North Dome

[Dave Miller]

I will be doing a short 2-day trip this weekend from Porcupine Creek to North Dome (via Indian Rock) and back up via Lehamite Creek, making a loop hike out of it. We are planning on staying at North Dome.

I have a couple of questions. First, is there any flowing water between Indian Rock and North Dome? Looks like I will have to fill up the hydration bladders at Lehamite Creek before before we take the junction towards North Dome. I am assuming there is water in Lehamite Creek. Is that a safe assumption?

Second, are the mosquitoes still pretty hungry up that way? In my experience they start to ease up this time of year, but it seems like this has been a bad year.

Last, other than the normal chance of thunderstorms, are the mornings fairly dew free?

I've been wanting to do this trip for a while and appreciate your thoughts or comments!

[jpcal]

There is no water source between North Dome and Indian Rock. It is mostly out in the open with little to no tree cover. The closest water that I remember seeing was back towards the TH where there were at least two creeks that still had water(as of 8/4/09)

Mosquitoes were not that bad when I went up, however it was also a little windy so once the winds had picked up we never saw bugs again.

Be prepared for anything, I was up there and it started to hail/snow at 930 am in TM on 8/6/09. I would think the weather up there would be not to bad in the morning because on North Dome it is mostly in the sun.

I did the day hike for Porcupine Creek to North Dome with a stop at Indian Rock. Great views of the valley, good scenery along the way, especially the huge red fir trees.

[Dave Miller]

Thanks jpcal for the report. I figured I'd have to pack in water, you've confirmed it. I had heard about the weather last Thursday. That must have been quite an experience.

I'm hoping for some starry skies from North Dome. Should be a fun time!

[ryanmj]

I hiked north dome a few days ago and didn't see any mosquitoes, the creeks still had water but their with in about the 1st mile of the hike. Save plenty of water for the way back thats the majority of the up hill. It was pretty cold the day i hiked it as well but i have family camping in the valley still that said it was 96 today. have fun.

[jpcal]

Yeah I have a 3 liter bladder for my Camel Back and when I got to North Dome I checked it out and only went through less than a half liter. Once we got to the TH it was all gone by the end of the day.

[tyee55]

This may not be useful at this point but other may want to know.

We hiked Pocupine trail down the Lehamite drainage August 25.
We found water in Lehamite creek about 1 mile down between Junction with North Dome and the trail that goes to Yosemite Point. We also found a great place to camp on the East side of the trail in the same area near the creek. Look for some large boulders about 300 feet East of the trail. You can hear the creek from the trail.

We used this as a base camp for North Dome and Yosemite Point.


We saw no blood sucker.

Saw deer, mother bear and cub.

We saw a sign saying ignore the smoke because they were just doing a controlled burn near Yosemite Point. Needless to say we end up coming out in the Big Meadows fire later. What a surprise.

Tyee

[Dave Miller]

tyee,
I know the area you are talking about. We passed that area on the way out.

Our trip was perfect! We packed in enough water to take care of our needs the first day and setup camp on the ridge above North Dome. We then hiked down to North Dome and checked out the face to face view of Half Dome. We went down to Lehamite Creek the next day to fill up on water and hiked back out that way.

I did a write up of this trip on my blog: http://www.baoutdoors.com/2009/08/yosem ... -loop.html

You can see photos from the trip at: http://davemiller.smugmug.com/Landscape ... 1610_FgaeC

Enjoy!