Backpacking Yosemite: PCT/Benson Lake/Tilden Lake/Grand Canyon of The Tuolumne River 9 Day Loop

today is Sunday October 7 2000 18 and California's Sierra Mountains the very famous Yosemite National Park right now I'm at the Glen all-in trailhead in Tuolumne Meadows and I'm headed out for about eight days into the north side of the park look around Tuolumne Meadows my plan for today is to head to the Glen Allen camping area and have a permit to stay there for my first night after that be able to camp anywhere I want to and I don't have any real specific destinations or goals for this trip I'm just gonna kind of wing it over the next eight days my camp tonight is only five and a half miles from here it's gonna be pretty easy I am getting a pretty late start it's a little after 3 p.m. right now it's pretty short days it's getting dark by 7:00 p.m. that's pitch-black dark and there's a really good light to about 7:30 in the morning this is Tuolumne River I believe and I'm kind of following it right now I think when are we following it all the way to my camp there are lots of slabs of granite rock everywhere here almost like someone just poured granite concrete very similar to slick rock down in Canyon Country I think this is one of the things that Sierra is well known for having granite everywhere the shadows are kind of bad right now but this is a look at Tuolumne River lots of waterfalls in here so here's another waterfall this one's a lot bigger really pretty starting to get some views I think that's the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River right there to the left and believe my camps gonna be somewhere out there maybe a few miles away still more awesome views I'm definitely almost to my camp I see people walking around well I've made it to my campground and here's look around I'm not really sure about this not really my style of camping I guess there's like a high Sierra camp here - maybe it's shut down for the season but I guess I'm supposed to camp out there kind of boring still kind of not really sure what's going on here did figure out that behind that High Sierra camp where all those buildings were is bigger campground for people like me and there are some signs all over the place saying like numbers 5 through 15 this way but there's no numbers anywhere it kind of reminds me of like place like Bright Angel in the Grand Canyon where there's like 35 spots at least here they are a little bit more spread out and of course I found one of the fire rings that's not even being used tit spot right by it you know me this is my spot well here's kind of a look around my camping spot you can see my fire pit over there there's no one really close to me down in this hole I'm not close to the creek but I have my six liter water bag and I'll go over and fill it up so I have water here and yeah it's just wooded but you'll notice that yellow stuff over there those are aspen leaves and aspen trees absolutely love them all right well it's gotten kind of dark on me fast tonight I sort of saw that coming getting such a late start today in fact I wasn't even expecting to start my trip today I just drove into Yosemite this morning and this doesn't start tomorrow but walked in there noon and was able to get a permit starting today to do this trip one important observation right off the bat is that my headlamp is practically dead the batteries in it are dead I don't have any backups I might be in the dark for most of these nights on this trip and one final note I like to wear these sunglasses around the fire actually because sometimes you get embers that pop out of the fire and I've been hit in the face a few times close to the eye and kind of nervous about taking one myself that's why I'm wearing the sunglasses anyways this is all I've got for day one well good morning is date number two it's cold here is a look at the map I'm using on this trip it's by National Geographic Trail Illustrated and it's the map for Yosemite National Park so there are two sides to the map I'm using a south side and the north side and I'm going to start by showing you where I'm at on the south side map and then I'll flip it over the north side and much of the rest of this trip will be on the north side of this map I parked here walk the road this way and then it was on a really good trail it is the Pacific Crest Trail as well that I'm on and so they always keep those in tip-top shape wasn't much elevation gain at all and then right about here it started going down a little bit this is probably the best part of yesterday's hike right in here all these waterfalls and they came down here to this camp from a hair above there sorry I'm a hair below 8,000 feet of elevation I'm gonna started closer to 8,500 I guess over here so I lost some feet yesterday now today I'm gonna go ahead and show you what I'm planning to do not that there's much of a plan see this little trail right here I'm gonna go up that and onto the north side of the map and so today who knows what's gonna happen I'm just gonna head up this trail cold Canyon the Pacific Crest Trail and I mean I really don't know I'm gonna get to a trail Junction here and I'll just have so many options at this point but this is ideally what my route is gonna look like for today all right it's go time destination unknown just heading north PCT well the first hour of hiking has pretty much been all in the woods things are now starting to open up a little bit head it right through these beautiful meadows all right I've come about seven miles and no matter trail Junction now I'm going to drop down into Virginia Canyon or I'll hit another trail Junction and probably take a break and come up with the plan as to where to go next made it down to the canyon bottom might be Virginia Creek or something pretty so taking a break down here by the creek it's actually called return Creek this is Virginia Canyon and there's a trail going up it I'm gonna pass on that and stay on the PCT kind of head west over to matterhorn Canyon all right so there really isn't a whole lot going on today as far as like grandiose views it's all in the forest it's still a very pleasant forest and you'll probably hear me on quite a few occasions mention that it's an open forest and this is what I mean by an open forest if you look here it's open when the forest there's trees everywhere but it wouldn't be very challenging to move through this forest because there's not any underbrush really isn't that many down trees there's one right here but for the most part it's just all open and that kind of makes the hiking more enjoyable than in there like a thick underbrush forest is for me all right there is a small lake here closer to the size of a pond but it might be called Miller Lake there's one labeled on the map I'm not sure if this is it or not but it's a very big pretty though so this is Miller Lake that last one was just a pond kind of a quiet spot nothing too special but this is probably the best view I should say most scenic thing I've seen today pretty so their works like there could be some pleasant camping here no a lake but oh no it doesn't really strike my fancy so think I'm gonna continue on and drop down into Matterhorn Canyon be a trail Junction down there and a creek and most likely a place to camp for the night all right it's starting to get some more mountain views or open views license I should say really these are the first mountain views I've had all day this is above Matterhorn Canyon which I'm gonna be dropping down into and hopefully camping down by the creek a little more zoomed in look at one of the mountains don't know what that one's called but at some sweet-looking country out there okay I've made it down to Matterhorn Creek which is not very big and I'm gonna make camp somewhere down here kind of my style of camping Meadows trees nice little creek running through it down in a canyon well camping down in a hole again so it's gonna be cold it's gonna be dark hurry tell ya I'm not getting up early in the morning because my son is not gonna hit me into a problem 10:00 a.m. but pretty sweet spot kind of described today is a great day it's beautiful it's it's Pleasant forest but it wasn't really dramatic at all just a lot less dramatic than I was expecting for Yosemite and it just sounds negative not trying to be negative and I really have liked this last couple miles it's been my favorite section from that Miller Lake I think is what it was called - right where I'm at now I really like this canyon and really glad I chose to push to get down here to this area camp because here's kind of a look around my camp this morning you can see I'm on the edge of those small Meadows Creek is running out there is my fire pit and the Sun is just starting to pop over the ridge which is gonna be much needed because it's below freezing right now last night my headlamp went completely dead the batteries are done and it no longer puts out any light at all so gonna be in the dark the rest of this trip so my camp is over there in the trees this is kind of a look around the small meadow camped in see these granite walls and peaks above me typical Yosemite look so your plane up there too so right now I am camped right here on Matterhorn Creek and I started yesterday a little bit off this side of the map probably about right down here at Glen Allen and so I basically hiked up this cold Canyon so it's called Pacific Crest Trail and for the most part it is in the timber and actually most of the entire hike yesterday was in the timber it's kind of a long gradual uphill for the first seven miles and then here you just drop straight down to this Virginia Canyon and then kind of curves around here and starts climbing back up this Canyon I don't even know it's called looks like spitter Creek maybe very like slick rock granite slick rock was just a lot of granite in here it was pretty cool from there it climbed steeply up just a lot of up yesterday and work my way over to these small lakes Miller Lake was nice it's getting some great light when I was there and the sharp turn came here and had probably my best view of the day looking north and dropped down to this spot a lot of Meadows in here and I really like this Canyon and now today I'm gonna have some choices I still don't know what I'm gonna do I could go up matterhorn Canyon all the way towards burro pass and mule pass or I could continue on the PCT this way go up to Benson pass towards Benson Lake so I still haven't decided which direction I want to hike today and so I'm just gonna flip a coin for it don't really have a coin but I can use the lid to my bear canister if it lands with red facing up I'm gonna head up this canyon behind me towards bureaux pass if it lands with red facing down stay on the PCT trail and take it up over Vincent pass looks like I'm headed over Vincent pass on the PCT trail so right off the bat this morning I've got some uphill Vinson passes above 10,000 feet and my camp is about 8,500 feet so I'm gonna be climbing up 1,500 feet in elevation I'm gonna say that my target for camping tonight would be Vincent Lake which is about 11.1 miles from here that's the one thing I got out of the backcountry office when I was pulling my permit as far as any sort of Intel on my route they just said Vincent Lake is nice don't miss it I'm only concern is that Vincent Lake is sitting at 7,500 feet above sea level which is uh much lower than the pass I'm gonna be down in the woods so I may not like that I'm kind of looking forward to getting out of the timber and into the high country there's a bunch of lakes up by Vincent pass on the other side of it so I may decide to just have a short day and camp at one of those spots if it's appealing I have made it up to Benson pass this is one last look back behind me and finally out of the timber and this is a look on the other side of Benson pass it down there starting to get a little bit of red color here in the Alpine I love it there's a cool granite wall right there I'm definitely in some different terrain than I've been on this entire trip okay I have made it over to Smid Berg Lake highlight of the trip so far it's gonna be hard to resist camping here man you notice a lot of clouds a little bit of weather starting to blow in which may influence my decision on where to camp so this is now looking down the direction I'm headed actually I may be dropping down and kind of curving to the left I really know for sure yet it's beautiful so if I'm reading my map correctly benson lake is like sitting right down in that area and i have to show the maps later to explain what i'm doing here but i'm taking a shortcut by dropping down these granite slabs into this drainage right there in front of me and i'm saving at least a mile maybe like a mile and a half with a lot of unnecessary up-and-down just a head straight towards ensign lake Oh less than ten minutes later I'm back on trail that was a brilliant move much easier than I was expecting it to be you know cutting switchbacks on the trail save a few feet that's illegal but going off trail to cut out a mile of your hike it's called being smarter than the guy that built the so that big peak right there in the center I believe that is volunteer peak it's like go in the neighborhood of ten thousand four hundred and seventy nine feet above sea level all right I've got my first glimpse of Benson Lake it's much bigger than I was expecting I mean that's only a portion of it but as I swing this camera around notice all the orange Rock I guess you can't see it yeah it'll come into view just this is a different look than I was expecting for here beautiful check out this pinecone it's kind of cool-looking it's probably normal for this area but I've never seen one like this before all right I am getting into some pretty big trees for sure now necessarily super wide although some of these are but they're just very tall and much bigger than everything I've been in so far on this trip I'm potentially maybe these are redwoods I don't know all right I'm on the spur trail over to benson lake which is 4/10 of a mile off of the PCT and different landscape this actually reminds me much more of being in the yellowstone national park and it does of Yosemite National Park only because I haven't seen much of Yosemite no that's been the high country but just all the grass and then all the downfall everywhere it just looks like something I would see down in the thoroughfare all right I have made it to Benton Lake it's again not really what I was expecting there's anything wrong with it at all just funny how you can envision a place and then it was totally different big sandy beach is a pretty gorgeous sunset here Benson Lake someone else space so I tried to get around this lake it was climbing up to these cliffs and wasted about 45 minutes doing that and was to no avail couldn't get around backtracking here top this guy's name's Brett really cool is that you're doing like a 12 or 14 day we can do a semi and the coldest part about all of this is that when I mentioned setting up my headlamp in bed he's got all these extra batteries he gave me three Triple A batteries and I should be back in business with my head little screens so just look at these beaches just did not envision this when I was thinking about this trip in my head before I did it I mean if I looked at Benson lake on a map or on pictures or on video I wouldn't think much of it but having camped here now I think it's awesome it's a place I'd come back to mainly for these beaches I mean look at that so right now I am camped right here on the shores of Benson Lake and yesterday I started from over here in Matterhorn Canyon hiked along the PCT started climbing up in here I think this was about 1,500 feet of up really beautiful in this area and then I got up to Benson Pass and just really got into some good beautiful yosemite country kind of dropped back down and here this great camp being here at SMED berg lake and that's been one of my favorite spots of this trip and then next up is that little shortcut I took yesterday see trail kind of comes down here and then it climbs back up and then it goes half a mile this way and then goes right back down and I was able to in less than ten minutes just shoot right over to this Creek and right down to this trail but I saved myself at least a mile it was a good choice then I continued down this Canyon everything changed here it was with much more drier arid climate started seeing orange Rock and also dropped a ton of elevation like 2,000 to 2,500 feet about to get right here and I took this spur trail to benson lake and he actually tried to follow the shoreline and get into some cliffs to get over here to camp and I couldn't do it looks like I probably could find a way if I came up this way I'm glad I didn't I ended up having a good spot this is the best camping right here on this sandy beach one last look at Benson Lake and Benson Beach it also makes this place cool is there a big trees here alrighty I have packed up camp I've hit the trail I am heading west northwest on the PCT and right off the bat I'm gonna be climbing up about 1,500 feet in elevation play it for today it's gonna be a short one getting a pre late start and so I think I'm only gonna go about seven and a half miles today I've made friends this guy Brett who camped in the same spot as me last night breath walking uphill trying to hold this thing out anyways uh Brett's kind of doing a trip similar to mine and we decided that we're gonna rendezvous had a spot seven miles from here and share camp tonight so uh much needed short day uh tired basically the plan is to go to the trail junction where there's a trail going south to Bear Valley and that's my camp so yeah seven and a half miles to go so there is a look back towards Benson Lake and just look how beautiful this place is should almost call it Benson whole cuz it's like a hole down between all these drainages granite mountains and Rock and walls and spires domes everywhere this place is gorgeous and now this is gonna be kind of looking up the direction I'm headed trying not to fall off the rock I'm standing on as I spin around but climbing up that way just look at all the fern plants in here it's starting to change color I love ferns no I think they're beautiful beautiful plant good energy - that is a cool-looking peak right above me look at this beautiful little lake I had no idea this was up here its unnamed on the map I'm very big but it's gorgeous another little pond Kirti just another gorgeous lake gonna be a great campus behind so over here we have sunshine riding up the wall and then as you look over here we have rain which is hopefully passing well it is raining on me even though the Sun is actually popping out I think there's any snow in there it's pretty much just rain the weather forecast called for zero percent chance of precipitation alrighty there is my tent already set up I have made it down to the junction with the Bear Valley Trail and I'm setting up camp right on I can't remember the name of the creek and there is my new hiking buddy for the day Bret and he was here wait Nami so uh it's continuing to sprinkle off and on gonna work on getting dinner going good morning it's day number five once again a camp down in a hole so it's gonna be a while before I get me son last night was actually much warmer than the previous night's despite the weather forecast and it rained much more than we were expecting my buddy Brett he didn't bring a tent on this trip just to sleep a bag so he ended up coming in and sleeping in my tent to get out of the rain which was a good idea cuz it rained pretty hard what's your name where you from what are you doing out here I had the good fortune of running into Joey a kindred spirit man who loves the backcountry as much as I do cooking up my little oatmeal this morning and he saved my butt because I thought it needed be snowing or sunny out here so I brought was a piece of Tyvek drape over myself and last night in the evenings sort of pissing down rain so Joe it was kind enough to say get your butt on in here get out of the rain and I don't mean to put that tarp over yourself and come on out of the weather and it was fantastic and bye-bye tarp you have it you said Tyvek right yeah yeah just a homemade baby bag out of tie back but it turned out to be too small for me once I got in it I made it of course right as I was on the trail head you know lots of preparation in my life and so when I got in it the first night I could I could sleep in it lying on my back but if I turn on my side I couldn't I couldn't get a good move it was too tight so I took my scissor about my knife and I split it open so now I've got a six foot wide tarp and I just throw that up myself it's gonna be gonna be snow and everybody gonna be raining but it was much better to be in the tent last night then now you didn't you wanted to save weight so you didn't bring a tent right but you did bring nine nine triple-a batteries and canned food and candy in this whole story and that Joey didn't bring any batteries for his headlamp so two or three nights ago when I first met him he's like batteries my hell yeah I got about nine or ten of them but what so I gave him triple-a batteries and that worked out fine but yeah I was trying to save weight by not bringing the ten but of course then I bring a bunch of triple-a batteries which is smart thing but then Joe is quick point I guess but you do bring canned tuna and came Turkey as opposed to dried meat that's like yeah in a hurry supplied for this trip I just like grab the food as fast as I could and hit the road and how many days have you been out you did a big you're doing a big year Chad yeah it was 13 nights so it was a lot of food I packed up I mean not my pack weighed a lot no recent ironing carried all that install that in yeah so it was uh yeah I don't know how much of a pack weight anyway but it was it was uncomfortable first few days it was it it's a lot it was it like packing a body on my back but ya know yeah 13 nights thirteen-ninths 14 days and I don't recommend that most people do that to cut it in half do seven to seven did and you were gonna do the JMT yeah that's right a lark Rangers talked you out of it right I'm gonna be a John Muir Trail starting on Dober first and despite the fact that I have lots of Alpine experience and winter survival experience you know Alpine experience I was dissuaded from doing the JMT by the Park Service because they said sure it snows you can build a snow shelter you know how to do all that stuff but how are you gonna find the trail if there's a foot of snow on the trail and I couldn't I couldn't present an argument in my favor at that moment and so I said okay fine I don't need to be a hero what I'll do is I'll totally change my plans I'll come out and I'll spend two weeks in the northern part of Yosemite and they said that's a fantastic plan because you're gonna go a place where nobody goes except for Joey they said literally when people come to the park they nobody goes to the you know to the nether regions of the park they distictive you know familiar places like Half Dome and going up happy trails and going over to clouds rest and then do JMT and they said in the peak of the season August July August September you can get what you can walk into any ranger station and get a permit backcountry permit to do these these you know northern yeah the farther regions the backcountry of the park no problem no problem whatsoever and I'm so glad that I came and I did this this is just fantastic country and bump into like I said a good good kindred spirit backcountry man Joey final question and I'll let you eat your favorite spot on your trip not on this section I'm doing but it's it that you've seen on this trip here in Yosemite where was it on this trip so far Wow it's all been so beautiful I'd say [Music] I'd have to say that Cathedral Lakes was a stunning location to spend the night that was there was magnificent it was just beautiful beauty beyond beyond words yeah cathedral lakes that gives me a big thumbs up yeah yeah never been there so I gotta go check that out yeah so right now I am can't right here this trail junction with the trail that goes down to Bear Valley there's some great camping here I'm Carrick Canyon and I started yesterday for him right here on Benson Lake and back track that point four miles to the PCT climbed up and this whole area this was beautiful this is one of the best parts of this trip so far both sides kind of getting up here great views looking back and then this high alpine stuff and all these little lakes in here are gorgeous çb pass I never really knew when I was even there there's kind of multiple tiny passes in here just in the high country that's where I started getting cloudy and cold the drop down here to the canyon and just work my way down there's some little bit of bumps in here but it's very wooded if this whole side right here is all granite slab it's gorgeous but open forest I loved it and yeah I came here so looks like it was about seven point six miles total looking down Rancheria Creek I'm a camping spot not a whole lot of water running in it alrighty I have packed up camp and hitting the trail I'm gonna continue west northwest on the PCT trail and then I'll jump off of it for a few miles to go over to a lake called Tilden Lake I think it's about eight point eight miles from here and there's gonna be a few 1000 foot bumps I have to climb over I'm sort of changing my plans for this trip I've actually known about this for a few days now I have enough food to add an extra day so I'm gonna do that I'm making a nine-day trip instead of an eight-day trip and then I was also originally expecting to take the PCT all the way out of the park they actually just passed Bear Scott's first bear Scott I've seen on this trip um but back to that I it's gonna go out of the park of the PCT up by Dorothy Lake and then circle back Rancheria Creek drainage but I decided that's too many miles not enough time and I wouldn't be able to enjoy camping as much doing that and personally I prefer to spend more time camping than I do walking so headed to Tilden Lake today what a beautiful view this is the Rancheria Creek drainage which I was a camped in last night now climbing out of it Garrett Canyon I guess is another name for this okay I have made it up to the top of my first bump let's live in toward to the other side and we've got some awesome views now I'm gonna be dropping down into this canyon below me about a thousand feet and then continue just west on the PCT and I'll start climbing up to another bump again look at all the trout and the creek here all right I've made it up to my second high point and look at this view I'm gonna be dropping down although not as far as the last time and I'll hit a trail Junction soon all right I have reached a trail Junction and have left the PCT trail and now on the trail that goes to Tilden Lake I've come about six miles so far so I only have about two point eight miles to go all righty I have made it to Tilden Lake and it's gorgeous factious it's probably the best view or one of the best views I've had on this entire trip it's a great light riding up the shore over there so now I'm gonna go look for a place to camp hopefully I can find a place that's sheltered from the wind all right this must be the first bear track I think I've ever seen in the Sierra although I'm sure I've seen a man just don't remember there's their pad toe toe toe toe toe probably not that fresh all right I found a place to pick up a hair below 9,000 feet and a pretty good view of the lake sheltered right here I've actually set my tent up put the fly on my feet facing that way that way my tip catches less wind right now it's really windy I'm also hoping that maybe later tonight the wind will calm down as the Sun Goes Down but should have a pretty good sunset I'm also getting a little bit more sunlight than I have really the previous entire trip because been down in a hole just about every night or had storm clouds last night but right now there's not a cloud out there I can still see the Sun and it's almost 7 o'clock so it's much more light than I'm used to so right now I'm camped somewhere right about there on Tilden Lake and I started today over here and yeah basically right off the bat I climbed up over this Ridge tell you what when you look at this it kind of just looks somewhat flat there is nothing flat about any of this I basically claimed straight up and then I dropped straight down and then I crossed the creek and I climbed straight up to this Ridge and then straight down there were great views climbing up this way and really the whole trip it's it's been mostly wooded but there are breaks where it's fantastic views and there's these beautiful granite mountains everywhere it's it's really nice from here I I left the PCT got on this trail and it was actually a little hard to follow in a few places it's definitely not maintained as well as the PCT and it's almost entirely through Forest with like rocks and boulders everywhere it's hard to scribe it's beautiful even though it's in the forest this little pond was nice and then I got here and yeah just set up camp there's several places that are fantastic camp spots even on this other Shore but I don't think I would have the view back up the lake this way I know it was at eight point eight miles because over here at this camp when I left today it said Tilden Lake was eight point eight miles away things are winding down I guess for day five kind of an uneventful day great hiking but nothing spectacular I didn't see any people today other than Brett it's the last two days of hiking I haven't seen people so not even through hikers on the PCT solitude out here Brett was a really cool guy and I think I'm gonna run into him again later on on this trip we're hiking back to the same trailhead on the same day and I'm expecting to give him a ride back to get his stuff so yeah cool guy glad he gave me some batteries I have he actually gave me two sets of batteries and so now I have light thanks buddy last little bit of light is fading away Sun is set and look at that there is the moon it's the first time I've seen it on this trip all right here is a look around the lake this morning beautiful place I always think about every time I come to a place like this think about how it has been here every single day of my life I've been here once and I may never be here again but it will be here my entire life I can actually see that peak this morning I never saw it last night just because of all the clouds beautiful day today all right packed up camp I'm hitting the trail I'm headed towards Bear Valley which I'm guessing is between ten to eleven miles away from here and it's gonna be a few bumps along the way naturally the first eight point eight miles I do it's gonna be all backtracking what I did yesterday and then you know Bear Valley isn't necessarily where I'm gonna camp it's just right now looks like an ideal target point as a potential camping spot so that's what I'm shooting for all right I've made it up over my first little bump and now heading into this awesome Canyon I don't actually know the name of it but I'm gonna drop down there and then climb back probably to that saddle in the middle there it'll be my second of three climbs today that's a great there's some aspen trees starting to change color this big juniper tree I just love the color in the Sun a backpack probably been visible throughout this whole video is ripping it's this little top part and basically it's just come unglued from this and I probably could just fix it with superglue and I usually bring superglue with me at my first aid kit can't find it so I don't know I must have used this somewhere and forgot about it so I can't fix it until after this trip is over this isn't even my backpack my buddy Aaron let me borrow it cuz all mine are broken right now and I gotta get them fixed and so three trips into borrowing his and breaking his but he won't watch this video so Oh superglue it it'll be in mint condition when I return till I'm just putting all my stuff in a stuff sack in the top so that way it doesn't fall out so I have left the PCT trail and probably means I won't see too many people arrested this trip the PCT Trail is a popular one really everyone I've seen on this trip except for Bret has been a through hiker uh kinda feels like it's getting a little Wilder now alright well I made it up switchback Ridge and there's a really pretty Lake right here I'm almost tempted to camp at Bear Valley is probably maybe less than a mile from here trails gonna curve around to the right side there I think drop down to Bear Valley now here is another little lake very quiet all variety here is look around what I'm guessing is Bear Valley not really much to it a very small place but it's got a nice little meadow and kind of cool walls some are getting lit up right now by the Sun so I'm gonna camp somewhere in here assuming that I can find water so the first thing I'm gonna do is look for water if I find it then I'll look for a camping spot well it's not the prettiest looking stuff but it is water and it may be the only water I have so I can camp here the map shows there being a spring here this isn't running this is my spring all right I found a place to make camp here in Bear Valley there really is not a whole lot of great camping in here I've spent about an hour walking around just looking for a spot that is out of the way of dead trees a lot of dead trees in here so I really haven't found too many spots I found one place where I'm at now with the fire ring and so I kind of just came to the back area to get away from the dead trees and set up here did sea bear scat a few piles of it so I imagine that is how a bear Valley gets its name sure there are bears here if I'm lucky I'll see one hopefully not well good morning this starts the seventh day of the trip hard to believe I've been out here for a week already another night of camping down in a hole and so I've been waiting on the Sun to get here you know it's dark at 7:00 and then I haven't had Sun until 10 a.m. so that's 15 hours without sunlight so right now I am camped here in Bear Valley by this spring and I started yesterday up here camped on Tilden Lake and I basically just backtracked eight point eight miles nothing flat in here lots of up-and-down and then got down to Rancheria Creek and that's where this trail just goes straight up if you like switchbacks this is the trail for you and this Lake right here is pretty it's great camping and in hindsight I should have just camped there but I gambled a little bit that Bear Valley would be cool and not that it's not cool but it's just not idealistic camping and it's down in a hole but this is where I'm at right now now I've switched the map scene here I'm gonna show you what the plan is for today in Bear Valley and I'm gonna try to make it over here to paint valley which I hear is supposed to be really nice it's 14 miles away from here and looks like I'd have two bumps not as many bumps as yesterday first bump will be right off the bat and I'll get that over with and I'll come down this way hit a trail Junction drop down to Pleasant Valley and then it kind of looks like I'll be climbing up here for my second bump sort of sort of circling the drainage and then I'll drop a lot of elevation be going from about 8,000 feet actually I'll be going close from 9,000 feet where I'm at now down below 5,000 feet and right here is kind of where this Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River starts or at least the trail does going up and some of the people I've ran into have peyt Valley is a really nice place to camp but again it's kind of like Bear Valley I mean I'm just shooting for it as a potential camping spot I have to get to here today even if I have to walk a little bit in the dark just because I want to be able to spend some time in this thing tomorrow before hiking out the next day after that for the record I did find a running spring here not far from camp right in Bear Valley all right I am hitting the trail headed to paint Valley fourteen miles away from here it's noon and about seven hours to get there so it'll probably be dark it's my little hole yeah well that's looking down on Bear Valley right there I was camped on those Meadows it looks beautiful today we're zoomed in a shot there's great camping right behind that right there but my king up site was right in here somewhere all right that's my last few back behind me I've made it up to my first bump of the day woohoo only one more to go um I didn't cool with all this white sand in here anyways I'm gonna be heading downhill for a while and believe him going to a place called Pleasant Valley first no idea what that's gonna look like but I'm headed there trails could have been hard to follow today I lost it right after I left camp basically just climbed straight up the hillside until I found the trail right by the the top and then as soon as I've dropped over I kind of lost it again for a while all this grass but back on it now definitely not nearly as well maintained as the PCT trail all right getting into some Aspen's which are gorgeous and I'm actually having major camera issues actually the cameras stopped working and I got it back right now and so I don't know how much more I'll have the rest of the way but I'm basically about to drop down here this is pleasant valley somewhere below me in there so I'm dropping down to that but then somewhere out there I'll climb up onto the ridge now look at that far wall out there it's coming into view that's basically where I'm headed to a hold down in there and then I'll make a left-hand turn and that is probably a wall of the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River this trail is just all over the place right now no idea what it's doing it is a very bindi every time you think you see where you're going cut turns the other way Maxie lost it quite a few times today and have spent quite a bit of time just trying to Ralph's find to see what I did wrong but the section I'm in right now is absolutely gorgeous climbing out of this Pleasant Valley hitting the switchbacks now but it should almost be done with my final up of the day I'm a bear see him down there hey buddy hey buddy you don't have Cubs dear it's my home with Cubs all right I am dropping down into this Canyon and I've seen three black bears it's getting dark on me and camera is acting up but I'm gonna get down make camp and I'll hopefully check in well good morning is day number eight camped down here on the Tuolumne River and I think I'm about 4,300 feet above sea level by far the lowest elevation I've been to on this trip and I can definitely feel it it's much warmer than it's been everywhere else may be warmer is not the right word but milder temperatures didn't get below freezing last night and yeah it's just the perfect temperature yesterday was a very exciting day of hiking and I broke my curse I finally have seen black bears in the Sierra I saw three of them fortunately you know was one of those days my camera just wasn't working right in fact I actually thought I was broken didn't think I'd film the rest of the way so all this is a bonus as also having problems with my batteries dying in and when I saw the first black bear naturally camera battery was dead first one was up in an aspen tree I came around the corner and I watched him fall out of the tree in the past when I've seen black bears they sometimes will run away and climb a tree to get away from me but this one was the opposite it was up in a tree when it saw me and it didn't want to be there it was probably only 50 feet away I came right around a corner and I was seeing all kinds of bear scat there's bear scat everywhere yesterday I'm not lying I probably saw 75 piles of their crap and when I got to this last section right these switchbacks when I drop down like 3,000 feet to get where I'm at that's where I really started to see it in heavy concentrations and so I was like wow there's black bear scat they're there they're there that there's obviously a bear in this area rounded the corner and there's this big guy up in a tree much bigger than I was expecting nice brown coat and he freaked out and he basically was trying to down climb that aspen tree which was not very wide I mean it was only you know like a small trunk and he would just fall from branch to catch himself and then call himself on a branch and then fell like headfirst down caught himself again and it's kind of in this ravine too with a bunch of brush so when he actually fell to the ground he tumbled and he rolled down kind of feel bad making him do all that and expend all that energy but that was his choice didn't want to be there you know so that point um in these deeps like switchbacks getting into woods and it just goes on forever there's really no place to go and I had to get down to the creek to get water so I could make camp so there was no like other camping options it's getting dark on me now and all of a sudden I think I hear another bear I look around don't see anything drop down on the switchback and there is a bear and then I see a cub with it and it's just like not it's the opposite of the first one it's not wanting to get out of the way it kind of just is looking at me then slowly moves down the trail so I kind of play this game for a while where I keep dropping down switchbacks and then this mom with the cub keep slowly going down but they're not getting away from me and it's getting really dark and I'm like well what do I do I shouldn't just keep walking towards a sow with the cub even though they're just black bears they could definitely be dangerous she just wasn't getting out of my way and I didn't know what to do and finally I just she disappeared and it was a really narrow section area too so I don't I must have walked right past them yeah I ended up having to walk in the dark for about an hour with the headlamp and it's a really good thing I had those batteries the new batteries I got from Bret because it would have been challenging to do what I did yesterday without the headlamp just the trail isn't that easy to follow the entire trail yesterday I think it was like five or six times where I just got off trail and had to backtrack and figure out where it was I am camp somewhere right in here and I started yesterday up here by the spring in Bear Valley had trouble finding this trail and just climbed straight up the hill and yeah then this was some Meadows lots of forest look like Yellowstone National Park in places and even these lakes look like something you would see in Yellowstone and more so than a Yosemite Lake anyways I got here just trail junction and got out to this edge and that's when I thought it got really scenic fantastic views in this whole valley drop down through a bunch of aspen trees there's a good camping spot in here and when I crossed the creek there was lots of good camping up on these benches and this is where the trail kind of just was all over the place see these squiggly lines those aren't switchbacks it's just going wherever it wants to here's where you start at the switchbacks and I did have a look back at this lake but I never actually saw it I walked by it and yeah you basically climb up a ton of elevation and never really get out in the open and makes you kind of wonder why you're doing so it is a gorgeous forest in here though with all the Aspen's and pine trees from this trail junction this is just a lot of switchbacks I think you go down almost um probably 3,500 feet and just switch them back like crazy kind of in here is where I saw the Bears the first bear and then right down in here is where I saw the next to right about here got dark on me and you know it looked like there was potential for camping here but once it got dark I really couldn't see anything even with the headlamp on and so I just followed this trail and actually lost it again doing these switchbacks coming down here when I got down this trail Juneau could actually walk this way for a little bit in the dark didn't see a camping spot backtracked and then went all the way around this thing I'm basically camped right here so I think I did about 14 miles yesterday a lot of up a lot of down and took me a lot longer than I thought it would for some reason and so now for a look at what I'm playing today basically this is the Grand Canyon of follow-me River and its 14.3 miles all the way back over to here which is that Glen Allen campsite that I stayed at night one and from there it's five and a half miles back to the road so I've got one more night and I'm basically gonna spin it somewhere in this Canyon I don't want to walk till dark again I'm shooting for somewhere in here like maybe water wheel Falls there's a bunch of waterfalls in here but who knows I'm just going to go until I find a really good camp spot in the late afternoon and I'll call that good and then have a quick day out tomorrow and just a quick look around my camp that really isn't much to see I have a drownded my fire pit fires are allowed right now by the way no fire ban anymore too much moisture and frost and cold temperatures here's a look yeah Tuolumne River this morning all right I've packed up camp and I'm hitting the trail and I'm just headed up the Tuolumne River Trail now my van is parked about 20 miles away from here I have two days to get there and it's about 5,000 feet higher and where I'm at now so it's gonna be one long uphill kind of a very interesting landscape right now to start off well thirty minutes into this hike and I already know this is a place I want to come back to soon multiple times say there's a waterfall up there I'll go up for a better look there is a nice swimming hole with the nice water slide into it that'd be kind of fun no tusen that's a lot of different vegetation down here at the lower elevation clodine oak trees you like i remind me of being back home in florida i've also noticed that the smells are a lot more vibrant that's even the right word just I'm noticing smells a lot more today than I have the first seven days of this trip seems a little bit more like a jungle down here a lot more animal noises and sounds a lot more animal activity man this cannon is just gorgeous pools everywhere rock everywhere beautiful trees everywhere all right it is beautiful in here and it's looking up the canyon it's starting to narrow up quite a bit so I think I'm gonna start climbing I believe the trail goes somewhere up in there let's look at that wall of granite classic Yosemite scene right here heywhat today has definitely been one of my favorite days of this trip totally different from everything else I've done it's awesome it's also the warmest day by far the only drawback is that it's actually been buggy some sort of gnats have it's just been swarming my face all day really pretty lots of pools everywhere just look at how big these pinecones are I've never seen pinecones that big well hello there good morning this is day number nine should be the final day of this trip right now don't really know where I'm at I ended up hiking in the dark last night and the cold just zapped my batteries and I couldn't even chew shots I know I went up a bunch of switchbacks and passed several waterfalls that I could just barely make out this is probably the most scenic part of my entire trip and I did the dark ain't doing that but I kind of am in a hurry to get out I have to be out of here early today basically today I'm going to just continue up the Tuolumne River back to my van I imagine I have about eight miles maybe a little bit more to go kind of a look around my camp underneath this big rock looks much prettier in the daylight I had no idea what I was getting into last night it is uh kind of hard to find campsites in the dark and that's why I ended up hiking so far last night in the dark was I just kept going up those switchbacks looking for a spot and he was getting darker and darker and darker and there just wasn't anything close to water I tell you what this place is freaking gorgeous some waterfall over there just look at those colors this place is gorgeous just look at those walls tell you what aspen trees in the fall on sunny day or as positive as a Christmas tree all lit up Christmas Eve just has that same feeling looking down the Tuolumne River this place is freakin gorgeous [Music] I'm gonna have to put the camera away cuz I'm not making any time here Wow and that is one final view looking down the Tuolumne River I am back to Glyn all in camp and at 5 point something miles back to the car you

Channel: MyOwnFrontier

Views: 113,260

Keywords: Yosemite National Park, Backpacking, Backcountry, Hiking, Camping, Outdoors, PCT, Pacific Crest Trail, High Sierra, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, Tuolumne Meadows, Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River, Benson Lake, Tilden Lake, Bear Valley, Pleasant Valley, Joey Coconato, My Own Frontier

Id: tq9tHGQakDM

Length: 79min 2sec (4742 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2019