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July 22-23

Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:41 pm
by AlmostThere
Going to Vermillion to catch the water taxi, then hike up Mono Creek if anyone wants to join me - I have a permit for 2. Last minute cancellation leaves me on a solo trip unless someone wants to come.

My plan is to get off the ferry and hike the trail until 4 pm, set up camp, hike a little more and return to camp before sunset, then get up in the morning and hike back down to catch the ferry. I'll be taking pictures of trail issues, mainly logs down across it, and setting a waypoint to make a full trail conditions report to the trail crew.

Not intending to kill myself trying to do the whole trail. This is a time limited, not mileage limited, trip. The weather looks great for the weekend and the smoke has been trending northward rather than south and east from the fire near Mariposa.

Re: July 22-23

Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 10:37 am
by Carne_DelMuerto
Can't join you, but I will be curious as to a conditions report. Hopefully the smoke won't be bad. Safe travels!

Re: July 22-23

Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 11:05 am
by AlmostThere
Vermillion is posting pics of clear air so far. I called and asked. Believe me, not wanting to cough up a lung on the trail!

Re: July 22-23

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 2:25 pm
by SSSdave
Last year on our 9-day Silver Divide trip, the first day from Edison was rather smoky from a fire that had just started south of Bathtub Lake. Two of us only made it up to about 9.4k as the smoke made the strenuous effort too painful in our lungs to push. Was a good reminder of how much I dislike hiking in any smoke and how if it is beyond a modest threshold, makes effort impractical. Smelled some smoke all night till just before dawn. At sunrise I awoke with a plan to bail if the sky didn't change, so we waited there till mid morning and indeed smoke significantly decreased as the rest of our week long trip went well, making it to the north end of Bighorn at 10.9k by early pm.

Looking forward to your report AT as by next weekend am expecting to snag a permit for Mono>Laurel>Grinnell after I get back from my Desolation trip I'll be on tomorrow.

David

Re: July 22-23

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 2:49 pm
by AlmostThere
No report yet. I got behind the biggest RV that I have ever seen on kaiser pass and missed the ferry. With zero chance of doing the full trail after hiking nearly five miles around the lake, I bailed and rescheduled.

I have to say that tourist+rental RV+kaiser pass road is the slowest @#$%! misery you can have in a car, particularly when the dude treats the thing like it's made of spun glass and the slightest bump has to be taken at -.006 mph. He passed some nice turnouts and pullouts without stopping too. Who knew they bothered to be out that early in the day? Even though I have a small car, it's still a Mazda and incapable of jeeping around the idiot - if you've never been on that road you are rolling your eyes, if you have -- you know exactly what happened. I needed wings. Finally getting around him didn't help a lick, you just can't make up time on a road like that.

Re: July 22-23

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 2:59 pm
by Carne_DelMuerto
I know exactly how you feel. Sorry you missed out.

Re: July 22-23

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 5:37 pm
by AlmostThere
Needless to say, the complacency of being a couple of hours from Edison ends - I should have been out the door an hour earlier.

We're saying this a lot -- I think the uptick of tourism in the mountains is not just in Yosemite. The line at the Big Stump entrance at SEKI the other day was atrocious as well, almost Yosemite bad....

Re: July 22-23

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 5:54 pm
by maverick
The line at the Big Stump entrance at SEKI the other day was atrocious as well, almost Yosemite bad....
That could also be due too the fire in Mariposa and smoke in the Valley, even though the smoke is better today.