Day 1 got us off on the John Muir Trail in good spirits, but tired bodies.

The night before my father and I had flown in from the east coast on a 2 hour delayed flight.  This meant instead of getting in at around 10pm, we got in around midnight.  Add a few additional hours of driving (and a 30 minute accidental detour) and all 3 of us probably only got 3-4 hours of sleep before taking off on the trail.  Good times!

After a few more hours of driving the next morning we made it to Tuolomne Meadows where we obtained our hiking permit had one last pit-stop before hitting the trail.  We started at the Cathedral Lakes trailhead at around 11 or 11:30 am.

It was a bit tough-going at first.  Between sleep deprivation and the elevation difference – plus the fact that we immediately started pushing uphill in heavier-than-usual backpacks – our start was a bit slow.

After making it past that incline, though, things started leveling out and we got a break in the upwards-action.

We hiked on until about 1pm, taking in the new scenery and climate.  Since my father and I live in Georgia we both found the lack of humidity – without exaggeration – to be the best thing in the entire universe (though I suppose I can only speak for myself); it was a foreign but lovely feeling to not be drenched with sweat after 30 minutes of hiking.  Additionally, the temperature difference between sunny and shaded areas were huge!  Unlike the southeast where heavy humidity means slow temperature changes, shade plus dry air means fast temperature changes; it made finding a shady place to rest was definitely worth it whenever we took breaks.

After breaking for stopping we came to our first major location of note, Cathedral Peak and Cathedral Lakes.  I can definitely say it was one of my top favorite views of the entire trip.  And actually, we almost completely missed this view of Cathedral Peak/Lakes.  We had followed the trail going past the Peak and Lakes and were walking away from them when we stopped on the trail to chat with a fellow hiker.  He was facing us, looking toward this view, and pointed behind us telling us to turn around.  This vista was so beautiful it was almost surreal, and it boggled my mind that we had literally walked right past it.  For the rest of the trip all three of us remembered to occasionally turn around on the trail to see if we’d missed anything.

From there we hiked through Cathedral Pass, another astonishingly beautiful view (how can you resist those contrasting blues and greens?), dodging a horse and mule train along our way.  We’d learned from aforementioned hiker that our stopping point, the High Sierra Camp, actually has a diner of sorts that for ~$25 would provide a nice hot meal, and for a few bucks more would include a breakfast as well.  This horse and mule train was the transportation for all the food and, we assumed, trash from the camp.  Of course, we were well aware of their presence before we actually saw them…let’s just say it’s annoying dodging rocks, roots, and road apples.

Following our passage of the caravan and later into the afternoon we came upon Long Meadow.  It was here that we caught our first sight at the little groundhogs that seem to be all over the meadows along the John Muir Trail.  They’re fast little critters and tough to get a picture of (at least, they were for me), but they’re also super cute, and occasionally take up a traditional position on their hind feet, standing up and looking around before dashing off.  It was our first look at “serious” wildlife and while tame, was still neat.

 

You can see that Long Meadow was significantly more studded with trees and rocks than Cathedral Pass, though they were otherwise pretty similar meadow-type locations.

After Long Meadow we started nearing the end of our day’s trek.  When we arrived at Sunrise Meadow, we came across this sign:

All of the signs on the John Muir Trail were made of metal, which I thought made a lot of sense.  They’re harder to vandalize, and they also take a lot longer to fall apart.  I know a lot of the signs we pass on the AT tend to be carved on or just plain run down from time.  These signs appear to stand the test of time much better.

As we walked further into Sunrise Meadow, we were gently reminded not to picket our stock. >.>

The last trudge through Sunrise Meadow to the High Sierra camp was rough; I know that I was really tired and was also suffering from a nasty dehydration/elevation headache.  At times like these it can be tough to make sure you’re still enjoying yourself and watching the scenery; it was good that from here we didn’t have much further to go.  Less than a mile later, we finally made it to camp.

I’m sad I didn’t take more pictures of the Sunrise High Sierra Camp, but here’s its sign and the foot path into it.  After a flight or two of stone steps there was a large wooded area; to the right was the dining tent, and to the left were a series of permanent tents with what appeared to be heat or air, wooden floors, and cots.  We peeked in a few of them as we walked by, and it looked like they could hold anywhere from 3-6 people in each one.  These you can reserve ahead of time if you didn’t feel like packing in a tent.

Past these tents there were two privies, bear boxes, and numerous primitive camping sites for walk-in hikers.  We got in a little late in the evening, so a lot of the nicer sites were already claimed by other backpackers; after a little scouting we finally found one that was “good enough” (we were tired); the only problem was that it was slightly slanted downhill.  No matter!  We pitched our tent, changed into dry clothes (despite the lack of humidity, we were still pretty gross) and started cooking dinner.

Dinner was a fabulous salmon jambalaya that warmed us up in the cool evening and really did hit the spot.  Here you’ll also notice our  warmer clothes – I’m wearing a pullover and (you can barely tell) long johns, and my father’s wearing long johns and a thermal top under his t-shirt.  At this point in the day it was necessary; it was getting really cold!

As it got darker we packed up all our food and other various smell-ables and stowed them in one of the bear boxes around camp.  Since we didn’t have to jam everything into the bear cannister, we were more liberal with our stowing choices, which was nice; we were able to toss any suspect item into a bag and put it in with everything else. Quite convenient!

At around 8pm we finally crawled into our tent and bundled ourselves away from the cold.  We chatted tiredly for awhile, but eventually settled down and started dozing.  That was when the coyotes started howling.

Everybody has at least a vague idea of what howls sound like.  You’ve heard dogs in the neighborhood, or wolves on a TV show, but this was different from anything I’d every heard.  Maybe it was because I was tired and already had bears on the mind, but hearing the coyotes howl down in the meadow was pretty freaky-cool.  It was an incredibly feral sound, and knowing they were just down below us was pretty crazy.  I tucked myself a little further into my sleeping bag, and made myself go to sleep.  Which was luckily not very difficult despite the noise.

And so ended our first day on the trail!  Day 2 coming soon!

See my previous Yosemite post:

• How to Pack for Yosemite