttle and hiked the Mist Trail that leads up to the top of a Vernal Falls.  With all the activity in the day use parking area where we were near the Visitor’s Center, we weren’t too concerned about a bear getting into our truck during the day.  The Mist Trail took us to the top of Vernal Falls by way of steep stone steps that went thru the mist blowing off this enormous waterfall.  We were drenched by the time we got thru the misting area, but the trail continued up to a flatter shelf area at the top and we were drier by the time we got there. We hung out at the top, rested and took some pictures.  We wandered around the top and checked out  the waterfall above, Nevada Falls.  The Mist Trail went straight up, with a 1,000 ft elevation gave in 1.6 miles and our legs were tired.  When we felt rested, we headed back down a million stone steps, back thru the mist of the waterfall getting soaked again, and by the time we got back to the shuttle bus stop, we were mostly dry.  The shuttle took us back to our truck.

Most of the bear incidents have happened around the campgrounds where, I assume, people get careless with food.  There haven’t been grizzly bears in California since they were exterminated in the 1920’s, so these bears are black bears (although their color may be black, brown or blonde).  Black bears are usually quite shy and skittish around humans.  We have black bears in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park in Tennessee and don’t have the bear-people incidents they have here.  Bears, however, are opportunists and if the four million visitors in Yosemite are careless with food, the bears will accept the hand out.  Once the bears associate people with food and not fear, they become dangerous to humans and the bears are destroyed.  It’s not the bear’s fault, but people rate higher than bears (though I’ve seen a few people were I question this assessment).  

A ranger told us of an area called Hetch Hetchy, north part of the park, that was a more remote area of the park with less visitation.  We’d love to loose these crowds.  We headed just outside the park to find a campsite in the Stanislaus National Forest.  We found a spot, but we were still nervous about bears, especially since dinner was bacon wrapped steaks.  So we decided to make dinner in one location and then move on and sleep in another location.  

We went back into Mammoth Mountain for the rest of the Energy Fair.  We got a lot of information on solar power, solar hot water, straw bale construction and lots more.  The fair was supposed to last until 2 pm, but around noon it started to rain.  And then the rain turned to a light hail.  People started to leave and the vendors were packing up.  We headed out too.

Our next stop is Mono (Mo-no) Lake.  Mono Lake  is unique because it has no outlet, it is fed thru snowmelt thru several streams and rivers.  Salt and minerals leached from the surrounding rocks drain into Mono Lake and are concentrated when the water evaporates.  The lake has bizarre formations of rock called “tufa” (too-fa) that show during the fluctuations in the water level.  Six of the waterways that fed Mono Lake were diverted in the 1940’s for water for Los Angeles.  The next few decades resulted in a gradual decrease in the water levels of Mono Lake.  In the 1980’s (I think) LA was forced to give up some of the water feeding Mono Lake and the lake level began to rise again.  The water levels still fluctuate with snowmelt and evaporation.

A rain storm is on the horizon, so we head out.  We stopped at a gas station that a ranger told us about.  We were told this gas station, The Toomey Tioga Gas Station has gourmet food, but we found so much more.  It was a gas station that sold gifts, of course.  Of the gourmet food, we sampled the fish tacos with mango salsa, but also on the menu was lobster taquitos and steaks.  While we were there, the live band was just setting up on the outside deck that overlooked the trapeze.  Yes, TRAPEZE!!  This gas station was so much more than just a gas station!

We moved onto Yosemite National Park and the rain began.  It was raining on and off as we entered the park and the sign on the side of the road read “Falling Rocks”.  Rocks were actually falling into the road… BIG rocks!  We were able to dodge most of them, some the size of baseballs and a few the size of basketballs!  You know, all the times I’ve seen the “Falling Rocks” sign, this is the first time I’ve ever witnessed them falling.  

We got into the park and drove out of the rain.  For some reason, I got a bad feeling for this park.  It’s very beautiful, Ansel Adams and others have photographed the park for years.  Maybe it was just the introduction of having rocks thrown at us as we entered, I just didn’t want to be here.  

It’s also visited by four million people a year.  I swear, all four million of them are here today!  Every pull out for a scenic view is packed with cars.  We got to an office with campground information, waited in line and found a campground with some openings.  This office is out of their newspaper, which usually has all the information on the park, current programs, precautions, road closings, etc.  So we’re kind of in the dark about park happenings.  

Yosemite is also renown for their bear population and their unwelcomed interaction with campers.  The problem is that some visitors feed the bears to get pictures or leave food out at camp that bears can get to.  The bears are opportunists and will eat what they can find.  After the bears begin to associate humans and cars with an easy meal, they become more aggressive and even break into cars to get at food.  As a result, the campsites have large steel “bear boxes” that all food and scented things must go into while camping.  All food!  Chewing gum, mints, scented hand sanitizer, sunscreen, anything that a bear may consider food.  We found out how much food we had stashed in the truck.  We had just purchased beer in Mammoth, CA and had picked up several bottles of wine discounted in Tonopah, NV.  Not to mention 5 to 7 days of food in the cooler and lots of dry goods.  It took us a while, but our bear box was full.  

It was a pretty normal night at a campground; children screaming and playing, a baby crying, some guy playing a guitar.  We miss the quiet and privacy we have while boondocking.  

We got an early start this morning, we have a lot to do.  We did a 4 1/2 mile hike in the Methuselah Grove of Bristlecone Pines, the grove containing a three named “Methuselah” that has been tree ring dated to 4,730+ years old and still living!!  The exact tree named “Methuselah” is kept secret, for it’s protection..  However, many of the trees in this grove have been dated 4,000 years old and many well over 3,000 years old.  

Along this hike, our Cannon Power Shot camera died again.  It’s been a good camera, but it’s got a lot of miles on it (just look at the photos on our websites!).  We still have the Minolta Dimage camera, but it’s bigger, bulkier and harder to take on hikes and backpacks. 

After our hike, we headed north and stopped in Bishop, CA for water and a burrito shop recommended by some of the rangers in the Visitor’s Center.  A real California Burrito!!  Yumm!  We split one (that was plenty) and took it to a nearby city park for a picnic table in the shade.  We found a water faucet in the park and washed up a bit, I got to wash my hair, too.  For a Saturday, there are not many people in this park.  There must be something else going on somewhere else in town.  

We stopped at a Forest Service Office and found out where this Energy Fair was going on.  Driving thru Mammoth Mountain, CA reminds me of every other ski town I’ve seen.  Quaint chalets (all over-priced, I’m sure) and several cute restaurants and shops, and of course, a brew-pub!  

We found out where the event was happening and jumped on a gondola to take us to the top of the mountain.  We got to where the vendors had set up, but found out that the work shops and lectures were happening at the bottom, where we picked up the gondola.  We jumped on the next one we could only to find out that we missed the talk on passive home design.  We were able to catch the talk on solar panels and solar hot water.  We walked thru and talked with the vendors and got lots of info on all kinds of stuff.  

We left the event and stopped at the Mammoth Mountain Brewery and Restaurant for an appetizer and… uhhh…. to research the local beer.  We were pleased to find their IPA had a nice rye finish like our favorite Georgia ale, Terrapin’s Rye Pale Ale.  We stopped at a local beer store and picked up a couple of six-packs of Mammoth’s IPA to take with us.  

we checked out the info from the Forest Service office on free campgrounds and found the some with lots of standing water, too many bugs.  We found several dirt roads crisscrossing the area and just camped off one of those for the night. 

We left our beautiful campsite in the trees with a creek and headed into thedesert again.  We stopped briefly in Tonopah, NV for groceries.  Wespent two unexpected days in Tonopah after we broke our rear shocks on the roadto the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley.  

For the next several hours we drove thru miles and miles of sagebrushdesert.  We came over one hill and got our first glimpse of the WhiteMountains.  We got to the Inyo National Forest in the White Mountains andfound a Visitor Center with info on the Bristlecone Pines.  In the VisitorCenter we found a flyer advertising about an "Off The Grid" EnergyFair going on in Mammoth Mountain, a town about 1 1/2 hours fromhere.  We did a short one mile hike thru an Ancient Bristlecone PineGrove and went back to the free campground (with suggested donation of $3.00) tocamp for the night.  

We watched the wildlife at our camp this morning… a hummingbird is sitting on a nest in a tree. It’s nest is only slightly larger than a quarter!  So tiny!

A dark cloud on the horizon had us worried about the weather for our hike today.  On our way out, we stopped and photographed some of the “artwork” on the fence leading into the Visitor’s Center.  It’s mostly “Found Object” art and some of it quite funny.  

We checked out the weather and it’s the same all week- chance of afternoon thunder showers.  We’re heading up to do our hike to the glacier today and thru a grove of Bristlecone Pines.  We started our hike and a short way in, we ran into a ranger who helped us identify which ones were the Bristlecone Pines.  It’s helpful that at this sub-alpine elevation of 10,000 feet there are only four types of trees.  Aspens are deciduous and we had no trouble telling those apart.  The other three were conifers.  The Engleman Spruce had small paper-like cones.  The Limber Pines had larger cones with longer needles.  The Bristlecone Pines had very short, compact needles, like a bottle brush and the cones were very compact, have little spines on them and are a beautiful purple color when young.  Now that we can identify the different types, we saw some of the most beautiful trees!  They have dated some of the bristlecones as 3,000 to 4,000 years old!!  That’s twice as old as Christianity!  the oldest tree, Prometheus, was cut down in the 1960’s, legally, by someone studying the Bristlecones.  At the time it was cut, it was 4,600 years old and still alive.  They can date the trees by counting the tree rings, but because of the very dense wood of the Bristlecone Pines, some trees can stand for hundreds of years after they die.  We’ll see more Bristlecone Pines later when we visit the Schulman Grove.  

The ranger we talked to about the Bristlecones was going to Death Valley to work at Scotty’s Castle.  He was going to play one of the characters that “happens” to run into the tour.  We wish him luck, it sounds like a fun job.  

We went on up to the glacier.  I asked what made it a “glacier” and not just “snow”.  For it to be a glacier, it must have snow and ice year round and it has to move. We hiked up the glacial moraine (lots of loose rocks) about 2.3 miles to the base of the glacier.  It is a large snowfield in a bowl carved out of the mountain at 10,800 feet during the ice age.  We could see ripples in the snow where it has slowly moved down the mountain.  While we were there, we talked with Ed and Linda from California.  They told us about Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park.  We’ll have to see that when we are there.  While we were standing there, enjoying the view, we heard a small avalanche in the glacier.  We’re not going any further.  

We hiked back and continued the Alpine Lakes Loop trail, an additional 1+ mile, to Lake Teresa and Lake Selma.  These are two small lakes carved out by glaciers and filled with seasonal snowmelt and rain.  The dark clouds above are rumbling louder and it’s beginning to rain, so we head back to the car.  By the time we got to the car, the rain had turned to hail!  

We left Great Basin with a new appreciation for the park.  We expected to find more desert, but instead we found a living cave, Bristlecone Pines and a glacier!  This park is in the middle of nowhere, 200 miles from the nearest town of any size.  The coolest places are not always easy to get to.

We continued thru Nevada towards California, but we’re not going to make it tonight.  there’s lots of public land in Nevada, so we found a road that looked promising, a sign making a couple of creek trails.  Probably an off-roading area.  We went off the highway a little and found a road leading to a nice clearing with a picnic tale and a small stream.  While looking around, we found that someone had cleared all the cow (or elk) poop and piled it off to one side.  It looks like we found someone’s Fourth of July picnic area!  (The wayward marshmallow on a stick gave it away)  Someone has cleaned it up and taken care of this little site.  We will take good care of it for tonight.

We found a nice BLM campsite by a stream… and it’s free!  Our favorite kind!

We did a cave tour of Lehman’s Cave this morning.  I was impressed that they had an airlock in place around 1940, shortly after the cave was commercialized.  This is a living cave that still has water and minerals dripping thru it.  When caves like this are commercialized, a larger opening is created, changing the humidity levels so much that the cave dries out and “dies”, or the formations stop growing.  Carlsbad Caverns is an example of a cave that was “killed” by commercial use.  Lehman’s Cave is a very highly decorated cave, meaning it has lots of formations.  It is also a living cave, meaning it’s formations are still growing.  In the beginning of it’s tourism life 100 years ago, the cave had damage due to visitors being allowed to take “souvenirs” with them.  There is evidence of the cave formations continuing to grow on these broken areas.  

After the cave tour, we checked out some pictographs, but they were quite worn, we couldn’t see much.  We also did a scenic drive up to Wheeler Peak overlook.  We’ll do this hike tomorrow, we don’t have time today.

We went into the town of Baker and had dinner at one of the two restaurants in town.  T&D’s is a restaurant, bar and grocery store all in one.  We picked up a loaf of bread for our PB&J’s tomorrow.  We went back to our campsite from last night.  We had the place all to ourselves.