The past winter has been a tremendous one in Yosemite National Park. Even as summer sets in, snowfall accumulations remain, sticking around much longer than normal. Many trails remained covered well into the month of June, with Tioga Road through the Yosemite high country still remaining closed.
Nonetheless, my neighbor and I couldn’t go any longer without hitting the trail for a backpacking trip, even knowing well we would be heading into snowy territory by the time we reached higher elevations.
Our route of choice would be a strenuous one, taking us along the Upper Yosemite Falls trail and to the rim of the Yosemite Valley. Both of us live and work in the park, so we rode our bikes the mile or so from home to the trailhead that first morning. I work the late shift, so we weren’t going to be leaving at any ungodly early hour, which meant we’d be bearing the heat of midday sun. Someday I might decide to become an early riser, but not this day.
