We left Santa Cruz on the morning of Friday July 10th at around 7:30 AM, hoping to make it to the Bell Meadow trailhead, right behind Dodge Ridge ski resort, by noon-ish. I was expecting we'd hit some commute traffic going over Highway 17 into Los Gatos, but inexplicably there was nobody on the road -- I mean, it looked like HW17 looks at 4:30 in the morning. No complaints! We made it to the Pinecrest Ranger Station around noon and got our wilderness permit; I was pleased to see that, like the Groveland Ranger Station, Pinecrest has a drop-box for after-hours wilderness permit pickups, so I gave them a $10 donation. I hate dealing with ranger districts that require you to show up at the station in-person between 8 AM and 4 PM to get a wilderness permit -- like I'm really going to take an extra day off of work just so I can get a wilderness permit during their open hours!
From the ranger station, we drove up and around Dodge Ridge to the dirt road that ends at Bell Meadow, where the trailhead begins. We hiked up and over a ridge, and descended down into Pine Valley, and finally came to pretty Grouse Lake, stocked with ducks, lily pads, and dragonflies.
When we got to the east end of Pine Valley, it was all uphill, and it was a slog. We made it to the top, and then crossed over to the Crabtree Trail, and continued eastward and further up a saddle. We were really tired, so we planned to camp at the unnamed lake just south of Crabtree Trail at the high point of the saddle, expecting commanding views of West Fork Cherry Creek. There view there was quite good, and there was good camping -- but I couldn't help but notice a superior camping spot on granite about a half mile down, along the drainage of Piute Lake. It was a risk: We were hoping to take a dip and rinse off a bit before we set up camp, but the sun was getting ready to set, and the mosquitoes had been very bad all day (though not quite as bad as my Dinkey Lakes trip a few weeks earlier). If we didn't act fast, we would be bathing in the dark, and precisely when the mosquitoes would be at their worst. We hustled down to the Piute Lake drainage, and I had the foresight to set up the tent to provide us shelter for when our Deet had rinsed off; I'm getting really good at setting up my tent in about 45 seconds amidst clouds of mosquitoes. We quickly bathed and the mosquitoes began to swarm, but we dove into the tent and relaxed until well after the sun had set. When we emerged at around 9:30 PM, there was a nice breeze and barely any mosquitoes, so we set up a fire and made dinner, cracked open some wine, and enjoyed views of the stars and milky way, before the moon rose and its light obscured things. After hiking 8.84 miles with 1790' elevation gain, we both slept as soundly as either of us could remember.
When we got up the next morning, we were greeted by swarms of mosquitoes outside out tent. Spending every waking moment dodging mosquitoes doesn't make for fun camping, so we made the call to pack out and try again a little later in the season, when the bugs weren't so bad: Mosquito season in the Sierras typically runs from May and tapers off near the middle or end of July, but it is particularly bad this year. Our hike out was mostly all downhill, and we made it back to the car at around 3:30 PM.
Since we had both taken the following Monday off, and it was only Saturday afternoon, we weren't about to drive back home! I had always wanted to drive Highway 108 over Sonora Pass and drop down east of the Sierras, and this was a perfect opportunity. We decided to drive to Lee Vining and try to find lodging, so we started through Strawberry and up Sonora Pass, marveling at The Dardanelles. When we dropped down into the Mono Lake basin, Lee Vining was booked up with a softball tournament, so we headed further south to June Lake, and found a quiet cabin tucked away just past the ski lifts for June Mountain.
On Sunday morning, we cooked some of our camping breakfast (basically oatmeal and coffee) in our cabin, and then drove back to Lee Vining. Our plan was to take Tioga Pass (Highway 120) all the way west through Yosemite, and stop for a dayhike and lunch along the way. Many people will tell you that the taking the eastern portion of 120 as it climbs up out of the Mono Lake Basin and into Yosemite National Park has to be one of the most scenic drives of all time; however, I think the drive over HW108 was slightly more amazing. Nonetheless, I felt lucky to drive them both back-on-back! We stopped and day-hiked up to Lukens Lake in Yosemite, and had a very nice, mosquito-free lunch. Since it was only about two miles, we brought some beers we had in a cooler, quite the treat! I couldn't resist going for a swim in Lukens Lake.
It was Sunday afternoon, and we still had one more day, so we decided to drive out of Yosemite and then through Angels Camp and stay at Murphys, to do some Ca
laveras County wine tasting on Monday morning, before we headed back home. Murphys is a really cool small town that has lots of restaurants, shops, and more wine tasting rooms than you can shake a stick at. It has a fun downtown area where everybody hangs out, and we discovered a park that has a mellow river running through it, with little kids (and some bigger kids) playing in the water. It reminded me of a scaled-down version of the huge park that winds through downtown Ashland, Oregon.
We tasted wine at a few wineries -- Milliare, Black Sheep, Hatcher. There were many more, but we needed to head out of town before the afternoon, so we cut it short and promised to come back to Murphys a little later in the season (perhaps when it wasn't quite so warm!).
So our backpacking trip turned into more of a choose-your-own-adventure trip, despite our only having our bare essential backpacking supplies, one change of clothes each that we had packed in the truck, and a cooler. I guess during summer, that's all you really need for a good time!
From the ranger station, we drove up and around Dodge Ridge to the dirt road that ends at Bell Meadow, where the trailhead begins. We hiked up and over a ridge, and descended down into Pine Valley, and finally came to pretty Grouse Lake, stocked with ducks, lily pads, and dragonflies.
When we got to the east end of Pine Valley, it was all uphill, and it was a slog. We made it to the top, and then crossed over to the Crabtree Trail, and continued eastward and further up a saddle. We were really tired, so we planned to camp at the unnamed lake just south of Crabtree Trail at the high point of the saddle, expecting commanding views of West Fork Cherry Creek. There view there was quite good, and there was good camping -- but I couldn't help but notice a superior camping spot on granite about a half mile down, along the drainage of Piute Lake. It was a risk: We were hoping to take a dip and rinse off a bit before we set up camp, but the sun was getting ready to set, and the mosquitoes had been very bad all day (though not quite as bad as my Dinkey Lakes trip a few weeks earlier). If we didn't act fast, we would be bathing in the dark, and precisely when the mosquitoes would be at their worst. We hustled down to the Piute Lake drainage, and I had the foresight to set up the tent to provide us shelter for when our Deet had rinsed off; I'm getting really good at setting up my tent in about 45 seconds amidst clouds of mosquitoes. We quickly bathed and the mosquitoes began to swarm, but we dove into the tent and relaxed until well after the sun had set. When we emerged at around 9:30 PM, there was a nice breeze and barely any mosquitoes, so we set up a fire and made dinner, cracked open some wine, and enjoyed views of the stars and milky way, before the moon rose and its light obscured things. After hiking 8.84 miles with 1790' elevation gain, we both slept as soundly as either of us could remember.When we got up the next morning, we were greeted by swarms of mosquitoes outside out tent. Spending every waking moment dodging mosquitoes doesn't make for fun camping, so we made the call to pack out and try again a little later in the season, when the bugs weren't so bad: Mosquito season in the Sierras typically runs from May and tapers off near the middle or end of July, but it is particularly bad this year. Our hike out was mostly all downhill, and we made it back to the car at around 3:30 PM.
Since we had both taken the following Monday off, and it was only Saturday afternoon, we weren't about to drive back home! I had always wanted to drive Highway 108 over Sonora Pass and drop down east of the Sierras, and this was a perfect opportunity. We decided to drive to Lee Vining and try to find lodging, so we started through Strawberry and up Sonora Pass, marveling at The Dardanelles. When we dropped down into the Mono Lake basin, Lee Vining was booked up with a softball tournament, so we headed further south to June Lake, and found a quiet cabin tucked away just past the ski lifts for June Mountain.
On Sunday morning, we cooked some of our camping breakfast (basically oatmeal and coffee) in our cabin, and then drove back to Lee Vining. Our plan was to take Tioga Pass (Highway 120) all the way west through Yosemite, and stop for a dayhike and lunch along the way. Many people will tell you that the taking the eastern portion of 120 as it climbs up out of the Mono Lake Basin and into Yosemite National Park has to be one of the most scenic drives of all time; however, I think the drive over HW108 was slightly more amazing. Nonetheless, I felt lucky to drive them both back-on-back! We stopped and day-hiked up to Lukens Lake in Yosemite, and had a very nice, mosquito-free lunch. Since it was only about two miles, we brought some beers we had in a cooler, quite the treat! I couldn't resist going for a swim in Lukens Lake.
It was Sunday afternoon, and we still had one more day, so we decided to drive out of Yosemite and then through Angels Camp and stay at Murphys, to do some Ca
laveras County wine tasting on Monday morning, before we headed back home. Murphys is a really cool small town that has lots of restaurants, shops, and more wine tasting rooms than you can shake a stick at. It has a fun downtown area where everybody hangs out, and we discovered a park that has a mellow river running through it, with little kids (and some bigger kids) playing in the water. It reminded me of a scaled-down version of the huge park that winds through downtown Ashland, Oregon.We tasted wine at a few wineries -- Milliare, Black Sheep, Hatcher. There were many more, but we needed to head out of town before the afternoon, so we cut it short and promised to come back to Murphys a little later in the season (perhaps when it wasn't quite so warm!).
So our backpacking trip turned into more of a choose-your-own-adventure trip, despite our only having our bare essential backpacking supplies, one change of clothes each that we had packed in the truck, and a cooler. I guess during summer, that's all you really need for a good time!
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