Yosemite! - August 2019

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Part Six of Our Big Summer Adventure

Dances With Mules

"It's a Bear." the Lady said. She was up on her elbows in our bed looking out the window. The noise had woke us both. It was five in the morning.

"It has an open horse feed bag," she continued her commentary as I raised up beside her. "Somebody from that camp is coming out of the trailer. They are shining a flashlight on the bear. The bear's running off and left the feed bag."

I was looking out the window now also. The small jet black bear ran across the open space and then continued onto the main portion of Yosemite National Park's Bridalveil Creek Campground.

"You'd think that people would follow the rules and not have items out for wildlife to get into."

"People are just plain stupid," I answered as we snuggled back into our bag. "Bears are smarter than most of them."

"It's the horse people over there with the bear," I added. "We've got mules."

The separate equestrian camp has three sites. Our friends with mules had two of the sites reserved for four nights and had asked the Lady and me to join them on this adventure.

When you spend time with mule people, you'd hear a fairly constant chatter about the difference between a horse and a mule such as, "Difference between a horse and mule is that a mule aims when it kicks." Words of wisdom are constantly leaking out, "With a mule, now you got to remember, the front end bites, the back end kicks, and the middle bucks you off."

Our friends, Barking and Ma Spider were on Amos and Georgia. Our other friends, Jerry and Connie were on Hooligan and Ellie. The Lady and I were on our own legs. We were hiking.

Our common destination for our first full day was Ostrander Lake, around 7.5 miles from our starting point at camp. 

Since the Lady and I didn't have to saddle up and such, we left before the mules.

A ways down the trail we stopped to admire fresh bear tracks.

The middle portion of the hike was through a recent burn. We enjoyed finally breaking out onto Horizon Ridge and the final climb up to the lake.

The famous Ostrander Ski Hut sits just above the lake.

Built by the C.C.C. in 1940, the hut is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The view from the hut's massive front steps is world class.

The hut is only open in the winter. The Lady's natural curiosity got the best of her on seeing the interior.

We rested and snacked and explored around the lake as we waited for the mules to arrive.

The cowgirls and cowboys arrived in their finery and it was time for a few photos.

Ma and Barking Spider..................

..................and were joined by Jerry and Connie.

Georgia wanted to get dressed up too.

I could imagine Georgia asking, "If you get all gussied up in your cowboy duds, are you ranch dressing?"


After a nice long ride, mules love to take a nap. Here's Hooligan and Ellie dozing off.

Amos - and most mules - loves to have his ears scratched.

Forever tied to the story of the Ostrander Hut is the story of its long time winter hut tender, Howard Weamer. Howard is a professional photographer and has now retired as hut tender.

Here is a link to a fine short video - Winters of My Life

We have in our library a copy of Howard's book on Ostrander Hut and ski touring in Yosemite - The Perfect Art

On our return hike, the wonderful views of the Yosemite high country were inspiring.

We explored the south rim of Yosemite Valley on our second day of hiking.

 

The mules and riders were starting from camp and riding to Taft Point and Sentinel Dome. The Lady and I drove the short way out the Glacier Point Road to the Sentinel Dome trailhead. This allowed us to add in a visit to Glacier Point.

Our first stop was Taft Point and The Fissures.

The views from this perch on the edge of the valley rim are incredible.

The Fissures, deep gashes in the rim's granite, are fascinating.

The view of El Capitan across the Merced River was extraordinary.

And also of Yosemite Falls.

We, of course, were like kids in a candy store.

We met Steve and Deborah, a couple from Boston. Deborah came to the states from London with her wonderful accent and both of them work in the bio-medical field. Deborah edits a professional bio-med journal and Steve is a patent attorney specializing in bio-med. They joined us on the hike over to Sentinel Dome.

Steve and Deborah were spending several days in Yosemite. The highlight of their trip was permits for Half Dome the following day.

The top of Sentinel Dome was a busy place.

We hung out and awaited the arrival of the mules.

We enjoyed a long lunch with our friends. The mules drew a crowd along with folks wanting photos. The mules took it all in stride. Here's Georgia and Hooligan.

Now if you've been looking closely at the photos of Barking's mule, Amos, and Jerry's mule, Hooligan, you ought to notice a family resemblance. Amos and Hooligan are half brothers, both sired by the famous stud from the University of California, Davis - Action Jackson. Their dad passed away early this year. Mules are fine examples that it is okay to be half ass.

The mules headed back to camp from Sentinel Dome. The Lady and I hiked down to Glacier Point for ice cream. The shop at the point carries all kinds of gourmet ice cream bars.

It is quite a drop from Sentinel Dome down to Glacier Point.

From Glacier Point we looked out at some of the most celebrated landscape on earth.

The ice cream - Haagen Dazs - was great but we really did come down to Glacier Point for the views.

In all the years we've lived in California, this was my first visit to Glacier Point during the summer. We've skied out the snow covered road in winter and a few years back we skied out and winter camped at Glacier Point.

The views are much different in the quiet of winter.

We had a few miles of up and back over Sentinel Dome on the hike back to our truck. We arrived back at camp just after our friends on mules.

We all we having a grand time. The equestrian camp was across the creek and separated enough from the main campground, that it was a quiet and delightful place to camp. But, I should add that mules, after a long day's ride and with saddles and britchens and bridles off, love to roll in the dirt. Cover your dinner plates.

Our destinations for our third and final day of hiking were Dewey and Crocker Points.

The Lady and I, again, got an earlier start than the mules. We all started the hike from our camp. The trail passes through McGurk Meadow where we searched out the last wildflowers before the coming fall.

In the timber just beyond McGurk Meadow we came upon a mother bear with cub on the trail. They displayed no aggressive or defensive behavior and quietly moved into the shadows. The mother bear was very small and the Lady was sure it was a teenage pregnancy.

It was around six miles for us out to Dewey Point. We had it all to ourselves.

The views are wonderful.

The mules were not far behind us.

Jerry appeared to pose for a Frederic Remington bronze statue.

Alone here at Dewey Point, this was an excellent spot for photos.

It was a little over a half mile down (and to the west) to Crocker Point perched above Bridalveil Falls. This was our next stop.

The Lady quickly had her see mores out and watched climbers on El Capitan.

We did not see any climbers in the heart on El Capitan.

The mules arrived and we all gathered for a leisurely lunch on Crocker Point. We again had the point all to ourselves.

We started back to camp for our last night in Yosemite. The Lady and I were soon passed by the mules.

In McGurk Meadow we noticed there were lilies that had not yet bloomed.

At camp each night we enjoyed the company of Connie's dog, Jesse. Jesse is seventeen years old and moves like she is seventeen. But, what a happy dog she is! Jesse was content to spend the days sleeping in the trailer while we were away.

Thank you Jerry & Connie and the Spiders for your kind and generous invitation to join you! And a very special thanks to Amos, Georgia, Hooligan, and Ellie for allowing us to dance with them.


All of our mule buddies do an incredible amount of volunteer work maintaining trails and hauling in supplies and gear into the backcountry. They are a priceless resource. Since her retirement, the Lady has helped on several projects. They have even gotten the Lady up in the saddle. These are great people.

We said our goodbyes Thursday morning. The mules returned home through the Mother Lode. The Lady and I had a couple more days of our Big Summer Adventure ahead of us. We headed east on highway 120 and over Tioga Pass after a stop at Tenaya Lake.

What would be our last stop on this wonderful adventure? Please click here for the final chapter -
Hoover Wilderness - August 2019

Great Basin National Park - August 2019

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Part Five of Our Big Summer Adventure

Big Balls

We worked our way quickly west because we had an invitation to meet friends in Yosemite National Park for a different kind of adventure. A pleasant stop on the way was Great Basin National Park. It would provide another high point of our trip.

We arrived at Baker Creek Campground and set up in our favorite campsite. We were happy to find it available. The next morning we began our hike at the Baker Lake trailhead.

Our destination was seldom visible as we hiked, but in this photo the summit of Pyramid Peak is seen peaking out in the upper left.

We always enjoy the dense groves of aspen along Baker Creek.

The trailhead sign mentions the Dieshman Cabin as a point of interest on the trail 4.7 miles up from the trailhead. On our several hikes up this trail we had never seen any sign of the cabin nor any marker or sign pointing it out. Even a search of the Park's website provided no information about the cabin or its history. It was a puzzle and we are known to take the bait in wanting to solve these kinds of puzzles.

The USGS 1990 7.5' Wheeler Peak, NV quad has a tiny black square indicating a small building in the area. I took the coordinates of this black square and entered them into a handheld GPS unit as a waypoint. The Lady took the unit and headed for the exact location of the cabin as shown on the topo map. The Lady is in the photo below standing in the midst of avalanche debris at the location of the Dieshman Cabin.

She is impossible to see, just like the Dieschman Cabin.

I found this in the 2006 issue of the Bristlecone, the Park's annual newspaper available to visitors in an article titled "Impacts From Winter 2004-2005."

"Another avalanche coming off Pyramid Peak to the north, crushed the Dieschmann cabin. Stumps near the cabin are visible, but the cabin itself has been completely swept away. Constructed around 1930 by Peter Dieshman, the cabin was a standing log structure on a simple stone foundation with a sod roof. The cabin was likely used as a base camp by Peter Dieshman, an early twentieth century mining prospector of the area. The logs were chinked with wood shavings and sod. The doors and window frames consisted of hand crafted boards. The cabin was located about 1 ¼ miles below Baker Lake. This avalanche also covered a part of the Baker Lake trail making hiking difficult."

We spent about an hour searching for the cabin site. It was a great deal of work climbing over all the down trees. I found it interesting the cabin stood at this location for 75 years before being destroyed by an avalanche.

We continued up to Baker Lake. This area was still covered with snow on our last hike up here on July 4th.

We turned south and began the climb up the high basin below Pyramid Peak.

Here is a view north from the basin.

We then started up to the saddle in the ridge west of Pyramid Peak's summit.

It was a climb straight up to the summit from the saddle.

Here is our summit photo at 11,926.

And a few photos of the view from the top.

Notice the classic glacier carved cirque that holds Baker Lake.

The view down the Baker Creek drainage, our route up.

A 360° video from the summit of Pyramid Peak. Please excuse the wind noise.

.

The summit was 8.5 miles from our campsite with a 4200 feet elevation gain. This was a 17 mile day.

We dropped back down to the saddle and looked back at Pyramid.

And the view of Wheeler Peak to the north.

The route from Baker Lake to the saddle and then down to Johnson Lake is unmaintained and marked occasionally with cairns. The climb up to Pyramid's summit is off trail.

We descended by dropping back into the basin.

The scattered bunches of alpine columbines were wonderful to come upon.

The Lady heard a rock fall to her right. I watched as she stopped and unclipped her see mores. She studied the slope then looked at me and did a happy dance.

She called up to me, "White butts and big balls! Their color blends so well. I see white butts and big balls."

It was eight bighorn sheep rams.

They slowly climbed as we watched.

Large testicles and scrotum is a noticeable feature on bighorn rams. Why? With a bit of research I found the Sperm Competition Theory. In species where females may breed with several males, producing larger quanities of sperm - big balls - gives an advantage. It is a desired feature in breeding rams of domestic sheep.

We took a break in the basin below the rams and then returned to Baker Lake.

I asked the Lady how she liked her brand new boots.

"I love them!" she answered, "They may be the best and most comfortable boots I've used."

It was still a long ways back down to our campsite.

We aired out our well used boots back at camp as we showered and enjoyed our dinner. It had been a great hike.

We woke early the next morning and drove across Nevada to our next destination and adventure - Yosemite National Park.

Please go here for the next chapter in our Big Summer Adventure -

Yosemite! - August 2019