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Hetch Hetchy, July 2004

Day 3

Our third day started with a serious climb to our second and final high point so we hit the trail before 6:00 am to beat the heat and mosquitoes, succeeding in the former but not the latter (It should be said that getting up that early was no hardship since we were going to bed once it got dark, around 9:00 pm, giving us 8 hours of sleep assuming we woke up at 5:00 am).  It wasn’t until we reached the exposed and breezy rock of the summit that we stopped for any kind of a break, in this case we ate breakfast as well.  No sooner did we leave the sanctuary of the breezy rock when we once again descended into forests with the accompanying mosquitoes.  With no relief in sight we kept going, and going, and going.  At one point I sprayed DEET in my eye, ouch!  We planned to stay in Tiltill Valley but Henrik and I, each independently, decided that given the heat, drinking water choices, and mosquito potential, we would be better served heading down to Rancheria Falls.  This was the best decision of the entire trip.  It was a long walk to get there but all fatigue vanished upon jumping into the pools around the falls and footbridge upstream of it. 

I can describe this section of trail as walking through a field you would encounter in your dreams.  The flowers where everywhere, shoulder high, and the trail was only inches wide at times.  Plus, after an hour of hard climbing from camp we had reached the high point of the entire trip (probably around 8,600 feet) and for many hours today we walked down a gentle slope on hard, dirt trails.  It was quite wonderful except that good water sources where not to be found, only stagnant lakes, and the mosquitoes where bad.

In my opinion, the best picture of the trip with Tiltill Valley below and Hetch Hetchy beyond.  I also took a picture of Henrik in the same spot but since this is CaseyandEmily.com...

And from the great vantage point of the previous picture, we finally made it down into Tiltill Valley.  Parts of the trail down, with giant boulders and oak trees made us think we where at the bottom of the trail up to Yosemite Falls.  Only 10 minutes after this picture was taken Hannah would fill her bladder with questionable water that she would later drink without treating since I had the chlorine dioxide in my pack and Henrik and I had walked ahead.

Some pictures get to break my Lhorizontal > Lvertical rule, but it has to be something special like this.  We spent quite a bit of time here, at the footbridge above Rancheria Falls.  James, our co-worker, came here over Memorial Day in 2003 and found the water level to be substantially higher, to the extent that going in would most likely result in death.

Just as with the photo above, this one was taken below the footbridge and looking downstream.  To get the shot of Mr. Dahl I had to take it from the middle of the river.  I love the "infinity pool" effect.  It looks like he could be standing out of the water but actually he is sitting in the middle of it.

This is another way to get around my Lhorizontal > Lvertical rule, if you can put two vertically orientated pictures side by side.  In this case, the picture on the left is looking upstream from the bridge while the one on the right is looking downstream.  We went upstream until the falls petered out, just a few minutes beyond what you can see in the picture and also explored downstream to the top of Rancheria Falls.

Speaking of Rancheria Falls, here it is with the footbridge just barely visible.  This photo was taken very to close to where we camped.

Hannah collects water at our final campsite, with soft sand and no mosquitoes.

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