Tenaya Canyon Happy Fun Time

So we drove up through California- avoiding Las Vegas. And got into the Owen's Valley Friday night and to Erik Schat's Bakery Saturday morning for breakfast and Energy Loaf, Almond Pound Cake and their super tasty 19 1/2 grain bread... okady- so I don't remember how many grains are in it, but there's a lot and they include whole lentils...

it's some serious, chunky, delicious bread.

So we sat out at their tables and ate breakfast about 10 minutes after they opened. On the edge of the main street through Bishop.



Then we drove the rest of the way to Tioga Pass and the Tuolumne Meadows side of Yosemite- which we had previously not been able to visit. We did a short hike Saturday afternoon before grabbing a camp site for the night.

Below is Tuolumne River- which we hiked down to and then followed back up for some time on the granite "slickrock" that channeled a long series of cascades.



After watching our neighbors teach their seven year old son how to throw knives (at a tree in the campground) we went to bed early for the Tenaya Canyon Happy Fun Time that was suppose to start bright and early the next morning.


We followed Tenaya Creek which, similar to Tuolumne River, has smooth Granite banks up in the meadow lands. We followed a feint trail through thick groves of trees, some grassy swamp lands, and along the exposed rock when possible. D decided to "Be the Rock" with a particularly round boulder which stranded itself along a stretch of granite bank.




Eventually we were forced to start moving Down. With the first major constriction of rock around the creek we headed to the left, climbed up into a talus slope and started the first of a lot of boulder hopping- or boulder slopping... as it isn't so much svelte stag leaps from boulder to boulder but some sloppy attempts at balancing and moving forward and down.



We were eventually treated to this view of Half Dome. See all those green trees down there... that's where we were going. From the point where this picture was taken we hiked along to the left for a bit and then descended (not roped yet) down a bit to the left of the center of this photo... don't worry it doesn't look quite so steep once you keep going... not quite.

The descent involved a fair bit of bushwhacking and careful treading down exposed slabs but we eventually got to the bottom (some 1500 vertical feet later) to continue hiking the stream bed till we reached another long drop and the first of three forced rappels (some people do more rappels, but we managed to down climb quite a few drops).

This is D setting up the first rap into a tighter slot (formed by that darker rock layer).



We knew we were right behind another group as we'd heard them celebrating when they'd managed to get down that long, steep descent. We caught up with them in the slot section and discovered a group of five twenty-somethings, several of whom worked as Naturalists in Yosemite. We reached the last rappel a bit ahead of the group of five, and discovered a couple from Colorado (who were spending three days backpacking through the canyon) sitting around a large and quite deep pool- that the last rappel went into. After we got across we sat around- watched the other group rappel down- and took pictures as everyone tried different methods of jumping in- most from a large boulder directly to the left of the picture below. The gentleman from Colorado however- swam back over to where we had just rappelled down, climbed up a bit and dove in from there-


he did manage to rotate fully forward and didn't belly-flop as it looks like he's about to in the picture.

My legs had taken a real beating doing all that rock-hopping and then the thousand plus feet of constant descending. (I mean- we went down This...


The rocks in the center of the picture make up the creek bed... we're going down the stuff in the bottom half of the photo- the top half of the picture is the opposing wall of the canyon... and there's D a bit ahead of me...)


I could tell I was going a bit slower through the bottom canyon- but after the extended rest we took around the pool I thought everything was fine when I stood up to continue the last section of creek walking before we reached the last two miles of flat and wide established Trail, around Mirror lake- which brought us into the Valley.

But it quickly hit me, and hard.

You ask- What hit you???

My own stupidity- pretty much.

I had eaten some of that delicious Almond Pound Cake for breakfast... and about half a granola bar. All day. Now I regularly go through canyons eating a lot less then I should... and drinking a lot less water too... I just don't need as much as D does. However- we had been in the sun, hiking an incredibly strenuous canyon for over seven hours.

I told D I needed to sit down again... he didn't understand. We had a few more miles of canyon- then two- some miles of flat trail- and then Dinner at the Pizza Place!!! Why on earth was I moving so slow??? So I meekly mentioned my food consumption- at which point he sat me down and started going through my pack, tossing over all the food he could find and demanding I eat something- NOW!!!

Well that pretty much lead to my vomiting along the trail. Which made me feel wonderful again. Wonderful meaning I could stand and slowly proceed. D helped as much as he could- took my pack- acted as my crutch during the steep downhill sections as that's when my legs most wanted to give out and drop me in the dirt.

Eventually I felt worse again- vomited again- felt a bit better and we trudged into Yosemite Valley at 1/3 to 1/4 out usual hiking pace. We checked into our tent cabin and D brought me Sprite and Saltines (I may or may not have thrown up twice more before the night was over) and I laid very still in bed for many hours before going to sleep.


The next morning D started up the trail we were suppose to hike together to return to our car- and I bought a one way ticket on a tour bus/hiker's shuttle to drive me out of the Valley, along the Tioga Road- back to Tuolumne Meadows and our car. The shuttle driver was quite informative and it was actually a pretty enjoyable ride as I chatted with a couple Park Employees who were hitching a ride on the start of several days off, and a small backpacking party who had missed their shuttle the day before.

I eventually got off a few stops before the trailhead where our car was parked and hiked the last couple miles to get a bit of exercise (though D had given me the larger and much heavier pack with the ropes and stuff that he wouldn't need on his hike that day- so it was a bit of a push... those two miles... bit pathetic).


Anyway... that was Yosemite.