Friday–Sunday, 11–13 Sep 2009
Saturday
Richard discovered that dehydrated scrambled eggs can taste good when combined with bacon grease and cooked in a pan instead of in a bag. I had the bacon that supplied the grease plus some french toast. All of this was quite early as the garbage men make sure the entire camp is awake shortly after sun-up.
Richard gave some Yosemite hiking hints to the Mother/daughter as that was their next destination. After Yosemite I think they said they were heading to San Francisco. I gave them spare map I had of the Bay Area.
Dry Creek
Badger
Twisties
Once on the bikes I led Richard on a variation of the route I took Tom on last year: out of the park past Kaweah lake, up Dry Creek to 245, 180, then back into the park. The route variation this year was a different way into Badger. Whitaker Forest and the other back roads we were on are sometimes quite steep with sharp switchbacks. Fun. See the route map below for details. It looks like there are quite a few roads in that area that look like lots of fun. I’ll have to experiment more, perhaps next year.
Sequoias
Gen Grant
You can’t go to Sequoia park without stopping and looking at least at one giant tree, can you? Oh, you can. These pictures are from Grants Grove at the top of Kings Canyon park.
Cabin
Dovetail
How’d you like to spend a winter at 6500 feet with only that fireplace to keep you warm?
Marc
Hume lake
I took the picture of Hume Lake while Richard was taking the images to make up the following panorama. Make your browser as wide as it can get, the image is a monster. We rode down to the Christian Camp at Hume Lake for a milkshake. Very little milk was used. Sucking it though a straw was impossible.
Panorama
Costly picture
Richards panorama shot turned out to be a costly photo. The sidestand of his bike, untouched, dug into the asphalt which somehow let the bike roll backwards and fall on its right side. The result was a bent footpeg and scratched up paint. Ouch!
Generals Highway
After the milkshakes we rode up to the Generals Highway and headed down back toward camp. We stopped at Lodgepole to replenish the beer and ice supply. I headed straight to camp while Richard stopped at the General Sherman tree. The new set-up makes it a long, steep walk to and from the tree from the parking lot. Richard reports it was crowded with folks that might not be able to make it back up after walking down to the tree. He gave up and arrived back in camp shortly after me.
The mule
Happy campers
We enjoyed more beer, snacks, another trip to the river, and dinner. The campground was again full. Again, there were more reports of bear sightings, but we didn’t see anything. The highlight of the evening was waiting for the fire to die down enough to go to bed. Party on!
