Lyell Canyon to Evelyn Lake

MVP

Garmin Instinct Solar—The GPS tracking on this watch is great, but what’s even better is the blood oxygen sensor. It’s given me the comfort of knowing that I wasn’t getting altitude sickness. It’s reading of 95% throughout the day made me feel confident and kept negative thoughts at bay.

Camp Review:

Evelyn Lake was much prettier than I thought it would be. The Lake even had beaches on the west and east ends of the lake.
The sunset was pretty, but the smoke was so heavy that the sunset came about 20 minutes earlier than scheduled—the sun simply disappeared.
I found a 4 star camp site pretty far away from the lake. I would have preferred a closer site, but this has the wind protection that I wanted, and the site was perfectly level.
When I first got into the tent, the smoke was still pretty heavy and I only saw one star. Around 10pm, when I walked out, the smoke was completely gone and there were so many stars. I could easily see the Milky Way.

What I Learned:

Rafferty Creek Trail is my exit trailhead. Rafferty Creek is dry, so I’ll have to remember to completely fill up at Boothe Lake.
On the drive in, there were parts of Yosemite that were completely filled with smoke. I would guesstimate at 500+ AQI. But as I drove east, it let up.
I was thinking about getting lunch on the way in, but couldn’t find anything to stir my interest. In the future, I think I should just down a high calorie pastry from the gas station (as I had done for Kennedy Mountain hike). I ended up just eating snacks because I didn’t want to stop for lunch.
I was worried about how cold I’d be hiking (I wasn’t wrong as there were puddles of water that were completely frozen), but by 10:30am, it was 60 degrees and I had to put my layers away!
The climb up from Lyell Fork to Evelyn Lake is about 2000ft in elevation, which isn’t usually hard... except for the pack, and smoke. Still, I averaged over 1mph, so I consider it a victory.
I thought the west fork of Ireland Creek would by dry, so I carried full water bottles. But it was still running. I could have carried 2+lbs less!
The smoke got so bad that by 2pm I had the n95 mask on. I should have put the mask on earlier, but I only put it on after I saw others on the trail put it on. I should have had it on earlier as it totally helps!
I had a headache at night, which made me worried about altitude sickness, but I ran the blood oxygen test and it confirmed that I was fine. I then narrowed it down to either all the smoke I inhaled as I huffed and puffed up Ireland Lake Trail; dehydration as I didn’t drink as much as I should given the exertion; or because I had only consumed about 1000 calories before dinner. Maybe a combo of all three.
By the morning the smoke was mostly gone (maybe 50 AQI) and I was feeling great!
My pack weight was 29.8 lbs and this was my first time using the Sierra Designs Flex Capacitor backpack. What a comfortable setup! There was no shoulder digging in, and I won’t go back to my old backpack!

Fears Faced:

Hiking in lots of smoke—Knowing what a I know now, I’m not sure if I would have still gone on this trip. I did okay, but I didn’t enjoy hiking as much as I should have. I think next year I need to plan coastal trips during California’s fire season.

Altitude sickness—Like Kennedy Mountain and Jennie Lakes Wilderness, I didn’t acclimate, and I didn’t get altitude sickness. I should just stop worrying about it, unless I’m hiking more than 11k in elevation.

Media Consumed:

The Glass Castle and various podcasts.

People Met:

I met a few people. Four awesome, young Indian backpackers who ended up camping at Evelyn Lake. Two older bay area hikers who were also really fun to talk to.

11.4 miles, 6 hrs 45 mins, 2124 ft of ascent

What Happened?

I drove to the Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Station by 9am and picked up my permit. I then parked at the Dog Lake parking lot and started the hike on the John Muir Trail.

It was around 40 degrees when I started hiking, so I had my sweater on, but by 10:30am, my thermometer said that it was 60 degrees and I was hot. I took off my sweater and converted my pants to shorts, and I was much more comfortable.

Lyell Canyon wasn’t as pretty as I saw in the pictures due to the lack of blue water (due to the smoke in the air). Still, the hike was pretty flat and I made great time (2 mph).

When I got to the Ireland Lake trail intersection, I took a break to fill up on water and to catch my breath. I saw a couple passing and they pointed out a coyote—they said that it had been tracking them for the past few miles!

The Ireland Lake Trail was something else. It gains almost 2000ft in elevation over 3 miles and it really tired me out. The book I was listening to was pretty depressing too, so I switched it out for podcasts hoping it would give me a burst of energy. It helped, but it still couldn’t keep my brain from suggesting that I give up and just go back down. After almost 3 hours, I made it to the top, and I was pretty happy that I had made it.

There is this small unnamed lake before Evelyn Lake and I had read that the views from this lake were remarkable. Due to the heavy smoke in the air (I would estimate at over 200+ AQI), I couldn’t see a damned thing. The last mile to Evelyn Lake was tiring, as I felt a headache and hiking with a n95 mask on wasn’t fun.

I set up my tent after hiking another half a mile to find the best spot for me, and ended up conversing with friendly neighbors. After, I finally had my hot dinner, and it tasted so god damn good.

I replenished my water bottles one final time and retired to my tent. I rewatched an episode of Barry and went to bed. It has been a long day.

MVP