Miles Of No Roads...

and very few people. Well after a 145 photos taken I decided on these three of the trip. The top one is of a very nice swimming hole just below California falls on the Tuolumne River. Nice and chilly I went for a short dip. The middle one is a view into the back country of Yosemite just north of Tioga Pass Road. Three miles from the road and I saw two folks. The last one is a close up of flowers by Water Wheel falls.

It was a great trip three nights, four days. I wanted to do some of the Trail that connects the five High Sierra camps. So the trail had a fair amount of people but not bad. Most of them were hiking camp to camp and very friendly. I asked each group which camp was the best. The favorite answer was they are all great each one showing a different slice of the Sierra back country. I saw two of the camps. May Lake and and Glen Aulin. May lake being a beautiful high sierra lake and Glen Aulin at the base of the White Cascade. The goal of the hike was to see Water Wheel Falls. I have been wanting to go there for 20 years and it was worth the wait. It has to be just fantastic in early July just when Tioga Pass opens. I hope I can get WB to do at least one or two of the High Sierra camps next year. I am going to put in for the lottery next year and see. Got many hints from hikers along the way. Maybe Biscuit, Mr and Mrs H would like May lake only 1.2 miles from the trail head. Great hiking, swimming, views and nightly fun I could hear from my camp at Raisin lake 1.5 miles away. Complete with showers, and flush johns. WB liked hearing that.

I did all my cooking on my halfoz Pepsi can stove. Worked like a charm. I was very pleased at how it performed. I thought I would need 24 oz of fuel came home with 8.35 oz remaining. And I did not conserve. The only problem I ran out of coffee.

It was interesting once I was within 1 mile of the Tuolumne meadows campground, visitor center etc. Folks looked cleaner and in a much bigger hurry. By the time I got there I was tired, (funny my feet hurt on the bottom first two days and on the top last two days) hungry and ready for a sandwich. Walked right into the store pack and all. Asked where are the sandwiches the clerk pointed me to the cooler. Picked out a nice $6.00 turkey and cheese. When I went to pay the nice young lady said this is expired let me get you a fresh one. Wonder if she would have done that for the other folks. Went next door and got a large fresh Seattle coffee. ($1.85). Went outside and set on the picnic table and started to eat. Looked at the guy at the next table. On his leg was this very large knife in a holster at the ready to protect the family from those Yosemite Bears. The crowd was so different from two miles up the trail I thought as I sat there and watched the RV's go by I had a great trip with 37 pounds of stuff on my back and these folks need a $100,000.00 RV to see 1/10 what I was able to see. Oh well, they just don't know what they are missing. Hope the guy kept the fam protected.

Off to Yosemite

Off to Yosemite in the morning. Hoping to get a permit to start at Tenaya lake. First night camp at Polly Dome lakes. Short day hike to May lake to see High Sierra camp on Wed and than off to McGee Lake for two nights. Day hiking on Thursday to see the many falls on the Tuolumne River and than out to Tuolumne meadows on Friday bus back to car and home.

Should be fun. Hope WB gets along OK by herself. Blogger would not upload my pic :(

You are Getting Older When...

the aircraft you learned to fly in are now in a museum. I went to the Sonoma county airshow yesterday. It is a good small town airshow put on by the Pacific Air Museum. A nice local Air museum. It was interesting all the planes that were on the Kitty Hawk and the ones I learned to fly in are now antique. They had the latest military primary trainer. It did a demo with the AT-6 the primary trainer for WW II. I learned to flew in the second generation of trainers the T-34. The newest trainer the is the fourth Generation of military trainer. I guess time marches on.

Getting ready for another backpack trip. This time the halfoz stove is it for cooking. Also need to update the toy additions that keep showing up in the Garage. Should make for an interesting entry.

Off to Costco.

Pictures of Desolation Wilderness

A few pictures from my trip to the Desolation Wilderness by lake Tahoe. It was just a one night trip. But, it proved to be a good tune up for my next trip to Yosemite.

The weather was great not too hot or cold. I went in the middle of the week and was surprised at the number of people at the trail head. Most likely since I picked one of the most popular places to enter the wilderness. And there were lots of vacation cabins around. So parking was a bit of a hassle.

Once I got off the main trail this is the only person I saw on the trail. At the lake there were two guys fishing but they departed at the end of the day. So I had the lake all to myself and the mosquitoes.

My little Sony camera still works great the more I use it the more I like it. Trying to make my load lighter for the next trip. I think I will go back to my biviy instead of a tent and maybe my lighter Therm-a-rest, and my UL pack that will save about 5 - 6 pounds. Stay tuned.


Campsite, lake and flower pictures.




Lake Tahoe

Pictures of Desolation Wilderness

A few pictures from my trip to the Desolation Wilderness by lake Tahoe. It was just a one night trip. But, it proved to be a good tune up for my next trip to Yosemite.

The weather was great not too hot or cold. I went in the middle of the week and was surprised at the number of people at the trail head. Most likely since I picked one of the most popular places to enter the wilderness. And there were lots of vacation cabins around. So parking was a bit of a hassle.

Once I got off the main trail this is the only person I saw on the trail. At the lake there were two guys fishing but they departed at the end of the day. So I had the lake all to myself and the mosquitoes.

My little Sony camera still works great the more I use it the more I like it. Trying to make my load lighter for the next trip. I think I will go back to my biviy instead of a tent and maybe my lighter Therm-a-rest, and my UL pack that will save about 5 - 6 pounds. Stay tuned.


Campsite, lake and flower pictures.




Lake Tahoe

Halfoz Works

I had this all done last night when I went to spell check and it would not work. So I hit the back arrow and away went my draft.

So here is try number two. Anyway after retiring; car camping; trip to Europe; and trip to Iowa. I finally made it out on an overnight backpack. WB wanted to watch Biscuit before returning to work. And I wanted to backpack up by Tahoe. So I dropped WB off at Mr and Mrs H's house. And I drove to the Desolation wilderness for and overnight.

While loading my pack I noticed my halfoz Pepsi can stove just setting there. Since I gave them as Christmas presents I figured I should see if the thing really works. So I packed it in my Bear Canister and took about 5 oz of Denatured Alcohol for fuel in and empty water bottle. WB made sure she put the skull and cross bones on with a Sharpe pen so I would not mistake it for water.

The one error I made was my windscreen. Even though it was made for my pot it was not finished. I had not put the holes in for the stakes to go through to hold the pot. So I put halfoz on a rock and turned the wind screen over and put the stakes through the vent holes. See picture. As you can tell it works. Better than I had hoped. With that small amount of fuel I made two meals and six cups of coffee plus some dish washing. I did take my regular backpack stove as a back up but did not need it.

I will publish some other photos next time. It was a good tune up. I had forgotten it takes a trip or two to get used to the pack and break the feet into the boots. Next trip Yosemite.

Iowa and Gardens

When I go back to Iowa I go and visit my sister in Ross, Iowa. It is a very small collection of maybe 20 houses the loacal church and more dogs than people. It is a great little place. When I was in Grade school I use to get to go the two miles to my sisters house for vacation. Usually lasting about two to three days. I always had a fun time playing with my newhews and neices who are about my age. The one thing as my sister and her husband always had was a large garden. As you can tell by the picture it is nice and green with many vegtables doing very well. They grew just about everything plus, apples and several types of berries. And they canned and froze everything in very large quantities since they have a bunch of kids. But when I got older I have always had a garden but it does not compare to my sister and her husband who are 79 and 82. But I keep trying. The other photo is the Grain Elevator we use to play in. It must be almost 100 years old. They should make it into some kind of historcal monument. It has been around a long time and still looks fair from the outside. The inside is not a place I would let my kids play. But I am sure the kids in Ross still visit the place.

We went to Iowa to attend WB's moms funeral. Nice event she was 92 almost 93 hope I last that long. Now that we are back in sunny California it is time to do some outdoor stuff.

I finally got the new gears put on my bike that Mr and Mrs H gave me for my B-day. It was a great addition to the bike. Finally going to do a one night backpack. I need a tune up before doing something longer. I am taking what halfoz is all about will report back how things worked in another post.