All I wanna do today is wear my favorite shades and stay home. Work a little less, play a little more. That’s what this day is for -Florida Georgia Line
There’s always so much excitement for me on my early season Sierra shakedown trip. This is always a trip to shake the rust off, test out my gear, try a new recipe or two, and gauge my early season fitness. It also rekindles “THAT” feeling you get in the backcountry. My biggest issue with early season trips is the unknown. Because of Rec.gov’s stupid policies regarding securing permits up to 6 months ahead of time, it is impossible to predict trail conditions. For example, four years ago, in late May, I was standing on top of 11,000′ New Army Pass in late May. Last year, I couldn’t even access the east side of the Sierra’s until July and had to give up 2 separate permits, in essence twice throwing away $15. This year was just as unpredictable. In early January, I pulled a permit for Red Cones Trailhead in the Mammoth Lakes basin. My route was pretty straight forward and relatively easy. I planned to leave from Horseshoe Lake and go over Mammoth Pass. I would intersect the JMT and head south towards Deer Creek where I would camp for night #1. I would continue south, and camp at either Purple Lake or Virginia Lake for night #2. I would then backtrack and find a site near Duck Lake or Pika Lake for night #3, setting me up for a relatively straightforward bombfest over Duck Pass and ultimately back to my car. I would be out early, could hit the Whoa Nelli Deli for lunch, and back to the central coast by the evening, with enough time to clean up and get to bed so I could be in San Jose for work by 7:30am Monday morning.
The only problem? We had late spring snow showers and below average spring temperatures slowing the thaw. The snow was not melting like I expected. Complicating matters, was Tioga Pass was delaying their opening. Sure Sonora Pass was open, but that is an arduous route for me. I’d much rather head thru Yosemite. I was checking the satellite imagery on the CalTopo website daily and posting and scanning the online forums. I started to think that I should come up with a plan B just in case. One of my favorite shakedown trips was an overnighter I took to Chilnualna Falls, out of Wawona in Yosemite. I did this as a solo trip in early June last year. The 2023 winter season was one for the record books, and the snow melt and waterfalls were unreal. The other benefit to this hike is it’s a pretty straightforward trail with 5 miles and 2300′ of elevation. You climb pretty much the entire route, so it’s a good barometer of your fitness. It’s also only about 3 1/2 hours from my doorstep. I checked recreation.gov and saw there were still 29 of 32 permits still available (in contrast to Yosemite Valley where there were no permits available for any of the trails). I planned on leaving early Wednesday morning, but as of Tuesday evening, it was still “Destination Unknown.” And then, one last check of Facebook and a JMT hiker posted a picture of Mammoth Pass, stating there was still 5′ of snow. That was it. Mammoth would have to wait. Chilnualna Falls it is.
I headed to Oakhurst. Since I was young, I like to get a hotel the night before my trip, so I can get a good meal, good sleep, and a good breakfast and last cup of coffee before the trip. I pulled into Oakhurst, got out of the air conditioned car and just about collapsed from the blast of heat. It was well over 90 degrees, and it was 4pm! My iPhone said Oakhurst would see a high of 82. It was well north of that. I dropped off our bags in the hotel room, went and grabbed dinner, came back to the room and went to sleep. I woke up early the next morning, and headed to Bee’s Bakery and Cafe, eating a vegetarian breakfast burrito, cinnamon roll, and a great cup of coffee. If you’re in Oakhurst, you probably can’t do better! Check them out. Soon after, I was headed eastbound Highway 41, flashing my National Park Pass at the ranger in the kiosk, and was parked in front of the ranger station next to the Wawona Hotel at 7:50. They opened at 8. The ranger said it wasn’t very crowded because, “it’s been so damn hot.” Ugh. In hind site, I should have listened to this! Regardless, by 8:30, I had permit in hand and was off to Chilnualna Falls.
I parked at the trailhead parking lot, and unlike Yosemite Valley, there were plenty of spots, in fact, there were 2 cars in the entire parking lot. I donned my backpack, tightened the hip belt and sternum strap, and took my first steps in 2024! I walked up a road for about a hundred yards and then hit dirt. I could hear the familiar sound of Chilnualna Falls roaring in the distance.
The falls are in the shade, except for a few rays of sunlight that penetrate the oak canopy above us. The worst part of the trail, in my opinion, is the first 3/4’s of a mile. Once you get to the falls, you climb about 75 steep stairs. Some of the stairs are exposed, and one wrong step and it’s not going to end well. The next 1/2 mile is also rough, with many stairs and a steep pitch to get above the series of waterfalls. What I failed to realize is, as tough as a section of trail as this is, it would be the most comfortable part of the trail for the next 24 hours, as it was in the shade and the temperature was tolerable.
The rest of the climb is long, but well maintained and for the most part a steady grade. You go thru a couple meadows, and there are at least 3 small stream crossings to top off with fresh cold water. As I climbed, the heat intensified. It wasn’t warm. It was downright HOT. Every once in awhile I would hit a shady patch for.a few hundred yards and the weather would drop a comfortable level, but as soon as you left that shade, it would immediately be 10-15 degrees warmer. I now knew what the ranger was talking about when she talked about the heat. After a few hours of climbing, I finished off some switchbacks, and the last 100 yards of exposed stairs was all that separated us from the top of Upper Chilnualna Falls, lunch, and soaking my feet in the river. The unique thing about this particular waterfall is it is set in a gorge, so you never really get to appreciate the entire length of the falls. But you can go right to the edge of the falls and stare out into oblivion if you want. Once I got up top, I found some shade and I went down to the edge of the water, took off my socks and shoes and soaked my feet in the cold water. Lunch consisted of a Raley’s supermarket premade Turkey/Pesto Sandwich, chips and water.
Once above the falls, the climbing isn’t over with quite yet. There’s still another ridge to attain, up more stairs and switchbacks about 200′ higher. There was a killer campsite I saw last year, but it was occupied. It was right at the base of a couple forks in the river. I saw it and this year it looked empty! I took a use trail through the bushes that brought me down to the river’s edge. I took an ill advised step, and a second later I was waist deep in cold water. After a second of panic, I realized I had footing, was safe, and the water felt amazing. I took my time getting out. Ultimately I crossed the river, climbed a mound, and to my excitement, the site was unoccupied. I took off my pack, laid down on a rock, and soaked it in. I found home.
Only, no we didn’t. I quickly realized there was no shade, and I was still dying from the heat. Further, the way the sun was setting, there wouldn’t be any shade any time soon either. Shit. I put my sweaty pack back on, recrossed the river, and went back on trail. Some day I’m going to camp there! I crossed over a creek on some shaky logs and pulled into a campsite I was quite familiar with. I had camped there last year. There was the same fire ring, lots of shade, a log for me to sit on (I don’t do the camp chair), and water was easy to access. I took off my pack, found some shade and sat down. I went shirtless, and remained that way until about 9pm. Thankfully, the mosquito hatch had not happened yet.
As the sun slowly started to set, I cooked dinner. What better way to start my season than a first dinner of Skurka’s Rice and Beans. If you haven’t tried this, you are definitely missing out. Finally, it started to get dark and actually cool of. I’m not a fan of backcountry campfires, but tonight I rounded up some pine cones, duff, and other downed and dead branches and made a small little fire and had dessert. For me, nothing beats Haribu Gummy Bears and more water! I went down to the river to round up and filter some water for the next day. I took one final pee. But as I was in the middle of it, it dawned on me that I drank a minimum of 4.5 liters of water today, and up to that point, had pee’d twice that I could recall. IT WAS THAT HOT. AND YES, I SWEATED THAT MUCH.
I climbed into my tent and used my quilt as a blanket. Soon I was asleep. I can’t say it was my best night of sleep. I checked my Garmin InReach weather report. To my dismay, as warm as yesterday was, it would be hotter today. I did not want to experience round two of this, so after a lazy morning around camp, breakfast and coffee, I slowly packed up and headed down back to the car. I didn’t have a time crunch to get back home, so I was going to go down to Oakhurst, and head north on Highway 49 to explore a little but, and end up in Mariposa for a late lunch at 1850.
Breakfast consisted of Seafood Ramen, with dehydrated shrimp, mushrooms, sriracha, onions, and imitation crab. I may be able to live off this. We washed my meal down with Philz coffee. I cleaned up camp, packed and started down. The trip started off smoothly, but the heat quickly kicked in. I am a sweater, but not like this. Every pore was a leaky faucet. What made it worse was my sweat on my forehead fused with the insect repellant and sunblock to pretty much blind me. While I dealt with constantly trying to clean my eyes, I passed a ton of hikers making their way up and they looked miserable. They were hiking in a furnace. I tried to encourage them but mostly I was lying right to their face. “It’s not bad.” “It gets better.” “You’re almost there.” I’ve never been so happy to see my car. There were now 10-15 cars in the parking lot, but I didn’t see anyone, so I stripped naked right in the lot, took off my sweaty gear, and put on fresh clothes and flip flops. I pounded a 1/2 gallon of water. DONE! After cleaning up, sitting in the car, and cranking up the air conditioner, I started to drive. My eyes were still killing me and I had a hard time keeping them open. 45 minutes later Iwas in Mariposa at 1850, where I had my standard Diet Coke. The Finney Fries and burger hit the spot as always, and a short time later I was behind the wheel now doing the familiar drive through the central Valley back to Santa Cruz. The ironic thing? It was 61 degrees and foggy when we got home.
What did I learn? I was reminded that Mother Nature makes the rules, and she’s no joke. I needed a new pillow. Note to self, wash the pillow before you put it away for the season, otherwise, it’s going to have a bunch of mold on it!
I’m back to the gym training, lifting weights and rucking on the treadmill in preparation for my next trip, 3 nights, 4 days on the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, in Yosemite at the end of June. Stay tuned!!
