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| Yosemite 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| In August 1999 I took a solo Photo/backpacking trip to the Hoover Wilderness and Yosemite NP. � I revisited a section of trail which I'd hiked in 1981, accessed from Twin Lakes just west of Bridgeport CA, a 5.5 hour drive from Las Vegas. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I calculated my pack weight after my trip. � Fifty-five pounds of food, camping gear and camera gear. � The camera gear included a large format 4x5 view camera, lenses, film, filmholders, meters, tripod (fifteen pounds for that stuff) and a 35mm snapshooter's camera. � I should have carried even more film and food and stayed out longer. � I thought about leaving the big camera home and taking just 35mm the next time, just for taking wildflower photos. �Not. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I arrived at the trailhead (7100 ft elevation) at 1600 on a Friday. � I took some Diamox and decadron for altitude illness (learn more about it by clicking here or here) and took off promptly for Barney Lake (8300 ft) arriving by ~1830 and setting up camp.� I crossed streams and rivulets all throughout the trip. � Wildflowers screamed "hey, dude!" to me all the way. � Mosquitoes punctuated the atmosphere regularly but thinly, thanks to a snowfall the previous night--cold kills. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday, the trail took me up past a gorgeous little lake with clear blue water instead of the dark green lakes that abound in the high country, then to Mule Pass (10,400') and down to Slide Canyon (9,600). �Above, a photo of me at Mule Pass, the Sawtooth Ridge behind me on my left. �Taken with a Yashica T4 Super, tripod, Kodak Tmax400 CN, tweaked in a photo editor. � I headed up Slide Canyon to Burro Pass. On the way, I encountered a 3 foot high rock in the middle of a small stream. I decided that I'd hop up onto the rock and move on--a bad decision as I had somehow forgotten about the 55 lb pack. � A moment later the right side of my face made contact with the slippery rock dressing the streambottom. Soaked to the skin, I thought immediately of getting up to keep the camera in my pack from getting wet as well as to keep from drowning. � Very little got wet. � My pager/watch drowned. � � I camped soon to prevent hypothermia from setting in. � I got warm and saw that the sun would set behind a bank of clouds so I didn't set up my camera with a view toward shooting the sawtooth ridge above me. � Well, for just 20 seconds, the sun's last red rays shone through the clouds and hit the ridge--you had to be there to feel what I felt. Click �here to see what I saw! I took some Ibuprofen (another great drug) and slept the sleep of babies on a bed of soft high mountain meadow grass. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The next day I broke camp, hiked to Burro Pass (10,700') and looked into Matterhorn Canyon, turned around and hiked down Slide Canyon 400 ft to a gorgeous shelf with three tiny lakes (tarns) where I had camped before in 1981. This time I set up the camera to shoot the Sawtooth Ridge and waited for the light. See the last photo. It rocks. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday took me back to Mule Pass down to Crown lake (9,600') and up to Snow Lake (10,200') where at 5 p.m. a tremendous hailstorm with thunder/lightning landed for an hour with strikes within a thousand feet.� Having a metal camera worries me at times. � Clear skies followed immediately with an opportunity for sunset photographs.� Another storm, not quite so close, passed during the night and the morning sun came out sharp and crisp. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday I walked six miles to the car. Small snowballs fell as I walked. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I drove to Bodie, CA , now an interesting ghost town at 8400 ft.� Miners dug out more than $100 million worth of gold in the 19th century.� I shot my last sheet of film there (B/W of the Methodist Church) and had no film for the return trip when I saw some outstanding light and landscape near Sagehen Summit (CA St Rt 120) east of Mono Lake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| �1999 Jeffrey Wong | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
