Yosemite - Fall 2011

Today, Chuck and Jamshid and I went to Yosemite, and it was great. Well, except for all the fog on the way. It was foggy all the way from my place to the Sierra foothills, particularly thick around I-5 (of course). I took it slow and careful, so it added about half an hour to the drive.

Since it is late in the season, I checked the weather carefully. We were set to go last weekend despite the 20% chance of a tenth of an inch of snow, but then the forecast changed to 90% chance of 5 to 9 inches! Of course, after we canceled our plans, it didn't snow after all. In any case, I kept a close eye on the Yosemite webcams to see how much snow might accumulate during the week. I kept a copy of this particularly nice image.

Today it turned out to be sunny with a forecast high around 50 degrees. We started and ended the hike in our jackets, but in the middle of the day we could take them off in the sun.

Our hike was from the Wawona Tunnel up the south rim to Crocker Point. The lower part of the hike was dry, but about 10% of the trail was snow covered in the upper elevations. Here are Chuck (foreground) and Jamshid (background) in a particularly snowy section.

Stanford Point, Crocker Point, and Dewey Point are reachable in day trip, in that order. The main trail only goes near Stanford Point, and in the summer there is a chaotic profusion of side trails to reach the point itself. This time there were fewer trails through the snow, but they still didn't take a particularly optimal route to the point. So I made my own, which turned out to be even worse. In any case, we made it eventually.

It's not too much further to Crocker Point. I guess I didn't take a photo of the point itself. (The metal sign was propped up against a tree, where it wasn't very photogenic.) Here's a look down at Bridalveil Fall.

... and across the valley at the distant snow-covered mountains.

We were hiking somewhat leisurely, so we decided to not go all the way to Dewey Point. Here's a final shot from the return trip, from Inspiration Point (or thereabouts).

Windy Hill - 2011

Chuck and I hiked at Windy Hill. We planned to take Lost Trail to Hamms Gulch Trail to Meadow Trail to Spring Ridge Trail (steep up), about ~6.5 miles, ~1000 feet elevation. However, Chuck likes to complete as many trails as he can in each park, so we also covered the many small loops around the main entrance and lake. Chuck says our total was probably about 10 miles.

There a couple of good view spots up near Skyline, but generally it's a pretty standard Open Space park.

Hanalei-Okolehao Route

Richard and I hiked up the fairly steep Hanalei-Okolehau Route. Just after the first one-lane bridge an the highway past Princeville, a sharp left put us on a narry road next to a river (flat and gentle here). Parking is limited, but the hiking book and our experience is that it never fills up.

There were plenty of Richard's favorite guavas along this trail.

Also, good views of Hanalei.

Canyon Trail Adventure

I went by myself today for a nice loop combining the Canyon and Black Pipe trails, the Kumuwela road and trail, and the Halemanu-Kokee trail. Once again I had the bad set of camera batteries, although this time I was able to diagnose the problem so that it won't happen any more.

There were various other groups of hikers up to and at the Waipoo Falls. After that, though, I saw hardly anyone.

The first part of the trail goes out onto various ridges overlooking the canyon. I do not know what process formed these natural arches.

The "Kaipo Perch" has a nice butt-shaped indentation for anyone who wants sit and watch the canyon.

'Round about here is where I met a couple of German tourists who asked me to snap their picture in front of the canyon. They also offered to take my picture, but that's when my batteries went south. They took my picture with their camera and offered to send it to me when they got home, so I'll put it up here if/when that happens.

They also wanted to know how far it was to the Kokee Museum. Gee, uh, does this trail even go to the Kokee Museum? They weren't sure, but apparently someone had told them to "just follow the trail" to get there. I showed them the map in my hiking book with the dense interwoven trails, and invited them to hike with me and I'd at least get them back to civilization. And thus Sebastien and Rebekka became my hiking partners for the rest of the day.

From around this point the trail veered in away from the canyon edge, so the best views were mainly of flowers from that point on. We had a nice conversation comparing the hiking in Hawaii, California, and the Alps; discussing the current economy and our respective countries' recovery efforts; and various other small talk.

When we got to a multiway intersection near the Halemanu-Kokee Trail, I looked deeper in my hiking book and found the proper route for them to take to the Kokee Museum. However, they decided that they'd had enough, so we headed back to my car, and I gave them a ride back to their car.

Moalepe Trail

Richard and I finally went on the gentler trail that we'd intended two days ago, and I finally got my calves properly stretched out without overworking them.

The Moalepe Trail starts as a fire road/ranch road, although the ranchland to either side seems to be mostly abandoned. Certainly it's very lush and rugged, so rounding up the animals can't be easy.

The views are limited until you get to the picnic area. From there you can see the main Kauai mountain range, depending on the cloud level.

The clouds were playing hide and seek. Different cloud layers made it look like the clouds were tearing apart.

Since we'd seen so many different flowers on the way in, I figured I'd photograph as many as I could on the way back. Unfortunately, my macro photography skills are not that great, especially when it comes to getting the right focus.

This trail had a few more people on it than the others we'd been on, but they were still pretty sparse.

Iliau Nature Loop

Today Richard and I roped my mom to come with us to the Iliau Nature Loop at the head of the Kukui Trail. The nature loop has signs giving the names and a paragraph of information about various native plants in the area. Unfortunately, my memory for plant names is very bad.

Also, the views over the canyon are spectacular.

It was starting to spit rain, so I hurried back to the car and got our picnic supplies, and we set ourselves up for lunch in the sheltered picnic area.

The rain was sporadic, but occasionally quite hard. After finishing our lunch, we found ourselves having to wait patiently for the rain to stop. During a lull when it had calmed to an occasional spit, we decided to make a dash back to the car. Our timing was perfect, as rain fell in torrents as soon as we got inside.

We stopped in Hanapepe for Lappart's ice cream. For Halloween they had Pumpkin Crunch flavor, where the Crunch seemed to be a mix of pie crust and pecans. It was strangely good.

Alii Vista Hale, Nonou Mountain

Yesterday I played a few games of beach volleyball with the locals who come out on Saturday. 'Twas fun, but after a plane ride and a steep hike the day before, beach volleyball was an excellent way to make my calves hurt even more. I looked forward to a gentler hike to stretch them out again. As it turns out, I mixed up my intended route with this one, so today's hike was steeper than I intended. But it was still good.

Richard and I have hiked this trail before, so it was familiar terrain. It starts next to a horse pasture, then crosses a wooden bridge. It's been repaired now, but the last time we were here it was fascinatingly bowed by the weight of trees and other plant material that had washed against it in a recent flood.

Across the bridge, the trail climbs gently along the side of the ridge and behind the rather large yards of the richer locals.

At an intersection, the trail turns steeply uphill through a stand of Norfolk Pine (supposedly planted by Captain Cook for future use as masts) and up to a pair of picnic tables under a shelter.

Today I had a bad set of batteries in my camera, so there are no more photos.