Word to the wise: 3/4 of the drive between San Diego and Sequoia National park will be spent between Anaheim and Burbank. Map it.
When I was deciding whether to go early or not, I ran to the office for my Sequoia and Kings Canyon trail book I knew there was a mountain I missed last time I was there. I had planned on hiking Alta Peak, but it was a little too near winter for the road to be open. That settled it, I was flying out early.
Saturday at 6AM EST got me to San Diego by 11AM PST. Side Note: If you haven't done so: go get TSA Prescreened. I would not have caught my flight if I had not, because SURPRISE: 3 lanes of I-95 were closed at 3AM! I sat, not moving, for an hour and a half. At 3AM. Bumper to bumper. I was sure I was missing it. It was also wonderful to walk through a metal detector and keep my shoes on.
So I sat in traffic for a couple hours; sat on a plane for a couple hours, sat on a different plane for a couple hours and then sat in traffic for a few more hours (before flying from the Valley to the park). My butt/hip/hamstring that's been killing me for the past year was on flipping fire. We'd see about that mountain on Sunday. I got a campsite at Potwisha, the last one available! Yeah I got lucky.
Ran around and did a few little things in the morning on my way to the trailhead. Across the street from the campsite was a short trail to a bridge, the campground host advised me to go see. I wasn't sure where it ended and thought it looped, but missed the turn and ended up coming across an aqueduct. Neat.
I followed the aqueduct for awhile because it was kind of cool. I wonder how far this one goes? Is it for Central Valley farming? Or does it go all the way to LA?
I saw a lot of pretty neat stuff after I left, but the aqueducts fascinated me.
If you want to drive through the tunnel tree and not take the shuttle to Moro Rock; wake up before the sun. The road is open before the crowds are awake. When I came out, the shuttle was the only option (8AMish??)
Moro rock wasn't bad if you're ok with heights. A couple hundred feet of up from parking to stand on a Sierra Nevada Dome. Amazing. (Half-Dome is 16 miles) And at 6AM, I had it all to myself. I don't want to imagine what it's like here mid-day.
Okay, so now that I'm going through my photos and thinking back to last Sunday, I really did do a lot in one day. I wasn't thinking, there was too much to see. Just a quick run through, the woods, I can't *not* walk amongst the big trees, and the book said Crescent and Log Meadows Loop was a "must-do," oh it's only 2.4 miles and it wasn't even 9 yet!
By Tharpes Log at Log Meadow, I passed a family. Two adorable little boys very excitedly asked if I saw the bear in the meadow. I went out where they said to look but couldn't spot a bear. I continued on and as I was passing them, one exclaimed: another bear!
Nope, what he saw was a log. I was almost convinced, holy cow, you have good eyes kid! But just a log.
I saw the bear later. When I was alone. He was tame, but I'm not sure the kid would have wanted to get quite so close. I should have been more scared. But he was tame.
I saw the bear on my way back from the final hike of the day. Not Alta Peak, as it would happen. I was in my own world, eager to get back to the car, not really paying attention, and whoa "hi bear!" 10-20 feet away, a bear was lapping up water from a little stream that crossed the trail. He looked up. Watched me for a second, and turned around and walked away. It was as he was walking away that I realized, shoot! Camera! Camera! The trail wrapped around the same way he did and I'm an idiot (also, turning around would be a shitty idea at this point in the day; the legs were NOT up for more ups), so I managed to snap a couple decent pics.
He's like a big fuzzy puppy, just look at him.
So, no, Alta Peak didn't happen. I'll have to do it next time. Next, next time. That's what I said last time. I wasn't really sure until I got to the junction, but looking at the book, and listening to my hip, I settled on 11.5miles/6700 feet instead of 13.4miles/9250 feet. Could I have done more? Sure. Would it have been fun? Maybe, but the pain in my hip right now says I did enough. And the lakes were amazing. Well worth the trip.
I ended up hiking to Heather, Aster, Emerald, and Pear lakes. Very rewarding views. Though, that walk to get above treeline. My god. Either the elevation was getting to me or I've lost more conditioning than I think doing elliptical instead of running. That, or maybe I shouldn't have run around ~4 miles before hitting the main trail?
A girl who passed me on the trail, told me at "the hump" that some boys she saw advised the mosquitoes were bad and to skip the lakes. I'm glad I didn't listen. The mosquitoes were not bad. Besides, mosquito bites fade pretty quickly on me, so even if they were: meh. It was the hip that concerned me, but it was gentle downs and gentle ups and then a steady steady down from the hump, and it was only about noon, so I pushed forward.
The walk between all of the lakes, was amazing. If there was a question over whether I was making it to Pear lake or not, that was answered when I saw where the trail led.
The views just kept getting prettier. This is looking down on Aster, on the way to Pear.
This is Pear. Alta Peak, in the background.
On the left of this picture, is the trail; and a good reason to not really feel like turning around when I saw that bear. It was beautiful though, the Watchtower trail. Going down. Up might not have been as fun. My legs sure were sore.
One neat thing, was looking down at my GPS and seeing the tracklog from last time when I hiked to Tokopah Falls. Now, below.
So in summary, yeah, the lakes trail was a fine consolation prize for not hiking up Alta Peak. And I got to see a bear. And I didn't get mauled by a bear! I'd call that a win.
Hammocked in Lodgepole (the Pizza from the Market was TERRIBLE but REALLLLY hit the spot). Everyone in the campground wanted to know where my "tent" came from. Is that an American thing? (a lot of French accents) Where do you buy something like that? Let me tell you, it's a million times better than sleeping on rocks in a tent. Hell, it might even be better than a mattress!
Peaceful spot to spend the night. I didn't bother with the tarp the night before, and it wasn't supposed to rain, but I thought it might help with the wind. It was a super cozy night, so I guess that's a yes. It could only be cozier snugged up to the boyfriend.
In the morning, I scurried around General Sherman (once again, a ridiculously popular spot all to myself at the crack of dawn).
Then raced up a little ~2 mile peak I saw last time, but man I needed to stretch my legs before that drive. I wanted to use the bathroom before the long drive (a likely excuse) so I ran around Grant's village/tree and ultimately exited through Kings Canyon.
Thought CA 245 would be a faster route to Visalia. NEVER-ENDING Curves. 180 was curvy, but sure felt safer. Eventually made it back to the Central Valley.
The views there were pretty darn lovely too. I had to pull over.
And then? LA traffic. Screw LA, man.
