I spent a wonderful weekend in Yosemite. This was obviously not a caching trip (no geocaches in National Parks) but still, the main purpose was to attend Touchstone's CITO event in Tuolumne Meadows' campground. The idea was to drive to Yosemite on Saturday, spend the night in the campground, work (CITO) on the Sunday morning, and hopefully hike on Sunday afternoon.The weekend ended up in 4 finds, all completely meaningful to me.
I wanted to arrive in Yosemite before the end of the afternoon so that I had enough time to set up my tent. This meant that I should not stop for many caches on the way. As a matter of fact, I decided that I would stop for one cache only, in Oakdale, the only reason being it would give me a new "county" I didn't have (Stanislaus county). It would also be around lunch time so that would be a perfect break on the road.
In Oakdale, I chose to look for "Santa Claus is coming to town", which was supposed to be an easy "quick and go" that had good reviews. That was an excellent choice. Even though the cache was indeed an easy micro, I had a good laugh when I spotted it. I really enjoyed finding this one.
After this find, my only goal for the day was to get to Tuolumne Meadows, find the campground, set up my tent and wait for the "s'mores" event to start. I arrived probably around 5 pm, found a spot in one of the 5 sites that was booked for us by Touchstone. I met cachers from various areas and was equally happy to see familiar faces.
Kablooey talked me into going after a cache he had just found and that would involve a long nice hike just the way I like them. I got convinced and thought I would go for it on Sunday afternoon. I didn't have the coordinates for any nearby cache because I just thought there was none. But the boundaries of the park were not far from the campground and there are caches waiting for us just on the outside. Kablooey gave me all the information I needed, and even showed me the pictures he took. That seemed like a great plan.
After the day's long drive, the s'mores event was very relaxing. I tried my best to roast marshmallows without burning them and got a lot of advice. Marshmallow after marshmallow, and under constant supervision, I got better at it. I still can't make the chocolate melt though. It will take practice. Kablooey suggested that Graham crackers + chocolate could be replaced by "Petit ecoliers". That sounds like a good idea. I will try next time.
After a beautiful (starry) but cold (2600 meters of altitude I guess) night, it was time for the CITO event to start. We were initially supposed to assemble picnic tables and benches but the parts never made it to the campground. So instead, we were to clean fire pits (removing garbage and ashes). We were many volunteers and we swept the designated part of the campground clean in less than 2 hours. It was fun checking every campsite, greeting the campers there and asking whether we could clean their site. We sure swallowed and inhaled a lot of ashes but it was a useful thing to do. With so many sites in the campgrounds, I can't imagine how long it would take for two rangers to do the job.
By noon, the job (more that what the rangers have signed us up for) was done so after a quick lunch, I said bye to everyone around and hit the trail to find elevation 10725', this famous cache Kablooey told me about. This cache is accessed from Yosemite but is not in the park.
This was indeed a gorgeous hike, albeit challenging because of the altitude, and the steep and rough terrain. It started at the Tioga Pass entrance of the park.A very steep first part brings you over the Gaylor lakes, along which follows a beautiful relaxing and uphill walk. The trail then takes you through many types of rocks of all forms and colors near abandoned hut and mines. The last part, past the mines is outside of the park boundaries and there is no trail. You have to completely rely on the GPS. This is probably why the terrain is rated 4.5.
I quickly found the cache about 2.5 hours after I started, signed the log, did a little trade and was ready to go. The way back to the trailhead was mostly downhill and it only took me 1.5 hour.
This was my highest cache find ever, with a max on my way to the cache at 3300 m (according to my GPS).
The weather was perfect. Sunny, but not hot and slightly breezy. I saw thousands of nice wild flowers, chipmunks, moths... This hike will stay a very memorable one.
According to my GPS, I walked 7.4 km and it took me about 4 hours. I left immediately after the hike, at about 5pm and was home just before 10pm.
I discovered later once home that the cache was so far out that it was not in the county the hike started. In other words, this cache allowed me to "score" a new county : "Mono county". Yay!
As I said, only 4 caches this weekend, but all meaningful:
- an enjoyable cache in Stanislaus County
- a s'mores event
- a CITO event
- a gorgeous hike in Yosemite (to a cache that was in Mono County as an extra bonus - see pictures)
