Liberty Cap in Yosemite
Hello Everyone! I hope all of my American readers had a fabulous 4th of July. I spent mine in Yosemite National Park, which is a beautiful tribute to so much of what’s right with this country. Ken Burns was definitely onto something when he called our national parks “America’s greatest idea”. This country has had its ups and downs and the pendulum continues to swing, but I’m sure you know by now how passionate I am about our national parks and public lands in general. While there were definitely no fireworks allowed anywhere in the vicinity of Yosemite do to extreme drought and fire hazards, I was happy to spend some of the day in the shadow of the mountain known as Liberty Cap – it seemed quite fitting.
Since I am back to work and will be incredibly busy these next few months, these updates are going to come sporadically throughout the summer and early fall. During the last few years, I’ve tried to get them out pretty religiously on Wednesdays with an excellent success rate, but when I’m working it’s a different story. I’m slowly starting to shake the rust off from three years without guiding a tour and I’ve definitely been enjoying being back on the road and being back on payroll. It’s always good to see my accounts rolling up instead of down. I’ve also loved being back in front of a group, sharing my passion for nature and history and sharing travel stories and laughs over dinner and drinks. I have strangely been asked on two of my first four trips to give a brief overview of the American Civil War. Neither was brief, but I like to think they have a significantly better idea of what the war was about.
I’ve been really hoping to have one trip go off without a hitch as most of my trips did for many years before the pandemic. I’ve always been good at covering my bases so that even when things go wrong, most of my passengers will never know the difference. That’s been hard so far this season, and this current trip was no different. I only had four passengers scheduled on this current trip to Yosemite, but only two showed up on our first night together. Thankfully the other two at least left word as to where they were and by the evening of the second day I had all my ducklings gathered ‘round me. This was another 5 day hiking tour to Yosemite and the weather really couldn’t have been better. It was in the mid-60s to low-70s all week and not a cloud in the sky – perfect Yosemite hiking weather. The snow-melt-fed waterfalls are still going strong and the wildflowers are in full bloom. Once I had all of my passengers with me, I could tell we were in for a wonderful week.
And a wonderful week it was. On Sunday we went for lunch at the Iron Door Saloon, the oldest saloon in California dating back to 1852. Then we went out and hiked to see the giant sequoias, the largest living things on earth. Spending time among the sequoias is always humbling and awe-inspiring. When Jesus walked the earth, some of these trees were already a thousand years old.
Monday found us on the Mist Trail, hiking up 1600’ past the beautiful Vernal and Nevada Falls. This is a heavily traveled route and because of that is one I haven’t hiked in many years. I prefer to spend my time in Yosemite in quieter corners of the park. It has been nice to revisit this hike this season as it was the very first hike I ever did in Yosemite, 22 years ago when I was on my training trip to become a guide. One of my passengers on my last trip, who is from New York, told me it was the hardest hike he had ever done. One of my passengers on this trip, who is from Boston, told me it was the most amazing hike she had ever done. Both of those statements rang true to me and brought me back a long ways to when 24 year-old me was on his very first trip in California. Sometimes it’s good to remember your roots.
On Tuesday we headed into the Yosemite high-country to explore the Cathedral Lakes area of the park. This is a much less-visited section of the park and it is a magnificent hike into the mountains. While the hike only ascends about 600’, the trailhead is at 9600’, making the elevation a factor. It was a cool and sunny day, though, and the hike was nothing short of spectacular. Between the hike and the 2+ hour drive from our hotel in each direction, it took us 12 hours door-to-door, but it was worth every second of it.
Wednesday we had some free time in the Valley, which I used to write my reports, work on my accounts and get some laundry done. In the afternoon we went for an amazing guided nature walk with Marty from the Yosemite Conservancy whose parents met at the Ahwanee Hotel when they were living and working in Yosemite. He has lived there for a big chunk of his life and was very passionate about the park and the region and had some great stories to tell.
On Thursday we headed out to hike Wapama Falls out at Hetch Hetchy. Hetch Hetchy was once another Yosemite Valley tucked into a different part of the Sierra Nevada about 15 miles away. Sadly for us a dam was built there in the early 20th century to provide water and power to the growing city of San Francisco. While it is still a beautiful place to visit it will always be a shame to me that such a magnificent valley is under dozens of feet of water. It’s a nice hike to a pretty spectacular waterfall though and with that under our belts we headed back to San Francisco.
I went into the office on Friday to get what I needed for my next trip but left in the early afternoon. My next trip doesn’t leave until tomorrow, so I had some time off this weekend which was nice. I still had work to do, but I managed to get out and enjoy the city a little bit. I’ve found myself an accidental San Francisco resident this summer and I want to make the most of it while I’m here. On Friday night I headed out to Chinatown and North Beach for dinner and drinks which was nice. I ended up at Pagan Idol which is one of my favorite tiki bars in the city. Then on Saturday I caught the bus down to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood which is somewhere I used to spend a lot of time. It was nice to see some of my old haunts and I did see that the restaurant I took my very first tour group to will be closing next week for good. Then I spent the rest of the day wandering back to my hotel. I stopped and bought a book in the Castro and then headed over to the Mission where I stopped in at some of the oldest bars in the city. Shotwell’s was definitely my favorite and it was a perfect late afternoon bar. I will definitely be revisiting it in the future. Then in the evening I went to a place called Butter which had some great music and some friendly people. It was a nice place to end the day.
Today has been pretty quiet. I slept in and then grabbed some breakfast and settled in to get a couple of hours of work done. Tomorrow afternoon I will meet my next group and we will go for a hike at Land’s End and dinner in Chinatown. Then we’re off on a whirlwind tour of Yosemite, Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe and we’ll end up back here in San Francisco on Friday. Then I’ll be headed to the Desert Southwest for a nice long camping trip which I am truly looking forward to. That’s much more the style of tour I’m used to and it should be a great trip.
It’s been a busy week, but a good one and I’m enjoying being out and guiding again. Here’s to hoping this tour runs smoothly and nothing goes terribly wrong. I hope you’re all having a great summer out there and that you’re getting out and doing some traveling of your own. I do hope to get some time to write this post next week, but we’ll see how the week goes. Take care and thanks for reading.
-Mike
Stunning Upper Cathedral Lake