Advice for first 2-3 night backpack with wife

[guyd]

Hi,

I'm planning our first visit to Yosemite end of June/early July and trying to include my first backpack experience with my wife (and our three teens, 14-15-17). As others, I want to make the backpack memorable, so future one would be possible...

Background: I'm 54 with some intermittent knee problems; she is 47. We often do day-hike in mountains, 5-6 miles, 2000-2500' elevation being our typical max. (The boys are always ready for more, and usually do more). Our toughest was Mt Washington (N.H.): 11 miles 4500 feet, WAY too much.


What would be your suggestion for the backpack with great views? The boys would like it tough and wild but not so my wife! Trails/camp where they could do more would be a plus.

One scenario (not sure if feasible permit-wise):

Day 1: bus to Tenaya lake-Sunrise lake-camp near Clouds Rest (where??).
Day 2: Clouds Rest, camp near HD (Where? LYV? or along Sunrise Creek?)
Day 3: leave camping gear at campground and do HD, and out to the valley - or camp same location as day 2 to add a day 4.

On day1 I'm wondering where to camp and if it is possible to leave backpacks there on Day 2 to go to CR and come back to get them, or if it would be silly.

I've read posts making HD not such a great idea after having seen CR, but it may be a good goal for the boys...?

Any comment on the above and/or other suggestions of circuit?

Side questions:
-would mosquitoes (end of June) in lake and/or creek areas be enough to destroy the experience?
-what type of night temperature should we expect?

THANKS IN ADVANCE

[balzaccom]

WElcome!

This is a very nice first trip---and I think it will meet all your goals. The routes up Cloud's Rest and HD will be adventuresome enough for your kids...and if your wife doesn't want to climb HD (Mine sure doesn't) she can still enjoy the rest of the trip.

Yes, mostquitoes will be fierce. Try to locate your campsite in open air, away from lakes, meadows or deep forests, and they will not be so bad.

IF this is your first backpacking trip, you might actually find it somewhat reassuring to camp near Sunset HSC---if you have any serious problems, there will be people there who have seen it all and can offer advice.

LYV is quite crowded, but the same holds true there. And you can always just hike a ways beyond the rest of the people to find less crowded campsites.

With your route, I would actually take the packs up Cloud's Rest...because your route will then take you over the top and down the other side.

Hope that helps?

[QITNL]

That's a great trip. Balzaccom gives good advice. To which I'll add:

Unfortunately, the permits may be the crux. You're looking at walk-ups so you might want to consider a few more options, you'll have to wing it.

You may want to consider a night at the Tuolumne Meadows backpacker's camp. There's a chance someone in your party could use a night to acclimatize before you hit the trail with heavy packs. That will also give you another shot at permits at the ranger station there, and there's some nice stuff to see in the area, some very worthy day-trips.

If you are headed up from Tenaya Lake, the safest and nicest spot to stay the first night could be at one of the Sunrise Lakes. There might be (should be) water up the trail closer to Clouds Rest, tune in later for current reports. The Sunrise HSC would be a little out of the way, but would be a good option if you headed up via Cathedral Lakes.

For your second night, go for Sunrise Creek, there are many nice sites near the trail junction. There's no reason to head down to LYV and back up again.

From there, you could hike up Half Dome then down to the Valley in a day, but that's a long day and you might be kinda rushing past some of the best stuff. I'd probably bring an extra night's food, book an additional day on the permit, leave camp set up and then see how you feel at that point.

That also gives you a little flexibility with weather. You may have to take some afternoon thunderstorms into account.

Hope that helps. Have a great trip.

[guyd]

«If you are headed up from Tenaya Lake, the safest and nicest spot to stay the first night could be at one of the Sunrise Lakes. »

Would you recommended to reach the first, second or third lake?
Unless we started mid-day wouldn't that be too short a hike from Tenaya Lake...?
How 'less nice' would the other possible spots closer to CR?

«there's some nice stuff to see in the area, some very worthy day-trips.»
Could you give some examples?

Will we get a wilderness feeling (if we forget HD and the valley on this instance), or is that Tenaya Lake-CR area too popular also?

I have topo maps and I have two questions regarding trail names: leaving Tenaya Lake I understand it is Sunrise Lakes Trail, with after a few miles a junction left toward lakes and right toward CR. Does that branch right bear 'CR Trail' name? Further south before CR there is another junction left going south toward JMT; does that branch have a name?

Wy wife is worried having to go out of the tent at night to pee, not knowing if there will be a bear in the dark. Is she freaking for nothing?

If I encounter permit issues, do you have another circuit to propose, with high point to reach, but that might also include the possible avantage of lower (altitude) camping spots, (so less cold at night (??) and less altitude concern during the sleep)?

THANKS!

[Hitech]

I have topo maps and I have two questions regarding trail names: leaving Tenaya Lake I understand it is Sunrise Lakes Trail

Yes, that is my understanding. BTW, there are few (or no) reserve-able permits left. This is a very popular trail. You would have to get the first come first served ones. I think there are 8 of those per day for that trail.

Wy wife is worried having to go out of the tent at night to pee, not knowing if there will be a bear in the dark. Is she freaking for nothing?

Yup, she is worring for nothing. Bears are only interested in your food. If they can't get at it then they are not interested in you at all.

If I encounter permit issues, do you have another circuit to propose, with high point to reach, but that might also include the possible advantage of lower (altitude) camping spots, (so less cold at night (??) and less altitude concern during the sleep)?
THANKS!

What my wife and I did was:

Day 1 - Glacier Point to Illilouette (very easy)
Day 2 - Illilouette to LYV (took us the longest)
Day 3 - Half dome and back to LYV (spend hours on top of HD)
Day 4 - LYV down the mist trail to the valley and home

[guyd]

What my wife and I did was:
Day 1 - Glacier Point to Illilouette (very easy)
Day 2 - Illilouette to LYV (took us the longest)
Day 3 - Half dome and back to LYV (spend hours on top of HD)

I Understand you got a Glacier Point to Illilouette permit. I'm trying to figure out at what distance south from the junction Panorama trail/Illilouette trail is the first autorized campsite along Illilouette Creek?

Would someone also know the distance between that campsite and LYV on Day 2?

[AlmostThere]

A few things to note:

"You must camp at least four trail miles from Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point, Hetch Hetchy, and Wawona, and at least one air mile from any road. Camping is prohibited in the Dana Fork of the Tuolumne River."

Look at a map showing the trails around Glacier Point - you should be able to make out how far from the trailhead your first camp should be. If you have questions about your map reading skills, have the ranger mark it for you when you pick up your permit.

Camping low does not mean you will be warm. Sometimes it means you will be colder. Cold sinks into river bottoms and being near water will be colder than being farther away.... My night hiking has made this point to me several times. We did Half Dome at night - around 2 am at Nevada Falls we were putting on down jackets to hike in, and took them off on the way up the hill out of Little Yosemite Valley. All the cold sinks.

However, for where you are going, not a lot of choices, especially if you end up in Little Yosemite where you must be within the campsites designated. Take at least 20F rated bags. I take 20F rated gear all summer to elevation and never regret it. It's always easier to unzip and shove part of it off you than to get warm in an inadequate bag.

The distance between your 1st night up the trail from Glacier Point and LYV is going to be 5-7 miles, depending on the trail options you choose. You really need to get a map and look at it.

Also, you're making this too hard. Talk to the wilderness permitting ranger on the phone, he'll help you sort this out a lot faster than posting on multiple forums and talking to too many people.

[oakroscoe]

Ok, I am going to give some totally different advice than everyone else here. Have you thought of Kibbie Lake or Eleanor Lake? Its super easy in to both of them so you and your family could go quite heavy and have the modern comforts of home. And there are a few dayhikes off of each of them, so you could leave the heavy packs at camp and wander about with no weight on your shoulders.

If you want your family to love and be into backpacking, sometimes you have to ease them into it step at a time.

[Garyw]

Well guyd, I would recomend May lake, it's a short hike in Yosemite located off of Tioga Rd by Tenya Lake
It's and easy hike for you and your wife, less then two miles I believe. I haven't done the trip in a while but
the kids will like it because, if you climb up the granite behind the lake the views are awsome into
Tuolomne Meadows.
I have pictures of the trip if you would like to see them at my Website http://www.yosemitetrail.net
click the yosemitetrips button at the top of the page and look for May Lake.