Yosemite Memorial Day Half Dome Trip

 I somehow got it into my head that we should do a backpacking trip in Yosemite for the upcoming memorial day weekend. I tried to get wilderness permits on Saturday but failed --- everything was snatched up when I hit refresh. But I tried again on Sunday, and saw that there were 6 spots available at Little Yosemite Valley which guaranteed a Half Dome permit, so I grabbed them. What many people don't realize is that a wilderness comes with a guaranteed entry into Yosemite National Park the day before, as well as use of the Backpacker's Campground in the valley proper, so even with a 2 day permit starting on Sunday, we got full access to Yosemite for the entire 3 day weekend.

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Hotels in the area were expensive as heck because of memorial day, so we opted to just drive in on Saturday morning. Traffic was free flowing and we made it to Yosemite's Big Oak Flat at 11:00am. We showed the Wilderness Permit and Boen's Every Kid Outdoors Pass, we got into the park for free. I noticed that at least 2 cars in line ahead of us were turned away because of the park's new reservation policy, where reservations were needed to enter the park between 6am and 2pm.

Driving into the park, we still had difficulty parking near the visitor center, but eventually found a spot and walked to get the wilderness permit, where we opted to pay $10/person for the half dome permit. We also paid for the backpacker's campground $8/person. With the money we saved from not staying in the hotel, we bought lunch in Yosemite village. I'd forgotten how mediocre the food was and how slow the service was. That's probably the main reason you should bring your own food.

After lunch, we drove to North Pines campground, where there was a 15 minute parking spot so we could drag all our camping equipment into the backpacker's campground. Since we drove the minivan, we could bring both car camping equipment and backpacking equipment, allowing us comfort for our night in Yosemite Valley. When the tent, sleeping pads and sleeping bags were all setup, we drove out to do the newly renovated Bridal Veil falls trail. The falls are nothing short of stunning with the volume of water so high that we got spray even while far away.

It was a short hike, but for returning to the car instead of doubling back Xiaoqin found some trails that looked promising. We didn't realize that much of the trail was still under water because of the high water level, so we had to do several stream crossings as part of the hike. Returning to the car, we drove to our parking spot next to the Curry Village, where we would leave our van overnight.

We needed to walk to the village for dinner anyway, so we hiked to the lower Yosemite Falls along the way, admiring the beautiful trails and views of both upper and lower falls. Dinner was relatively fast at the Yosemite Falls Lodge's food court, and then we took the bus back to the Curry Village, where we took showers before bed.

Getting up the next morning, I realized I'd left our ham and cheese in the fridge at home, so we had to pay a morning visit to the village store for both breakfast and lunch supplies. The store didn't open until 8:00am, but by the time we'd packed everything up and driven over there it was already 7:30am. The alternate breakfast places were all jammed with people so we just made instant noodles and waited for the store to open.

We drove to the special Happy Isles parking lot reserved for people with wilderness permits. (they don't actually check, as far as I can tell) There we repacked our backpacks and put all food in the bear locker. We filled our water bottles, and then Boen had to poo. He ran off before I was ready, but we were reunited when he was done with the bathroom.

We walked up the same Mist trail we had done last Fall, and the Vernal falls now sounded like a jet engine. We refilled our bottles at the Vernal Falls viewpoint, and then proceeded up the steps where we got thoroughly doused by the spray from the falls. Looking behind us we could see rainbow halos, and we got thoroughly soaked. The price of the baptism was the crowds, where we frequently had to stop because the narrow steps could only allow one party at a time through the critical sections.

Past the top of Vernal Falls, the crowd thinned considerably and we stopped for lunch just prior to the bridge. Unlike the Vernal Falls, the Nevada falls trail doesn't go directly under the falls, but even then, we could still occasionally feel the cooling mist from the falls, which was how big they were.

At the top of the Nevada Falls, at the intersection with the John Muir trail, we met the ranger who issued us the permits the day before! He told us that the trail went up a bit more after that and that at Little Yosemite Valley we'd done half the elevation gain for Half Dome. He was right of course, and we arrived at Little Yosemite Valley around 1pm. We were pretty tired. By the time we pitched the tents, fetched water to refill water bottles, and loaded all the food into the bear canister it was 3:00pm. With nothing better to do, we decided to do half dome on Sunday instead of waiting till Monday morning. Boen resisted but it turned out that he didn't understand that if we did Half Dome today we didn't have to do it tomorrow.

The hike up to Half Dome is 3.5 miles, but it's a challenging 3.5 miles because while the approach itself was a challenging 1000', the final subdome was a series of steps, which combined with the cables would go up another 1000'. And of course we were tired from carrying camping equipment to Little Yosemite Valley. When we got to the sub-dome, Xiaoqin picked up a pair of gloves rather than using her biking gloves. The steps were difficult, but Bowen upon seeing the cables said: "That looks scary!" The views from subdome were gorgeous, where we could see snow-covered peaks all around us.

At the bottom of the cables, Bowen and Boen hesitated, but then decided to commit. Once they were committed they made great speed. Xiaoqin followed, and I brought up the rear. I was surprised by how slippery the granite was --- on previous visits I don't remember my soles ever slipping on the rock, and I had relatively new shoes! I then remembered that it had possibly rained the day before, and also the cables had only come up on Friday, so that explained why there wasn't a pile of gloves at the bottom of the cables. What did make everything easier, however, was that there was next to no traffic on the cables as a result of the new permit-based system.

At the top, it was windy, but the kids found snow and ice! It was already 6:15pm, so we quickly took a few pictures and then went back down. I anticipated the descent to be more scary than the climb, but it was also easier and a lot faster. This was where gloves were useful, as you could do a bunch of mini rappels and that made the descent go a lot faster than in the uphill direction.

Descending the steps were even harder than climbing them, since the eccentric motion at the end of a 9 mile hike felt like an insult to the joints. But we met another hiker going down (he said he did half-dome without a permit), and made it to our campsite before it got so dark that I needed to break out my headlamp.

We made dinner, brushed our teeth, and then went to sleep quickly, exhausted by our efforts.

The next morning, we woke up at 6:00am to the sound of birds singing, made our hot breakfast, packed up our camping equipment and hiked back down to the John Muir trail, opting for the longer but less knee cracking descent to the valley. Even here the effects of being here in Spring made for a different experience than last fall. Not only was the top of Nevada falls much louder and faster, the weeping wall didn't just weep, it rained! We made much slower time than we expected because every corner had something to see.

It being so early the traffic was very light, and there was none of the traffic jams we saw the previous day on the Mist trail. We arrived back at the car by 12:30pm, and then had a 1 hour drive to lunch and another 4 hour drive home because of the increased traffic.

Review: Navaris Long Handle Ti Spork

 My go-to freeze-dried backpacking meals are the Mountain House pouches. The flavors are usually decent, and the cooking easy. The pouches also double as eating bowls so you can reduce the amount of silverware you have to carry.

The biggest problem with the pouches is that regular length silverware can't reach deep into the pouch. So you end up with greasy, dirty hands at the end of the meal. When I saw the Navaris Long Handle Ti Spork, I knew this was what I'd wanted. At $10/spork, it's cheap enough to outfit a family of 4. They're light (hey, it's Ti), and come with a pouch so that you can keep the spork away from other dirty stuff in your backpack. The long handle ensures you can get every last calorie out of those expensive Mountain House pouches without getting your hands dirty.

There's nothing else I want out of sporks. Get these.

Review: GTYOPR Collapsible Cups and Bowls

 I've long been a fan of the snapfold cups, bowls, and dishes that Arturo was using on camping trips. They were really light, easy to clean, and seemed to work very well. But I was not a fan of the prices. At $17 a set, that was a lot of money for something that Arturo told me wasn't going to last.

I found an equivalent on AliExpress, but (1) the shipping took forever, and (2) what arrived wasn't what was described. Instead of a set, I got 4 of the same type. That's what you get for trusting AliExpress.  Luckily, it was the holidays and for $16 I ordered a dozen of the items I was missing from Amazon, a brand called GTYOPR. With Amazon shipping, it was fast and even better, I was protected if they didn't ship me what I wanted. It's no longer the holidays and that maker is no longer selling, but there are equivalent still available like ChenShuo.

During the Kepler track hike, at the various huts, once in a while someone would ask me about them, because they looked so light, so easy to use, and easily flattened, taking no space in your backpack. Fozzils (the guys who invented the Snapfold concept) needs to stop being greedy and just realize that a product that's not made to last (and has plenty of Chinese competitors) isn't going to sell. I would have been willing to pay a premium to support the inventors, but a 4x premium is ridiculous.

Review: Sea-to-Summit Spark Ultralight Down Bag

 For this year's New Zealand trip, I decided that the 0 degree REI bag was much too warm for the inside of a New Zealand hut, even for Xiaoqin who sleeps cold. Bowen had long outgrown his sleeping bag, and refused to use Boen's sleeping bag ever since Boen peed in it in 2021.

I decided to buy the lightest sleeping bag that I could find, even if it wasn't the warmest, since the inside of a hut with large numbers of humans should keep things at a reasonable temperature. The lightest item that came up was the Sea to Summit Sleeping Bag.

To my surprise, this came in 2 versions. The regular men's and a special women's version that's warmer! The women's version is rated a full 5 degrees F warmer than the men's version, and it is correspondingly larger and heavier, but costs the same. Both pack down really nicely, small enough to fit in an Osprey Daylight Plus daypack (yes, daypack!). The rated weight is for the men's is 493g, and the women's is 584g.

The quality of both bags is good, as well as the loose stuff sack that comes with the bags. The bags are pricey (I got them on sale for $269.40 each) but are well worth the price. Recommended.

Kirby Cove Campground Trip

Whenever I visit recreation.gov, I always find that there's one campground that looks super-appealing, and that's Kirby Cove Campground. Of course, every time I tried to book it, it was booked up, especially since those of us who are working stiffs with kids in school can't afford to do anything other than a weekend trip. Then during the New Year's Eve Wildcat Campground trip, Daniel told me the secret trick to booking the site.  Armed with that secret trick, it took me only 2 weeks to book campsite #1 at Kirby Cove for the first weekend of April.

Booking that far out is always risky, but fortunately, the rain that was supposed to land on both Thursday and Friday got revised out to only Thursday night, so we were assured of dry weather during the weekend. Both kids and Xiaoqin had caught some sort of viral infection but we decided to do the trip anyway, given how hard it had been to book it.

When you book 2 nights at the campground, surprisingly few people will come for both nights. Each campsite can hold 10 people, so we invited friends, including Stephan, his dad, and his son Otto and some neighbors for Friday, and Mickey and Kevin's families for Saturday. I had a full weekend of hikes planned as well.

Arriving at 4:00pm at the campground we followed the instructions to unlock the gate and drove down to the campground, stunned by how nice it was. Campsite #1 was amazing, with 2 tent pads with views of the golden gate, and its own private swing! We pitched a tent and then went out to eat --- in retrospect we should have bought take out just to enjoy how nice the campground was! It was windy when we arrived, but the campground itself was sheltered so putting up the tent was much easier than expected.

Stephan and Allan's family showed up much later but they were no less impressed. The cold made sleep difficult, but the view in the morning was more than worth ti.

Breakfast with a view of the golden gate is amazing. 

We then convoyed up to Trojan point to start the classic hike on Matt Davis trail and then return on Steep Ravine.

The views and greenery was amazing, with flowers starting to bloom. The forest flowers were by far the highlight, since they'd gotten so much water that the growth was verdant.

We visited Stintson beach and had lunch there, and with some difficulty peeled the kids away from the beach for the hike back up to the Pantoll Ranger Station.

Steep Ravine was nothing short of amazing, with the creek sounding like jet engines roaring, and the stream demonstrating multiple cascades, including some which we hadn't seen before because the recent rains had been so heavy.

We finished the hike in great spirits, returning to the campground to find Kevin already there. We got a chance to explore the beach, including the tunnel, the caves, and then Mickey showed up with a portable grill and made burgers for everyone!

Saturday at Kirby Cove was much different than Sunday, with lots of day trippers and visitors who would walk down the dirt road for access and take pictures, sit on the beach, or just explore.

When dinner was over we'd sit and watch the sunset and watched the city lights turned on slowly. It was magical.

On Sunday morning, we packed everything up slowly after breakfast and then went for my second day's plan. I was going to go for a bigger hike but most people looked pretty tired so opted to start everyone at the morning sun trailhead.

The SCA trail + morning sun combination is the easiest hike with most scenery for the buck you can get in the Bay Area. The views are stunning, and best of all, the non-enthusiastic hikers can treat it as a one way hike to the parking area while those who can't get enough can double back and fetch the car and pick them up.

Wildflowers were blooming and we stopped to take photos so often people asked us why it was taking us so long to walk back to the car!

When the hike and pick up was over, all the other families were done but it was just 12:30pm which was perfect timing for visiting Point Bonitas Lighthouse while it was still open, something I've never achieved because of the narrow 3 hour opening window. So we went down to Sausalito and bought take out Mexican food and then drove through the tunnel again to the lighthouse parking area and ate lunch.

The lighthouse access tunnel was great, and nicely sheltered from the prevailing wind, which was blowing much harder than I expected given what we experienced in the morning. Despite all the signs telling us that access was restricted to 49 people at the lighthouse at a time, it must have been a light traffic day because the rangers and docent who were tasked with counting people never stopped anyone from crossing the suspension bridge and exploring the lighthouse. I noted that there's a guided tour available at sunset for people who want to see the lighthouse turn on.

At the end of the trip I asked Boen if he thought Wildcat Campground was better or Kirby Cove and he said: "Kirby Cove, no contest!" The campground is restricted to 3 nights a year a person so I guess we'll have to return next year if he likes it so much!

2023/2024 Point Reyes Wildcat Campground - New Year's Eve Backpack

 Ever since we visited Alamere Falls in 2022, I'd been so impressed by Wildcat Campground that I tried  over and over again, succeeding only in September this year for the New Year's Eve slot. Boen wanted to go, and the weather looked reasonable --- right in between two rain storms. I posited that the easiest way to do the backpack was to actually bike down the Bear Valley trail until we weren't allowed to bike any more, then hike to the campground. We'd ridden the whole thing from Five Brooks, but the horse poop at the trailhead and the ruggedness of the ride meant that I'd be pushing the bike most of the way on the return anyway, so I might as well carry a backpack and wear it.

On New Year's Eve, we packed everything we needed into the car, and then drove to Bear Valley Visitor Center. There, I confirmed that leaving our bikes at the bottom of Bear Valley trail overnight wouldn't be a problem, and that I couldn't swap out my Site #7 ticket for a Site #6 as some other person had grabbed it and hadn't relinquished it.

The ride was no big deal but I had to take it extra gingerly because I'd forgotten to bring a hammer to snap close the retaining pin on my ancient Yakima trailer. If I'm going to do more bikepacking in this configuration in the future I'm going to have to buy a new trailer. I stacked the two backpacks together on the trailer and tied it all together with bungee cords. The stability wasn't great but on the other hand it's such a tame trail that my biggest concern was getting the backpacks muddy, hence I wrapped both packs with garbage bags.

The easiest way to Wildcat from Bear Valley was up Glen Camp. We'd bought sandwiches at Point Reyes Station earlier, and half way up the trail was a good place to stop and eat --- I've learned never to let kids eat unless they're hungry. Otherwise, it's a waste of food. Even so, Boen only ate 3/4 of his sandwich.

We met other backpackers exiting the route and they told us to get onto the fire road and just stay on it --- there were alternate routes, but this was the easiest way with a kid in tow. At the junction with the Coast Trail we noticed a bunch of backpackers coming down the trail. I asked for a picture of the two of us and they obliged. Daniel, the group leader had Pixel 8 Pro, and was a pretty friendly guy. They told us that the Coast Trail was pretty, and would take us back to our bikes.

Boen's reaction to the first view of Wildcat Campground this trip was "WOW! That's an amazing campground." He didn't remember our previous trip by bike! We got to the campground and found site #7 perched over the beach, but with only a slight view of the ocean. We pitched our tent and made some hot beverages, and then visited the beach but realized that the tide was still high --- low tide was at 8pm, so we went back and explored. We took a look at Site #6, which was indeed occupied by an Asian couple with a huge antenna setup for AM radio, which looked like it would take a good hour to setup.

The views were incredible. We could see all the way to the Farallons, which surprised me because it was cloudy and once in a while I could see rain showers offshore.

We decided to try our luck again, and went to the beach to discover Daniel's group in the midst of starting a fire. I'd brought a fire permit and fire starter, but they had way more people and were way more motivated. They had a guy finding twigs, other people gathering fire wood for drying, and we could spectate. Daniel was a hard worker, frequently getting onto his hands and knees to nurture the fire.

At 4:15, I'd had enough of waiting and decided that this was our last chance to see Alamere falls before sunset. I set off with Boen and Daniels' group decided that I knew what I was doing, which was a mistake.

I cannot fault the views from the beach. The Golden Hour didn't disappoint. Sandpipers on the beach flittered back and forth, looking for grub, only to take flight when the waves came crashing down. 

We steadily got closer to the Alamere Falls, hut were thwarted at the last segment, where big waves kept crashing against the one rock guarding the actual falls. Two of Daniel's party members just resigned themselves to getting wet and soaked through, but Boen and I settled for an ephemeral fall fairly close to the actual falls themselves.

Those falls didn't exist when we last visited the area, so must have been produced by the most recent series of rains.

By the time we got back to our tent site, it was dark, so we made dinner and ate it by lantern light. I'd forgotten to bring headlamps for both of us, so the whole meal was awkward, with lots of spillage, but Boen really enjoyed his Mountain House Beef Stew. He got cold after dinner, so we hurriedly brushed our teeth and joined Daniel's party for the fire, which was nice and hot!

The stars were out, indicating that our cloud cover was gone. But the tides were still crashing down hard on the beaches, so nobody felt like venturing forth to the waterfall in the moonlight. Boen was too tired to do so anyway, and asked for an early night at 8:00pm.

When morning came, we were both refreshed enough to contemplate taking the long way back to the bike, along the coast trail. We ate a hurried breakfast and packed up and hiked up with wet tents and fly for despite the cloudless sky the humidity was high enough to induce a lot of condensation on the tent.

It didn't even take a quarter mile climbing out of the campground for us to have to shed clothing for we had warmed up plenty despite being in the shade.

Turning off on the Coast trail at 0.8 miles we saw signs for the Bear Valley trail intersection at 2.5 miles. The views became very nice, with the spray off the coast visible even at our distance.

The route took us into forests with mists rising around us, lending the area an ethereal look for us to greet the new year. It being early we saw no one else until we got close to the Bear Valley trailhead, where the views started to become spectacular.

California's distinctive sea stacks, along with a clear blue sky and a calm looking Ocean belying the crashing roar that was our soundtrack the night before reminded me again of how nice it was to live where we lived.

Finally, crossing a bridge, up a tiny hill and we were back on the Bear Valley trail. Just a mile later we were at the bikes, loading them up and headed for home.

There's nothing like the relief of pedaling a nice bike after 5 miles of walking. Even a little pump of the pedals and you're flying up a hill at twice your walking speed.  We had quite a bit of splatter on our clothing and bike by the time we got to the car. But it being New Year's Day, traffic home was non existent and we got home in plenty of time to dry the tent and put it away!