Thursday 9 August 2018 It is already warm when we leave the hotel in Visalia. We stop for fuel and groceries and then drive eastward, through the San Joaquin Valley and into the brown foothills of the Sierra. The temperature tops out at about 103 degrees F before we start climbing into the mountains. The road through Sequoia is twisting with many curves marked at 10 mph that turn 180
Wednesday 8 August 2018 We leave Los Padres National Forest and head east again. Even in Los Padres the hills look a bit hazy. We are hoping for decent conditions at Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park. At our hotel in Visalia the receptionist tells us business has been brisk due to people leaving the park because of smoke. This is one of the earliest and worst fire seasons ever in California.
Tuesday 7 August 2018 More Mexican pastries for breakfast. We spend most of the day reading and chasing the densest shade around our site. I’m pretty sure the temperature tops 100 degrees today. The water in our bottles is like warm tea. Dinner involves minimal cooking as we prepare peanut butter pasta. While we are cleaning up I hear a rustling in the woods behind our tent. A covey of
Monday 6 August 2018 After a quiet and restful night (but thus far just about every night has been quiet and restful) we move our camp from site 16 to site 9. Then we drive back to King City to seek a flash drive on which to load my Rocky Mountain Sierra Club photos. We acquire the flash drive at a pharmacy and then find a well-shaded picnic table at
Sunday 5 August 2018 As promised, Manny is packed and ready to leave by 10 am. O and I move Wglwof up the slope to a nice flat site. We won’t have to keep crawling back uphill in our sleep tonight. After camp is tidied up we drive back over the winding mountain road. O explains it’s one of those roads where you can reach out and clean your tail
Saturday 4 August 2018 We have a light motel breakfast this morning. After last night’s dinner we don’t need much to eat. We stop at Castros Bakery, highly recommended on Yelp, to buy some Mexican pastries. We purchase a variety for Manny to thank him for sharing his campsite and a few for ourselves for tomorrow’s breakfast. We also stop to top off Vincent’s tank and to get some DEF.
Friday 3 August, 2018 At 6:30 am I am back on the computer. It is now too late to book a campsite online for Sunday night, but I find a site at Ponderosa Campground that is available for Monday and Tuesday. As we have no definite plans for tonight, I also book a motel room in King City, California on the east side of Los Padres National Forest. Now we
Thursday 2 August 2018 For the first time since we are at Tuolumne Meadows, the smoke gets worse overnight. By morning we have irritated eyes and throats. We drive down to Lee Vining for cell reception to try to get enough information to decide what to do. The smoke driving down is almost as thick as it was at the grove of big trees a few days ago. In Lee
Wednesday 1 August 2018 Today we will try to complete last Thursday’s hike, which was interrupted by a thunderstorm. We drive up to approximately 10,000 feet elevation to return to the trailhead and once again huff and puff our way to the top of the ridge overlooking Dana Meadows on one side and Gaylor Lake on the other. Yesterday afternoon had gotten pretty smoky, but this morning the air is
Tuesday 31 July 2018 Today is a lazy day. We sleep in until 7! Breakfast is Russian Coffee Cake with jam. Then we drive down to Lee Vining to get laundry done. While we are there we get two chocolate milkshakes which we sip while reading and blogging the day away. Once again I use the Mono Lake Committee’s wifi. The sky in Lee Vining started off only mildly hazy