Yosemite/Ansel Adams Wilderness Backpacking Trip
August 9 - 18, 2015

Bob and Reenie: 9 Nights, 9 Days, 30 Miles Backpacking, 14 Miles Day Hiking - Favorite Photos

See Favorite Photos, Day by Day Narrative and Photos, Equipment Comments, Route and Elevation Profile


Garnet Lake reflecting Banner Peak



Reenie and Bob reach Donahue Pass, elevation 11,060 feet, on the border between Yosemite National Park and Ansel Adams Wilderness in California. The highest elevation of this trip.


As we approach Donahue Pass from below, we pass a small, pretty, alpine lake

Video suggestion: All videos shown below are very short and HD (1080p). I find best YouTube settings (for all but the few with Bob, Reenie, or animals) are HD (1080p), slow motion (0.25 or 0.50), and full screen.

Highlights/Memorable Events

Day 1, Sunday, August 9

Hiked from Happy Isles to top of Nevada Falls on the Mist Trail, then back to Happy Isles along the John Muir Trail: 7-8 miles, along with much shorter walks to bases of Bridal Veil and Lower Yosemite Falls.

At 5:30 AM we began driving out of Oakmont. It was tough. First, Bob drove right past the turn onto Pythian Road. Then, after getting back on Pythian, a jack rabbit signaled to a deer in a coordinated effort to prevent our continuing. Our trip had already been delayed now by seconds, if not a whole minute or two. It was in fact a fun start to an awesome trip.

We followed Rte 12 through Fairfield to Stockton and on to Rte 99 and 4. At this point we gave the job of routing to a GPS, which got quite confused at a detour and decided we should take an ambling route away from rte 4 and over to Oakdale, giving us a chance to see Central Valley orchards and farms. Although we were not really hungry yet, Bob has a Subway-sandwich-in-Oakdale ritual, so we stopped and bought 1 sandwich (a 6" Veggie Delight with no cheese or sauce, all vegetables except jalapeno). This would be shared with Reenie at the top of Nevada Falls. We turned off the GPS and drove through the Sierra foothills with all the ranches and meadows, then up into the mountains to the entrance of Yosemite. There we stopped and picked up our Wilderness Permit.

The weather was perfect as it would be the entire, spectacular trip. We could not have asked for anything better.

We drove into Yosemite Valley and briefly stopped to walk to the base of Bridal Veil Fall, which was quite low in water flow because of the California drought. At one point we stopped because we saw this tree with such an interesting shape.



Shortly before noon we stopped in Curry Village to get our reserved tent cabin. The receptionist said reservations were not confirmed until 5 PM, but that if we came back between noon and 5, maybe something could be done. So we parked the car, whiled away a few minutes preparing for our day pack up to Nevada Fall, and returned to the office. Although we could not get the specific tent assigned, we were given a confirmed reservation for one of 5 tents. They were in an upscale location, facing away from all other tents toward Glacier Point. Our luck was continuing.

We got the daypack, locked the car, caught the free shuttle to Happy Isles, and began the hike up the Mist Trail.


Reenie and Bob at the bridge at the base of Vernal Fall

As we head up Vernal Fall, we see crowds of people enjoying the hike, as were we.

See these two short videos of Vernal Fall, the second one showing both the waterfall and surroundings, including fellow tourists:
Vernal Fall Video 1: 32 seconds
Vernal Fall Video 2: 49 seconds

As we approached the final stone staircase to the top of Vernal Fall, we had a chance to see a rainbow in the mist:


Bob and Reenie at the top of Vernal Fall

After Vernal Fall, we continued hiking up to Nevada Fall, at one point very happily crossing a bridge as shown here - see video of Reenie dancing: 35 seconds. The following photos, starting with one at the bridge, show us approaching the fall, while this video shows Nevada Falls from the Mist Trail as we approached: 27 seconds :

Here's a short video of Nevada Fall: 28 seconds


Getting close, but not quite there

At the top we sat and ate lunch, sharing the Subway sandwich we had bought so many hours ago and put into our daypacks, along with the usual nuts and dried fruit. And you could not beat the ambiance! The outdoor seating was almost unbelievable.

We were amazed to see people who had climbed over protective railings, ignoring the warning signs pointing out people die doing that. The two photos show such people, and this video - 29 seconds - shows them standing right down next to where the fall goes over.

We then decided to return via the John Muir trail rather than the Mist Trail by which we had come up. The views of the fall from the John Muir Trail were in many ways better than the close up views from the Mist Trail, as shown in this video taken from the Muir Trail: 41 seconds.

Here are two videos of Nevada Fall, taken about 15 minutes apart as we hiked down the John Muir Trail:
Video 1 of Nevada Fall: 20 seconds
Video 2 of Nevada Fall: 29 seconds

We finished the day by visiting the Village Store, taking a shuttle and walking the short distance to the base of Lower Yosemite Fall, then finally returning to our Curry Village Tent cabin, which was now a specific tent in our name, where we stored our backpacks in the bear locker. Ready for tomorrow and our first day of backpacking.

Day 2, Monday, August 10

Backpacked 6 Miles to campsite along Tuolumne River/Meadows.

We woke up and went to breakfast at the Curry Village restaurant. It no longer had "all you can eat" servings, but, in fact, for a reasonable price they gave as much as one could eat.

Upon discovering golden raisins were an unlimited add-on, Bob ordered a bowl of oatmeal, and then piled many, many raisins on top. Reenie ordered scrambled eggs, with ham, with hashbrowns, with toast, with.. At the end of the meal, Bob ate all he had (this was a pattern throughout the trip), while Reenie ate but half of the serving (another pattern).

Reenie was not about to throw away perfectly good (?) food, so she made a sandwich of all the left overs. Bob, ever the professional food critic with years of experience, kindly offered his assessment: "Yuck."

Reenie wrapped the "sandwich" in napkins and, in fact, did eat it many, many hours later in camp that evening. Bob was much impressed.

We then retrieved our backpacks from the bear resistant box and loaded the car. In doing so, Bob managed to photograph other users of the parking lot, as shown below.

As we drove out of Yosemite Valley, we stopped one last time to get views of the magnificent rock formations that attract millions of visitors each year. And, we got to see a coyote by the side of the road.

The drive from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows took about one and a half hours. The scenery was spectacular. However, there had been at least one fire nearby and at one point the air was bad enough to make us cough, although it did not look smokey. Towards the end, there are nice views of Tenaya Lake.

When we got to the Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Center we saw a long line of backpackers waiting to get permits. We stopped in, showed our own Wilderness Permit [Reenie had obtained the permit months earlier when Bob had been on a trip to Ecuador], and left the car to begin our first day of backpacking.

We had a pleasant day of hiking along the John Muir Trail (JMT), with very little elevation gain. Soon after we started we crossed the Tuolumne River on a wooden bridge. The trail was well kept and often gave us views of meadow and river with mountains in the background. So pretty. Here is a brief video: 25 seconds. As with every day, we met lots of other backpackers on the JMT, many of them from other countries. A surprising number were either just completing or just starting the full JMT hike between Mt. Whitney and Yosemite Valley.

At the end of the day we set up our tents for the first time, being sure to put up the rain flies just in case. Here is a brief video: 46 seconds. In fact, there was never a drop of rain during the entire trip and about half way through we decided to quit putting them up. We ate dinner and sat outside for a while to watch the Milky Way Galaxy, the stars, and even saw two shooting stars. It was a moonless night and absolutely beautiful.

Day 3, Tuesday, August 11

Backpacked 5.6 Miles to lake below Donahue Pass.

The day began with the peaks in the background being lit by the sun and a breakfast with some tasty dried mangos provided by our good friend Adele.

We then continued backpacking up Lyell Canyon, passing more beautiful meadows and streams and forests. Here is a brief video of the stream pictured below.: 9 seconds and here are two brief videos of the surrounding meadows and mountains:
video 1: 10 seconds; video 2: 59 seconds.

Leaving the meadows for the forest.

The trail starts to get steeper as we begin to climb toward our destination lake below Donahue Pass. As we get higher, pretty flowers are by the side of the trail.

We reach our lake destination, a bit tired after the climb, and set up camp for the night. This is probably the breeziest campsite we encounter on our trip. Another backpacker who had originally set up her tent near the lake, moved it quite a bit back to get some protection from nearby rocks.

Day 4, Wednesday, August 12

Backpacked about 2.7 miles to below eastern side of Donahue Pass, 0.9 miles before Marie Lake Trailhead.

This was the day we went up and over Donahue Pass, camping on the Eastern Side. We took our photo at the lake at which we had camped the night before (and here is a short video of the surroundings: 50 seconds) and, after crossing a rocky path to get past the flow of water exiting lake, another photo showing the lake's sparkle. This short video shows Reenie crossing the rocky path: 2 minutes. Bob had just crossed the same path using a hiking pole borrowed from Reenie.

The trail after the lake immediately began climbing quickly, causing us to look for good resting rocks, but also giving us nice views of where we had just been. Click on a photo to get the full resolution version.

We came to the final two lakes just before Donahue Pass and crossed the rocks at their outflow with little problem. Here is a video of Reenie crossing the outflow: 40 seconds. One reason we had little problem was a very helpful and nice backpacker, Chris, shown below, who gave suggestions at the first crossing, then waited at the second crossing to offer more helpful advice. Chris also took the photo of the two of us at the second lake. Thank you, Chris!

After this we reached a point where we could sit down and look at the lake below. Bob thought he saw a guy and two donkeys far below. Reenie commented that Bob was "hallucinating". After a while, Bob realized he was looking at rocks and rock shadows. As above, clicking on any of the first 3 photos will give a high resolution version.

We continue up the final approach to Donahue Pass, as shown in this video. Looking up, we see two guys, still seemingly way ahead, but in fact the steep hike cuts the distance quickly. The first photo below in fact shows the two guys to scale, the second zooms in. While hiking, we meet Peyton, a New Yorker who is beginning his 20 day trip on the John Muir Trail to Mt. Whitney. He is one of several people we meet who are either just starting that hike, or started at Whitney and are now completing the journey.

Just before we get to the pass, we take look back down at the two small lakes/ponds directly below, with the trail leading up from them, and in the second photo, in the far distance, the meadows at which we had so recently been can be seen. Near here, we also get our photos taken, again with the meadows far below and in the long distance.

We get to the pass and take each other's photo, which can be seen near the top of this page. We also use Bob's phone to text to family that all is well. Bob's is a TracFone and works well. Reenie has a phone with service provided by Virgin Mobile, and it fails to get a signal, as it did also in Yosemite Valley. After that we snacked and headed down the eastern slope of Donahue, now in Ansel Adams Wilderness. Heading down is a lot easier! We had been thinking about doing some cross-country to Marie Lakes, but between being tired and Bob having not brought the detailed topo map, we were both happy to stick to the John Muir Trail.

Reenie named the terrain we were in "Valley of Rocks" and the gloriously jagged peaks, the "Grand Tetons".

We found a campsite near a stream down in the meadows below the pass and ate a nice dinner prepared by Reenie which included dehydrated tomatoes provided by friend Sophie and dehydrated spinach which Reenie had prepared. (Note the nice spout on the yellow cooking pot. Later you will see the spout no longer exists, thanks to the rodents who apparently found it too interesting to leave alone.)We then got a good night's rest.

Day 5, Thursday, August 13

Backpacked 5.5 Miles to campsite on Thousand Island Lake.

Bob and Reenie finish packing their backpacks in preparation for the day's hike to Thousand Island Lake, which turned out to be more difficult than expected.

The scenery continues to be beautiful as we walk through a forest and over a stream.

This tree with the odd growth in the trunk and this distinctive rock both caught our attention.

The trail was very pretty as it paralleled a stream going through the woods as shown in this video: 28 seconds. Here is a video of Reenie adroitly crossing that stream at one point: 21 seconds. And here is Reenie later crossing the stream again: 18 seconds, this time on a couple of logs which had been placed as a bridge.

We thanked these folks from the California Conservation Corps profusely for the work they do. We have wonderful hikes in the Sierras and elsewhere because of what they do to maintain the trails. We are so lucky there are people like these.

We talk with a guy who had a stuffed "guardian" and whose cousin, hiking with him, was quite sick. They were cutting the hike short in order to get medical attention. Reenie and Bob both hoped he did not have either of the two diseases prevalent among the smaller animals in the park - the plague and the hantavirus. They thought the cousin simply had a bad cold.

Both Bob and Reenie took frequent stops both up to Island Pass and then going down as we approached 1000 Island Lake. The picture on the right shows 1000 Island Lake in the background.

A nice view of 1000 Island Lake as we approached coming down from Island Pass. These two videos capture the approach to 1000 Island Lake:
Video 1: 35 seconds; Video 2: 32 seconds

Bob tries posing twice as he, David and Chris had done during their "Morgan Moment" on an earlier backpacking trip when they were near this point, but did not get it quite right.

When we arrive at 1000 Island Lake, it is sparkling as the sun is low to the horizon and the breezes are keeping the water ruffled. Banner Peak dominates the background.

We choose a very pleasant campsite about 1/4 to a 1/2 mile up the lake shore, both tired (but Bob has the camera), rest for a bit, set up the tents and Reenie prepares another dinner for us. The extraordinary kitchen help staff (which would be Bob), was invaluable in lighting the stove, finding cooking utensils, keeping the scattered-headed cook focused, and most impressively immediately cleaning the many dishes & utensils used in the creation of our various feasts. As can be seen below, the kitchen help staff might have done a somewhat better job in cleaning the spout of the cooking pot, although rodents apparently were quite happy.

It would turn out to be a windy night with no rain, but the rain flies were noisy in the wind, waking each of us up off and on.

Near the campsite were some pretty flowers.

Day 6, Friday, August 14

Day-hiked 4 miles along Thousand Island Lake.

This was a relaxing, beautiful day with perfect weather that we spent hiking without backpacks around Thousand Island Lake.

Some of the cloud formations we saw this day were just as pretty as could be. The formal name for some of them is "lenticular", as Bob and Reenie discussed. In the first photo, it appears that a contrail is casting a shadow down on the cloud below.

It was an exhilirating experience hiking down to the Banner Peak end of Thousand Island Lake which we both thoroughly enjoyed. We met a guy who said he and his wife, apparently on the spur of the moment, had climbed up the backside of Banner Peak and stood on the top-most point visible in the left side of the peak in this photograph.

Though the path was mostly level, there were a few ups and downs to navigate. Here is a brief video of the surroundings: 42 seconds and a video of Reenie coming down those stairs: 25 seconds. Next to the lake in a meadow we saw a Yoga Class taking place with several people, perhaps 10 or so, in the class. We thought that was very cool. We also saw two guys swimming in the lake.

In the afternoon after the hike was done, Reenie decided to rinse off her legs. She got a lot wetter than intended when her sandals slipped on the lake floor rocks and she went down. Alternative reality: "I sat down. It just seemed efficient." This photo was taken soon thereafter. And this is a video, shortly thereafter: 12 seconds. Bob, being Bob, really wished he had the video going just a minute earlier. ;-)

Bob took over the preparation of dinner that night. Triscuits topped with smoked salmon and thin slices of gouda cheese. Presentation is everything for gourmet meals.

Day 7, Saturday, August 15

Backpacked 3.2 miles to Garnett Lake.

This was a short hike from Thousand Island over to Garnet Lake. We kept the hike short because, on the downhill in particular, Bob began to feel a little pain in his left knee, while Reenie felt some in her back. However, all went well, but both decided a relatively restful day was in order. The knee and back pains went away.


By the morning, the breezes had quit, leaving a placid lake and a beautiful view of Banner Peak. We also got to see a lone duck swimming and eating on the quiet lake, as shown in this video: 1 minute, 35 seconds. By the way, the insects flying around were not mosquitos and did not bother us. On the entire trip, mosquitos only bit twice - sadly for Reenie both on her.

Although flowers were not plentiful, the ones that appeared were both pretty and very determined, as shown below.


Eating our breakfast became very amusing. We got our food together on one side of the camp, then went over to the other side to sit on a rock and enjoy the scenery. Turns out, it is a mistake to leave the bear canister and other food out. It was amazing how quickly the rodents realized a possible feast might be at hand. Chipmunks and gophers showed up almost immediately. The following videos capture some of the fun. The third video is quite long, about 6 minutes, but at the end a chipmunk comes up to Bob's hand to retrieve a cashew being offered.
Video 1 - First discovery of free food: 1 minute, 12 seconds
Video 2 - Attempts to get into a closed package foiled by Reenie: 27 seconds
Video 3 - More investigation, followed by chipmunk next to Bob: 6 minutes, 26 seconds

A final view of Thousand Island Lake before we began the hike to Garnet Lake. To start that hike we crossed a log bridge at the Thousand Island Lake outlet, as Reenie is shown doing here in this video: 26 seconds.

As we followed the trail to Garnet Lake, we passed a couple of smaller lakes on the way. Here is a video of one of those lakes: 19 seconds.

We both found the tree shown in the next image captured our attention.

We arrive at Garnet Lake. On one end of the lake is Banner Peak, on the other is the bridge across the lake outlet, that lets one continue along the John Muir Trail.

Bob poses on a rock and a little while later, as the sun descends, a rainbow forms. Bob did not make a single comment about how rainbows follow him in his ever so lucky life. We set up the tents for the first time without rain flies and our luck held. As with all the rest of the trip, there was no rain.

As evening approaches, Reenie once again prepares our meal, this time an Indian dish with added re-hydrated tomatoes and zuchini. Quite good. (If you look very carefully at the left bottom photo, you can see that the yellow cooking pot is now perfectly circular at top with no spout jutting out. This is the pot off of which the rodents chewed the spout in the morning or overnight.) Then we have our one campfire of the trip. Note that Bob insisted he could start the fire without the use of any paper, while Reenie softly dropped paper trash scraps nearby, just in case. Eventually Bob relented and used the paper scraps. [ Stupid kindling. ;-) ]

Day 8, Sunday, August 16

Backpacked 2.4 miles to junction before Shadow Lake, hiked 2 miles along creekside.

We had intended to hike down to Shadow Lake, but found out from folks we passed that there was no camping there. So we decided to camp at the junction which leads down to Shadow Lake and up to Ediza Lake, where there were lots of campsites. It was a good decision, as we found the next day hiking out to Agnew Meadows. There really were no good camping places after the junction.

The only issue was that with so many nearby campsites, Bob in the morning had to go some distance down the trail to "use the shovel."

The day started early with a calm Garnet Lake and beautiful, beautiful skies. Here are 3 videos taken that morning video 1: 34 seconds; video 2: 48 seconds; video 3: 1 minute, 34 seconds.

Ready to leave Garnet Lake:

Leaving Garnet Lake turned out to involve climbing up a ridge for a while, which gave us a nice look back at the lake. We particularly liked the form of an old tree that stood beside the path.

Two shadows followed us as we approached the top of the ridge.

Although leaving Garnet Lake was an uphill climb, once past the ridge we were pleased to see the canyon far below us, down which we would be hiking.

The eastern side of the Sierras was warmer and drier than the western side had been. Still, flowers, mushrooms, and berries held on.

As always, we met lots of people on the trail. This turned out to be particularly lucky because one woman told us there was no camping at Shadow Lake, which had been our destination. Another guy gave us the good news that there was a shuttle out of Agnew Meadows that ran about every hour and would take us to Mammoth Lakes. Here is a video taken along the trail to the junction: 35 seconds. We arrived early at the junction to Shadow Lake and were able to find a nice campsite where we could put one tent just above a small waterfall and one tent under some pine trees. We decided not to use rain flies, so we had beautiful views of the galaxy and stars that night.

The Shadow Lake junction trail marker had a waterproof sign attached which was quite sad. A young man, Matthew Greene, had disappeared two years ago and his parents were still searching for some evidence of this whereabouts. Here is the relevant Facebook Page. At Garnet Lake we had found an odd pile of clothes and even a package of food near our campsite, held down by a branch. No one claimed it in the day we were there, and it almost certainly had nothing to do with Matthew Greene, but nevertheless we passed a photo of it back to the parents.

After setting up camp, since it was still quite early, we hiked without packs up the trail in the direction of Ediza Lake. After going for a bit, we found a nice place to sit on rocks and put our feet and legs in the stream and rinse off. Reenie would later take a more thorough rinsing near the waterfall and complete the task just before other backpackers came down where she was doing so. Here is a video of the waterfall and stream next to the campsite along with a view of the surrounding peaks: 1 minute, 38 seconds.

At one point, we looked up and saw a large bird soaring above our heads, wheeling through the sky above the trees, going in circles.

When we got back to camp, many others had set up campsites at the junction. Reenie made a curry dish including noodles, re-hydrated vegetables, peanuts, and raisins. Yum! That night, perfect weather continued, the stars shown, and the falls sounded in the background.

Day 9, Monday, August 17

Backpacked 4.7 miles to bus stop just beyond Agnew Meadows and caught buses/trolley to Motel 6 in Mammoth Lakes

We had an early morning breakfast as the sun rose and lit the nearby peaks. Weather continued to be perfect.

This was our last day of backpacking and we started down the trail. As we hiked, we had the stream to one side and passed many waterfalls on our way to Shadow Lake, our first destination. Here is a video of such a waterfall and the stream: 11 seconds.

The final approach to Shadow Lake was very pretty and included a large, solid oak tree that called out to Reenie.

At Shadow Lake, the trail paralleled the shoreline, under a forest canopy that made for a very cool and pleasant hike. The morning sun made for a beautiful, sparkling lake surface.

Before we left the lake, we ran into a couple who were visiting from Slovenia, which for those of you who did not know its location as Bob did not, it is bordered by Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia. They kindly took our picture with Shadow Lake behind us as shown below. A bit later Bob said something which put Reenie into laugh mode, also shown. Here is a video of Shadow Lake and nearby peaks: 14 seconds and here is another such video of Shadow Lake: 35 seconds.

After Shadow Lake, the steep descent down the canyon continued, with the stream and its waterfalls nearby. We noted that as we first came to Shadow Lake there were in fact no signs forbidding camping in the area and, in fact, it looked like a couple of campsites were occupied. However, as we exited Shadow Lake, there was a very clear sign forbidding any camping at all. Given our wonderful campsite at the trail junction above Shadow Lake, clearly we had made the right decision to stop when we did.

We then had a surprise. Four groups of horses and mules were packing up supplies for artists who were camping up the trail at Ediza Lake. Supplies included, among other things, wine and food. There were a LOT of supplies. Here are videos, the second of which gives a nice view of how steep the switchbacks had been that we just came down, because you can see the pack animals going up them. Video 1 of pack animals: 43 seconds. Video 2 of pack animals: 2 minutes, 37 seconds.

As we descended lower, we came into a creek area that nurtured aspen trees. We first noticed them when we saw the very distinct fluttering of the leaves in the breeze that aspens do. We were surpised at how large an aspen tree there was right next to the creek, which is shown on the right below.

After passing the Aspens, just before doing a final short climb up to Agnew Meadows, we saw a guy jogging down the trail towards us, with a full backpack. He stopped and talked, saying he was a doctor who, with his family including 2 children, was living in Yosemite Valley, where he had been for the last 5 years. He told us about the terrible deaths of two children who were visitng the Valley with their parents and who had just recently died when a tree fell on them. When we got back the story was in the newspapers. He also mentioned that about 15% of rodents carried the plague and/or hanta virus in Yosemite and that Tuolumne Meadows campground was shut down because of this. After stopping to talk, the doctor continued jogging to try to catch up with the rest of his group.

We hiked through some trees - see Reenie demonstrate how fast she can go as the end approaches: 24 seconds ;-) - We continued up the hill to Agnew Meadows. It was hot and dry on the trail, too warm to be really comfortable. We got to Agnew Meadows, but realized we would now have to walk up the gravel road a bit to the main road to catch the shuttle. Our timing was perfect. A shuttle came by within a couple of minutes. It was going in the wrong direction, but the driver called ahead and confirmed that the shuttle already on the way back would have room. A few minutes later that shuttle arrived. It was packed, but a Spanish speaking gentleman gave Reenie his seat. For only $7.00 each, we got a long ride to a Mammoth Lakes shopping center. As we got off, Reenie, who is fluent in Spanish, got into a conversation with the gentleman and found out he was from Juarez, the town right across the Mexican border from El Paso, where Reenie was born and spent much of her life.

We then picked up a shuttle - that also arrived almost instantly and was free - that took us to another stop where we got on a free trolley that dropped us off near a Motel 6, where we stayed for the night, and where we took long hot showers before going out to eat.

Had dinner at Slocums Grill and Bar: Reenie ordered "Bistro Chicken Dijon", Bob "Fresh Canadian Salmon" and all was shared. It was great.

Our motel was also only a block or so away from the YARTS bus stop. The bus stop was in front of another motel where we asked the receptionist exactly where the bus would stop in the morning. The receptionist was quite definite that the bus stop was about 1/2 block away. We found the next morning that the receptionist had been quite definitely wrong, but we had no problem getting to the bus where it actually stopped.

Day 10, Tuesday, August 18

Caught YARTS bus to Tuolumne Meadows and then a shuttle to the Wilderness Center, where we picked up Bob's car - immediately adding more than a quart of oil. We then drove home to Oakmont. As we drove from the Wilderness Center through Yosemite, we took a few more photos shown below emphasizing once again what a spectacular landscape Yosemite has to display. It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful, wonderful trip.

And, of course, we stopped in Oakdale for two Subway sandwiches, which we actually ate there, rather than in the car as we drove. "We" in this case meaning Reenie, who once she had the wheel of the stick shift, 1989 vintage Camry, was having way too much fun to have it taken away. Never let it be said Bob is not flexible, whether it be dining or driving.

Equipment Comments

Route Map and Elevation Profile

The map below shows the route we followed as we backpacked from Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park to Agnew Meadows near Mammoth Lakes. The backpacking route is in red, the day hikes are shown in yellow dotted lines. Click on the map to get a higher resolution version.

The elevation profile below the map shows in feet the elevations of the backpacking route (it does not show day hike elevations). The distances shown on the profile seriously underestimates the actual trail distances. The profile does give a good idea of the climbing involved, however. Click on either image to get a higher resolution version. Also, here is the map from which the profile was derived.

Photos and narrative were contributed by both of us: Reenie and Bob
Here are all of the backpacking trips Reenie and Bob have taken

Other Websites
By Bob:

Bob Phillips [phillips bob 27 at yahoo dot com - no spaces]
Santa Rosa, CA
August, 2015