Troop 88 Completes Fifty Mile Trek in Yosemite Wilderness
June 28 to July 3, 2003

By Tom York.
Photos by Chad Hamilton

Yosemite Valley, California – I think I can readily report on behalf of the group that we all had a great, great time--six days and five nights of rugged backpacking in Yosemite's backcountry.  And I do mean rugged. It was the toughest trip I have ever done, and one of the longest.

Richard Pon says we climbed more than 21,000 feet during the trip (a tally of the ups--but not the downs), which included an ascent of Half Dome on the next to the last day on the trail.  That scary ascent involved a five-mile return trip to the summit from the spot where we dropped out packs on the trail close to Little Yosemite Valley.

Approaching the top, we had to climb 300 yards of sweaty steel cabling and fragile wooden steps to reach the sloping "roof" of Half Dome, which towers 4000 feet above the floor of Yosemite Valley.  It was pretty frightening for those of us who made it, and almost as frightening on the way down, too.

By overcoming our fear of heights, however, we were rewarded with panoramic views of the towering mountain ranges within the park, as well as sweeping views west down the center of Yosemite Valley toward El Portal. The experience was just spectacular!

The longest day turned out to be the second--close to 12 hours of hiking from the buggy/watery Pate Valley within the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne to the granite top of Waterwheel Falls. The last mile, a steep ascent from the Return Creek bridge to the falls, was a killer, especially for Chad and myself, who had fallen behind the rest of the group that day. We earned our rest that night!

What was thrilling for me as I fell asleep was the background roar of the water rushing down the falls, and the spectacular view of the night sky--no moon to spoil the view of so many stars, and the nebulous white band of the Milky Way moving across the sky.

I think Chad and Richard, as well as the boys, would say the second half, from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley along the famed John Muir Trail was the most "pleasant" part of the trip--that being mostly a downhill trek from 8500 feet to 4200 feet. The downward exception was the climb through Cathedral Pass, which topped out at more than 10,000 feet, on our way to the Sunrise High Sierra Camp.  Lots of meadows, forests, and at least one terrific view of the southern Sierra, including the Clark Range.

We saw a few black bears our last night near Little Yosemite, including a mother and her two cubs looking for food in all the wrong places. One of the cubs had a really light coat, a very light beige tinged with dark brown. Very cute. Lots of mosquitoes, too. Not so cute! We all learned the value of DEET (which can melt plastic, but not your skin), and it's ability to repel mosquitoes.

The six boys (Patrick W., Gus H., Logan P., David P., Nick O. and Tommy Y.) did great, and easily set the pace for the group. They handled themselves superbly in terms of working in teams, and overcoming the challenges of the trail. The younger boys all cooked on alcohol stoves that they made themselves, which added a bit of self-reliance to their trip.

All in all (with side trips) I think we were closer to the 60 mile than 50 mile mark, some even a achieved a bit more mileage when they add the two miles they had to walk to retrieve our stockpile of food at the Sunrise trailhead in Tuolumne Meadows and carry it back to the backpackers campground where we stayed that night.

It was a trip to remember, that's for sure.