Category Archives: XC 2015
Lounging in Yosemite (88)
We woke early, left most of our gear behind, and biked to Camp 4 to get a spot for tonight, since the backpacker site is one night only. To our surprise, there was already a group of roughly 20 people waiting in line when we got there, around 5:30AM. We were very jealous, as most of them were sleeping in camping chairs or on sleeping pads on the ground.
Fish Camp (87)
A lesson we learned quickly during this trip: whenever you see a river crossing on the map, you can expect to climb. The San Joaquin was no different, and by 10am I had wrung the sweat out of my gloves during the steep climb up from the valley. It wasn’t a scorcher but with little air movement and no shade we had gotten off to a sweaty start to the day. Today is our last climb from the valley up into the Sierra Nevada’s which is exciting though!
A Lot of Climbing for a Downhill Day (86)
This morning, there was some commotion in camp due to a bear passing through again. It is likely the same one that had been through a few times yesterday, hoping to snag some picnic baskets. As it sauntered around the perimeter of the campground, it even pawed at some sleepy campers’ tent; the surprised yell from inside of the tent caused it to run off, although I’m sure it will be back.
The air was still very cold when we departed camp, so the initial climb felt great, but then there was a long descent. We crossed through Kings Canyon National Park, but we have decided to add that park to the future “to do” list. It probably wasn’t a great time to be there anyhow, due to a fire in the park making the area very hazy.
General Sherman (85)
We left the campsite around 6:30AM and headed up the hill towards Sequoia National Park. At the gate to the park, we met a local cyclist named Bill.
He hung back on his road bike to ride with us to Ampitheater Point. He gave us copious information about the park and the surrounding area, in addition to giving us incentive to climb faster. He has done the climb over 100 times, and he told us that there are 24 switchbacks and 240 turns. The extra company was greatly appreciated, and there was definitely more conversation than there would have been otherwise.
