Wednesday, July 30, 2003
192. This is part 5. Please read part 1,part 2, part 3 and part 4.
A few hundred yards later, the terrain started to rise slowly and the environment was filled with rocks. Despite the rise, the hike was still bearable. The only thing that was a turn off was the lack of shade. The Sun’s, with its ray in full spectrum continuously bombarded our miserable skins. Our clothes were also wet with sweat but there was nothing we could do but ignore it.
By 1300, we were too sleepy to go on and so we resolute to take a cat nap at a place beside the river. The nap lasted for nearly an hour.
Having regained of our strength partly, we continued on walking. Along the way, we did meet a few interesting people. One of them was a father of three. Upon seeing us, we said out loud, “Are you doing it?”
I was not paying attention to my ears and so I replied with a short “What?”
“Are you doing it?” He repeated. “Hiking! It sucks!”
I only managed an “oh” but Epol went on further by declaring “I agree”.
We were tired but Mother Nature repaid our resilience almost immediately. As we gained more altitude and later found that Yosemite Creek was way down below in the middle of a very small and steep ravine. The river was also wilder. It must be a fantastic spot for extreme canoeing.
For a full two hours, we hiked the tight, treeless path under the merciless Sun. It was during this time as my skin pigments were being bombarded with UV ray that I’d finally realized that I forgot to apply sun block lotion.
Yosemite Creek down in the ravine
It came as a relief when green and tall vegetation came back to existence. Shade slowly replaced the light on the floor as we moved forward and we were more than glad to walk under the green canopy.
Somewhere under the shade, we had to cross a stream that flows into the Yosemite Creek. It was a small stream, barely 4 feet in width. Despite that, the trail seemed to disappear after it went into the water. We took roughly 15 minutes to figure out what needed to be done. After sending each other as scout to three different directions, we finally found the other part of the trail about 10 meters upstream. This happened because the part of the trail is being consumed by the tiny stream. Nature seems to have a way in reclaiming its property.
It took another hour or two when at last, in the middle of nowhere, we heard internal combustion engines roaring somewhere in front of us. Through the map, we had to cross two roads, one unpaved while the other is a state freeway; reaching the first road means that we were near to our destination.
However, the first road was paved. We were surprised to see a paved road as it could mean that we were lost. Looking at the map again, we found that it is impossible to cross or to find other paved road as within 50 miles radius, there are only two roads with the unpaved road always on the freeway’s south. We later concluded that our map was outdated, or though however unlikely, the American’s notion of unpaved is different.
The improvised map
A further hike finally brought us to the freeway. There were signs that confirmed our location with White Wolf laying 4 more miles ahead and better, downhill. We took a rest and some photographs near the road.
The freeway that runs through Yosemite National Park
The only piece of technology that we brought with us was a camcorder and a digicam. Nothing was impressive about either the camcorder or the digicam. However, what was impressive is the memory, a staggering 120 Megabytes in a card with a total area less than 3 cm². When I was first introduced to a computer, an early Mac back in the late 80’s, a 5¼" floppy disk could only hold as much as 360 kilobytes. And the floppy disk drive itself took up 1/3 of the total CPU space. Although I consider myself to be well-informed and located somewhere near the technology frontier, I can’t help but marvel at how fast the rate of computer technology is being developed.
Anyway, we fought on and another mile later, we saw the incredible Lukens Lake. The approach is particularly worth mentioning.
The approach to Lake Lukens
The trail that leads to the lake was heavily shielded from the Sun by the tree branches and the slope was tolerable. It took about a mile or so until the area became flat. The vegetation of the area also changed. Tree trunks were giving way to a weaker green-stem species. At the same time, the mosquito population density increased.
We sort of waded along the path as the small but tall plants, a little bit taller than me grew into the edge of the trail. Merely roughly 50 meters later, the tall green-stem plant stopped its infiltration as a smaller species took dominance. With the lack of the green-stem plants, Lukens Lake was visible under the completely clear blue sky. On its background, confiner trees are everywhere and just before the lake, purple flowers are as many as the mosquitoes, making the sight as pretty as a well-painted picture (in fact, better!).
Beside the irritating mosquitoes, there were all kind of dragonflies flying around. With the whole populace concentrated around Lukens Lake, I had the chance to see one of the rarest dragonflies – a blue colored dragonfly. It might not be rare according to the biologist but it is a rare encounter for me. The usual dragonflies that I am familiar with are colored in blue, green and to some extend red.
Though the water looked marvelously beautiful with the reflection of the blue sky, a closer look revealed that the lake is not a good place to be in; it was mosquitoes’ breeding and dragonfly’s feeding ground. The water itself was murky. On the other hand, it was a great fishing spot for those with fishing as a hobby.
Lake Lukens. The best photo I've ever taken yet
After a few photo sessions, we left the splendid Lukens Lake behind for White Wolf. The time was around 1800, two more hours before the Sun finally set in the west; three more miles to our camping ground. Despite the short distance, those last three miles seemed like 3000 miles. My body was already exhausted after more than 10 miles of hiking. Epol also looked tired but Leman was by far still had his stamina.
As we walked farther down the path, the temperature dropped slowly. I could feel the cold air touching my already burned skin. While I was trying to conserve my body heat, we reached a junction. The right trail leads to the canyon and the other one leads to White Wolf. At first, we we’d wanted to leave our backpacks here and walk for dinner to White Wolf. However, in the end and I was disgusted by this decision, we brought everything with us. I didn’t show any sign that I was against this decision since I believed it was rather an improper time to argue. In addition, I was already exhausted and any argument by my side would lead to a disaster.
And so we brought everything with us. The last mile was challenging in a way I could no longer pull any muscle. My backpack seemed to get heavier with each step forward. It was as if my legs told the brain that they didn’t want to walk any further. I was all ready to commit a rest time but up front, somewhere in the trees I heard cars and voices. This could only mean that we were already in White Wolf. And so, the brain told to the legs “Get your act up because we are going to have a very heavy dinner afterward”. The legs’ had a renewed motivation and marched all the way towards White Wolf.
We set our feet in White Wolf approximately 15 minutes before 0900. We were lucky to have reached White Wolf by this time since the only restaurant serving the area close at 0900. Once we unbuckled the backpacks, we sat at a table situated in a patio. All the tables save two in the patio were taken. As soon as we settled in our seat, the waitress gave us a smile and three menus. I was hungry and tired and I returned the smile and quickly searched the menu. She gave us some time to make up our mind and when she got back, I asked for a fillet dinner served with french fries and a cup of hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was so delicious and properly made that I asked for three refills.
White Wolf is a small settlement, a few miles off the nearest freeway deep in the wilderness. It has a main campground setup for families and hikers alike, a small but great restaurant and a bus stop. Buses do serve this settlement but the fare is rather expensive. On four corners, mountains and tree loom tall.
The sign that reminds campers and hikers of the 1 mile rule
With full hope, we went to the campground to rent a site. Alas, we learned that we need to reserve a site in advance. Subsequently, we had to hike back outside of White Wolf and so that we could camp. If we just had to hike back, I wouldn’t mind. However, one hiking rule demands us to hike a full mile off any paved road before we could camp. Furthermore, it was dark; well passed 2100. My disgust with the earlier decision reached another level but remarkably, I managed to hold a nonchalant composure.
Worn-out, we cheated. We ignored the rule and walked merely 30 or 40 meters from the campground before we made our camps in the dark and quiet night.
A few hundred yards later, the terrain started to rise slowly and the environment was filled with rocks. Despite the rise, the hike was still bearable. The only thing that was a turn off was the lack of shade. The Sun’s, with its ray in full spectrum continuously bombarded our miserable skins. Our clothes were also wet with sweat but there was nothing we could do but ignore it.
By 1300, we were too sleepy to go on and so we resolute to take a cat nap at a place beside the river. The nap lasted for nearly an hour.
Having regained of our strength partly, we continued on walking. Along the way, we did meet a few interesting people. One of them was a father of three. Upon seeing us, we said out loud, “Are you doing it?”
I was not paying attention to my ears and so I replied with a short “What?”
“Are you doing it?” He repeated. “Hiking! It sucks!”
I only managed an “oh” but Epol went on further by declaring “I agree”.
We were tired but Mother Nature repaid our resilience almost immediately. As we gained more altitude and later found that Yosemite Creek was way down below in the middle of a very small and steep ravine. The river was also wilder. It must be a fantastic spot for extreme canoeing.
For a full two hours, we hiked the tight, treeless path under the merciless Sun. It was during this time as my skin pigments were being bombarded with UV ray that I’d finally realized that I forgot to apply sun block lotion.
Yosemite Creek down in the ravine
It came as a relief when green and tall vegetation came back to existence. Shade slowly replaced the light on the floor as we moved forward and we were more than glad to walk under the green canopy.
Somewhere under the shade, we had to cross a stream that flows into the Yosemite Creek. It was a small stream, barely 4 feet in width. Despite that, the trail seemed to disappear after it went into the water. We took roughly 15 minutes to figure out what needed to be done. After sending each other as scout to three different directions, we finally found the other part of the trail about 10 meters upstream. This happened because the part of the trail is being consumed by the tiny stream. Nature seems to have a way in reclaiming its property.
It took another hour or two when at last, in the middle of nowhere, we heard internal combustion engines roaring somewhere in front of us. Through the map, we had to cross two roads, one unpaved while the other is a state freeway; reaching the first road means that we were near to our destination.
However, the first road was paved. We were surprised to see a paved road as it could mean that we were lost. Looking at the map again, we found that it is impossible to cross or to find other paved road as within 50 miles radius, there are only two roads with the unpaved road always on the freeway’s south. We later concluded that our map was outdated, or though however unlikely, the American’s notion of unpaved is different.
The improvised map
A further hike finally brought us to the freeway. There were signs that confirmed our location with White Wolf laying 4 more miles ahead and better, downhill. We took a rest and some photographs near the road.
The freeway that runs through Yosemite National Park
The only piece of technology that we brought with us was a camcorder and a digicam. Nothing was impressive about either the camcorder or the digicam. However, what was impressive is the memory, a staggering 120 Megabytes in a card with a total area less than 3 cm². When I was first introduced to a computer, an early Mac back in the late 80’s, a 5¼" floppy disk could only hold as much as 360 kilobytes. And the floppy disk drive itself took up 1/3 of the total CPU space. Although I consider myself to be well-informed and located somewhere near the technology frontier, I can’t help but marvel at how fast the rate of computer technology is being developed.
Anyway, we fought on and another mile later, we saw the incredible Lukens Lake. The approach is particularly worth mentioning.
The approach to Lake Lukens
The trail that leads to the lake was heavily shielded from the Sun by the tree branches and the slope was tolerable. It took about a mile or so until the area became flat. The vegetation of the area also changed. Tree trunks were giving way to a weaker green-stem species. At the same time, the mosquito population density increased.
We sort of waded along the path as the small but tall plants, a little bit taller than me grew into the edge of the trail. Merely roughly 50 meters later, the tall green-stem plant stopped its infiltration as a smaller species took dominance. With the lack of the green-stem plants, Lukens Lake was visible under the completely clear blue sky. On its background, confiner trees are everywhere and just before the lake, purple flowers are as many as the mosquitoes, making the sight as pretty as a well-painted picture (in fact, better!).
Beside the irritating mosquitoes, there were all kind of dragonflies flying around. With the whole populace concentrated around Lukens Lake, I had the chance to see one of the rarest dragonflies – a blue colored dragonfly. It might not be rare according to the biologist but it is a rare encounter for me. The usual dragonflies that I am familiar with are colored in blue, green and to some extend red.
Though the water looked marvelously beautiful with the reflection of the blue sky, a closer look revealed that the lake is not a good place to be in; it was mosquitoes’ breeding and dragonfly’s feeding ground. The water itself was murky. On the other hand, it was a great fishing spot for those with fishing as a hobby.
Lake Lukens. The best photo I've ever taken yet
After a few photo sessions, we left the splendid Lukens Lake behind for White Wolf. The time was around 1800, two more hours before the Sun finally set in the west; three more miles to our camping ground. Despite the short distance, those last three miles seemed like 3000 miles. My body was already exhausted after more than 10 miles of hiking. Epol also looked tired but Leman was by far still had his stamina.
As we walked farther down the path, the temperature dropped slowly. I could feel the cold air touching my already burned skin. While I was trying to conserve my body heat, we reached a junction. The right trail leads to the canyon and the other one leads to White Wolf. At first, we we’d wanted to leave our backpacks here and walk for dinner to White Wolf. However, in the end and I was disgusted by this decision, we brought everything with us. I didn’t show any sign that I was against this decision since I believed it was rather an improper time to argue. In addition, I was already exhausted and any argument by my side would lead to a disaster.
And so we brought everything with us. The last mile was challenging in a way I could no longer pull any muscle. My backpack seemed to get heavier with each step forward. It was as if my legs told the brain that they didn’t want to walk any further. I was all ready to commit a rest time but up front, somewhere in the trees I heard cars and voices. This could only mean that we were already in White Wolf. And so, the brain told to the legs “Get your act up because we are going to have a very heavy dinner afterward”. The legs’ had a renewed motivation and marched all the way towards White Wolf.
We set our feet in White Wolf approximately 15 minutes before 0900. We were lucky to have reached White Wolf by this time since the only restaurant serving the area close at 0900. Once we unbuckled the backpacks, we sat at a table situated in a patio. All the tables save two in the patio were taken. As soon as we settled in our seat, the waitress gave us a smile and three menus. I was hungry and tired and I returned the smile and quickly searched the menu. She gave us some time to make up our mind and when she got back, I asked for a fillet dinner served with french fries and a cup of hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was so delicious and properly made that I asked for three refills.
White Wolf is a small settlement, a few miles off the nearest freeway deep in the wilderness. It has a main campground setup for families and hikers alike, a small but great restaurant and a bus stop. Buses do serve this settlement but the fare is rather expensive. On four corners, mountains and tree loom tall.
The sign that reminds campers and hikers of the 1 mile rule
With full hope, we went to the campground to rent a site. Alas, we learned that we need to reserve a site in advance. Subsequently, we had to hike back outside of White Wolf and so that we could camp. If we just had to hike back, I wouldn’t mind. However, one hiking rule demands us to hike a full mile off any paved road before we could camp. Furthermore, it was dark; well passed 2100. My disgust with the earlier decision reached another level but remarkably, I managed to hold a nonchalant composure.
Worn-out, we cheated. We ignored the rule and walked merely 30 or 40 meters from the campground before we made our camps in the dark and quiet night.
