August 5-“Stop, the trail is closed”

Miles Hiked: 4.9 Total: 4.9
Elevation Gain: 2928 ft

John and Christi at the start of the JMT 2011

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...” ~John Muir

OUR NATIONAL PARKS - pub. 1901

[John]
We maneuvered through the CROWDS, including bike riding tourists listening to loud urban rap music amidst the scenery, and made it to the Yosemite Valley wilderness permit office around 1 PM. All the rangers were really helpful and we ended up getting a permit to start from the Happy Isles trailhead that afternoon, rather than the next day. Unfortunately, we still had to spend the first night in the Illilouette, requiring us to go a few miles off trail, but, heck, we got to start a half-day earlier than planned! We grabbed a deli sandwich, a couple cookies and Gatorades, and hopped on the shuttle to take us to the trailhead.

Looking back at Yosemite Falls from the trail

We hit the trail around 2:15 PM. The weather was absolutely gorgeous (as it remained for the balance of our 17 day hike)-- deep blue Sierra skies with temperatures in the 80’s.The Disneyland crowd atmosphere (Yosemite has over 6 million visitors a year) prevailed until we got beyond the cut off to Vernal Falls.

Coincidentally, the park service had just found the bodies of the three tourists who were swept over Vernal Falls on July 20^th, closing the trail to the falls temporarily while they ferried them out by helicopter, so we had to endure the descending tourists yelling at us “Don’t go any further, the trail is closed!” as we ascended the JMT which, of course, was not closed. Did they really think we’d be doing a day hike to Vernal Falls with those heavy packs on our backs?

Liberty Cap and Nevada Falls

We were both hot, sweaty and slow as we climbed up trail this first afternoon. Regardless, I was really excited -- we had finally actually started this long-anticipated journey and, oh, those increasingly stunning views each step we took. I remember remarking at some point that I felt like I could hike forever in conditions like that!

We had dinner on the river above Nevada Falls before proceeding a little more than a mile back to the south, off the Panorama Trail, where we dry camped the first night on a ridge across from Liberty Cap. It was warm so we slept without the rain fly, and could see the zillions of stars rotate across the sky from dark to dawn. It was beautiful, the air was fresh and clean and we could hear Nevada Falls roaring in the distance. We awoke the next morning to the sun lighting up the south face of Liberty Cap. It seemed like the mid-afternoon start in the sweltering heat was worth it!


[Christi]

What a day!  We finally made it and have started this long-awaited adventure. Whew! New to backbacking, I'm still getting used to the 25-30 pounds on my back but it's not so bad really. It was good to get up and away from the crowds of people below.  The stars were amazing and the cool fresh, clean mountain air soothed our aching bodies as we drifted in and out of sleep.