My "Doings" in a Support Role

My first "support-role-task" was to deliver Tasha and her three friends to Florence Lake where they slept one night at a campsite I had reserved and then took the boat across the lake at 8:30 a.m. on July 30th to begin their 110 miles on the John Muir Trail.

After camping three nights at Florence Lake I drove back down into the San Joaquin Valley and up north to Yosemite NP where I drove over Tioga Pass to Hwy. 395, and then up the Mammoth Lakes Rd. to Devil's Postpile (pictured). I was camped there in order to re-supply Tasha and friends with food after hiking over 50 miles in 5 days. They arrived at Reds Meadows right on schedule but wisely decided to take a lay-over day before continuing. On that day we joined a "Ranger Walk" to the Postpile where he took us on top the formation to see the very top of the strange-and-wonderful columns (pictured below).

During my three days and nights camping at Devil's Postpile I did take a 2-mile hike to Rainbow Falls.

While it appears that there's quite a bit of water coming over the falls (Middle Fork, San Joaquin River), a Ranger told is that one year ago in August -- just after a winter with very heavy snowfall (compared to the winter of 2011-12 which was very dry) -- there was actually ten times as much water in the river (300 cubic feet per second, compared to 30 this year). Then, after sending the group off for their 3-day hike to Tuolumne Meadows, I drove over Tioga Pass once again and settled-in at White Wolf Campground after finding that there was "no room in the inn" at Tuolumne Meadows! En route to White Wolf I had the chance to see beautiful Tenaya Lake once again.

Again it was a 3-night stay at White Wolf where I had to drive 25 miles back to Tuolumne Meadows to meet-and-re-supply the group when they arrived. When they continued on to Yosemite Valley I followed them up the Cathedral Lakes Trail (note "Cathedral Peak")

and enjoyed the 7-mile round trip hike with about an 1000 ft. elevation gain (definitely a work-out!). But, the upper Cathedral Lake was a delightful place to soak my feet and munch on the snack food that I'd carried in my daypack. The sun was warm, the sky clear, and the view spectacular! It would have been great to spend hours there; however, I headed back down the trail after less than an hour.

From Tuolumne I drove down into Yosemite Valley and hiked up the John Muir Trail a bit less than a mile in order to catch a glimpse of Vernal Falls (which also had much less than normal water coming down the Merced River). Again, the group arrived on schedule (at about 5:00 p.m. on August 9th) after climbing Half Dome and then descending 4800' into the Valley! Each of them had a terrific sense of accomplishment in covering the 110 miles with little more than a few blisters to show for it! (We left the Valley that evening, drove to a motel in Oakdale, and then made it all the way back to Keizer/Portland the next day!) - rw

P.S. - Believe it or not, due to the unusually dry winter, there was actually no water at all coming over famed Yosemite Falls!