Mokelumne Wilderness

For the Fourth of July weekend I set out for a backpacking trip to test out some new gear and get out there. The late spring meant there would be a lot of snow, but I was excited to test out my new ice ax. What I wasn't counting on was how high the rivers would be.




I parked in the evening Thursday and camped on the ridge top. I was lucky to find a melted tree well. It was a great sunset and the stars were spectacular.




That was at 8500 feet, the next day I hiked down to 5500 feet where I was supposed to cross the river. From the edge of the canyon, I could see that would probably be impossible. It was a torrent. I had a meager hope of a bridge, but figured I'd hike down at least for the experience.



The "creek" that the trail passed was more then I was willing to take on.



So I camped by the river for the night and hiked back the next day. I got to use my ice ax to climb a hill of snow. It was a abbreviated, but a good hike. I got to test my snow gear.




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Portland

Kristina and Aaron were getting married, so it was a great reason to make a trip to Portland.



I got there Friday morning to do some work, the flight had some good sights.



Eve came in the afternoon, and we went out for a nice dinner at the Portland City Grill. It's on the 30th floor of the Bank Tower with great views. Hood was in clouds most of the time, but it was great to watch the sunset on the city. I had the salmon which was amazing and Eve had the seafood risotto. It took two hours, but each bite was savory.



We met up with the wedding party from there.



Saturday we walked around downtown looking for a brunch place. It was a beautiful day.



The wedding was at the forestry center. It was a nice ceremony with a fun reception. We had more good food, fun toasts and entertaining people.








Sunday they had a brunch at their house and Eve and I went to the Rose Garden before flying out. It was a quick weekend, but a great vacation.

Old 97's

After the Odyssey, by 5 I was on the road heading to Sacramento. I might have been exhausted, but the Old 97's were playing and I had to see them. It was an amazing show. It wasn't very crowded, but it did mean I got to be up close in the center. They played for two hours and it was amazing.


After the show I was on cloud 9, until I got back to my car and it had a window broken out and my 3 year old iPod taken. The worst thing I lost was the perfect cable to hook up the audio jack to the car speakers.

Odyssey

Just after getting back from Yosemite, it was time for the Odyssey. The Odyssey is a 178 mile, 12 man relay race. It goes all night and you share a car with a couple people for 30 hours. This year it was me and three girls, and we had a blast.


This year I ran leg 6. It was fun to see a different part of the course then last year. I ran better and better each leg. I think I was just getting better at pacing myself. My last leg was up to Virginia City which is brutally uphill. I found that I was faster when I just leaned forward and hiked it rather then trying to run.





We finished Saturday about 3.

Yosemite

At the beginning of May, I was talking to my dad and he said he was thinking of making a trip to Yosemite. It had been decades since his last trip and there was a deal on tickets. I said to let me know when he'd get there and we could meet up. A couple days later, he said he'd be there in two weeks. I had just enough vacation time left over to make a 4 day weekend out of it. My dad's pictures are here.


We had a great time. It has taken me forever to get through the 500 some odd pictures I took, but I finally did. I got it down to 100.

I got there late wednesday night, so first order of business was to get a site reservation. We were staying in the legendary Camp 4 which is a walk in no reservation campsite with a firm number of spots. People start lining up at 6am to get a spot, and I was about number 57 in line. That morning there were 75 spots available, so everyone in line made it.

After getting the site, we took off to check out Vernal and Nevada falls. The water falls were amazing with all the snow melting. It was a crowded hike to Vernal Falls






But the water was shooting out of Nevada falls.




The next day was a little overcast, so we took a hike up to mirror pond. The trail was blocked by a rockfall, but we found a nice photo of a blossoming dogwood.



I stopped by El Cap to look for a few big mountain climbers. With a little focus you can start to see different groups. There are 7 climbers in the wide shot. Two on the lower left, two in the middle right, and two on the top right, with the lead climber of the group in the top middle. I hiked up to the base of the wall and found a couple more that were just beginning.


Seven climbers here.

Zoom in on two in the lower left.

Zoom closer.

Two on the upper part, with the lead on the left.

Two on the middle right.


The base of the wall had a great view.



Then I drove around to my favorite view point. Looking up the valley at the edge of the river is amazing.




We set of at sunrise the next day to get the sun coming around on Yosemite Falls.





The top was quite an impressive view. And there was a great view of the valley and half dome.




Then we ran into something I'd only seen in climbing magazines. 2 guys were setting up to do the slackline above the yosemite floor. Basically they stretch a 1 inch wide piece of webbing between two points and walk across it. This is a couple thousand feet above the valley floor. It was impressive to watch.




The hike down had great pictures of the Yosemite falls with rainbows and perfect clouds. It was hard to only pick a few to post.





That evening we went to take some pictures from the valley floor. On the way back we saw a bear, digging in a trash can, but it was a bear. That night we went to take a picture of El Cap with the lights of the clmibers that were still up.





The next day we went to the Sequoia grove. It's amazing to see trees that are thousands of years ago.



For the evening we went to Sentinel Bridge to capture the sunset on half dome. We were there with 15 other photographers. With the digital cameras of today it was neat to see the back of different people's camera to see the shot they were taking. None were the same.



As we were packing up to leave, there were a couple guys headed for the big wall. And I got a picture of the line waiting for a spot at camp 4.



Before heading out, I stopped by Hetch Hetchy. Muir complained about the daming of hetch hetchy, and said it was a more impressive canyon then Yosemite. I think he could have been right.



For only four days it seemed like forever. I got a pass so plan on making more trips this summer. One suggestion I'd make to anyone, is bring along a professional photographer, my dad had amazing pictures. Seriously, check them out and see what I stole from him...