Backpacking the High Sierras 2003: Yosemite National Park

July 11 to 20, 2003

Boy Scout Troop 634

Reisterstown, Maryland

Eleven Scouts aged 13 to 19 and seven adults flew to Oakland, CA on July 11, 2003. Most of the scouts and all of the adults were from Troop 634, but we also had scouts from Troop 315 in Reisterstown and Troop 980 in Owings Mills Maryland. After some sightseeing in San Francisco (Muir Woods, cable cars, Alcatraz, Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf) and Lake Tahoe (took at 7 mile hike with a 1500' elevation rise to get GREAT views of the lake), we camped at the Backpackers Campground in Tolumne Meadow on July 13. We also each rented a bear container for our food and other smellables. We hit the trail on Monday July 14, in two crews. One crew followed the same itinerary as the 2000 Yosemite Trek. This description is of the itinerary of the second crew.

July 14: Begin the ADVENTURE! Starting from Tenaya Lake we hiked past Olmstead Point and down toward Tenaya Canyon. Excellent views along the way. Camped at a trail camp that with a short walk had an outstanding view of Half Dome. Mostly downhill and level this day, we covered about 7 miles.

July 15: Leaving our trail camp we headed up to the intersection with the Porcupine Creek Trail near Indian Arch (which we visited) and then on to a trail camp on the shoulder of North Dome. Took in a spectacular sunset on North Dome. Just great! Covered about 5.5 miles on this day. No water here though, so three of our crew covered an additional 3 miles roundtrip to fill our three water bladders.

July 16: Took in the sunrise on North Dome and then headed across to Yosemite Point and the Yosemite Falls viewpoint before heading down the Yosemite Falls trail to the Valley. BEAUTIFUL all along the way. Wow! Lost about 4000' vertical feet as the trail as all downhill as we covered about 9 miles. We camped in the valley, taking advantage of showers, and having a great pizza dinner.

July 17: This was a tough day, as we hiked from Happy Isles in the Valley up past Vernal (317' high) and Nevada Falls (594' high) to a trail camp at the intersection of the John Muir and Clouds Rest Trails. At the top of Nevada Falls we saw a medium sized cinnamon colored black bear sitting on a large rock adjacent to the Falls and eating someone's peanut butter! We gained over 3000' in elevation on this day.

July 18: This was another tough day, particularly coming right after a hard day. We went up over 3000' to the summit of Clouds Rest. Just the best views of the Valley, Tenaya Canyon and in every direction, the expanse of the high sierras. One book describes this as the best view in all the Sierras, and we agree! After leaving Clouds Rest we headed back out to Tenaya Lake to our cars. About 10.5 miles on this day. Finally, we drove to the Valley where we spent the night, then visited Glacier Point and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias before heading back to Oakland and the flight home to Baltimore.

At the trailhead	Clouds Rest high on the left	Camp	North Dome from Glacier Point	Half Dome and Clouds Rest from North Dome
Valley from Yos Falls Viewpoint	Lunch on Yos Falls Trail	Vernal Falls	On the mist trail	The Valley from Clouds Rest

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