After acclimatizing atRaisin Lakefor two years , we were rested , relaxed , and excited to get ( like , truly begin ) our backpack journeying from Yosemite High Country to Yosemite Valley . Another champion was meeting us for this branch of the trip , so our threesome soon became a foursome .
From the parking lot at May Lake , we drove to the trailhead at Tenaya Lake early Friday break of the day with our haversack full of the next five days ’ worth of food . Being quite the lavish backcountry cook , it was intimately risible . My pack weighed at least 45 pounds and my first thought as I took off from the trailhead was … Damn , I ask to start eating all this nutrient .
For a immediate moment I considered gorging myself the first day , losing all the pack weight , and suffering with famishment the rest of the trip . But I resisted , which I was thankful for in my final days when I made the world ’s skilful pasta for dinner ( at least , it seemed like the world ’s respectable alimentary paste at the prison term , sodding with sunlight - dry out tomatoes , porcini mushrooms , and grated Parmesan ) .
We passed Tenaya Lake at the start and it was enticing to just park it on the side and encampment justly on the lake . Tenaya is a Yosemite classic : a glassy , pristine puddle of piddle surrounded by massive granite domes and pine forests . You could take the air right out into the lake and still be knee joint - deep in water for at least 50 foot . It ’s the largest lake in the High Country , and being flop off the road , it ’s also one of the most impose .
Justtwo summers agoon a road trip-up , I went kayak on Tenaya Lake after a particularly heavy wintertime . Some of the small lakes , like Tioga , were still frozen , and rainstorms caused other lake to overflow . What was normally a stone hop over the Tenaya outlet turn into a lake ford that year , with some sections waist deeply .
As we ready out for Sunrise Lakes , I found it so interesting that we were on the same trail I ’d paddled over that summertime , while watching other tramper wade across with their backpacks over their head . The lake layer was much lower this year after an unseasonably wry winter , but stunning withal . It chop-chop fell out of view as we head deep into the forest toward Sunrise Lakes .
I knew this day would be the most challenging of the whole week , due to the elevation gain and the pack free weight , but the first mile and a half of our lead was quite deceiving . It was fairly matted , with some downhill , and we were already used to the high-pitched altitude . But after skipping along without a lather , we reached a series of outrageous switchbacks that was so vicious , I was seek to stir a sherpa to pack my pack to the top . And possibly me on his back as well .
In the hot afternoon sunshine with hardly any shade , we trudged up a thousand substructure perpendicular in a individual mile . It feel like many miles . ( And as I came to hear over the course of that week , even a measly 2 Swedish mile would feel like a strenuous 5 miles in the end . awing what a difference a coterie makes at altitude ) .
By the time we reached the top at the trail juncture , I was a sweaty and Lord’s Day - bake muss . Nothing a handful of chocolate could n’t cure though ( permit me tell you … Trader Joe ’s Powerberries , combined with their choco - cover espresso bean plant , will cure anything ) .
At the juncture were signal head to several dissimilar destinations . There were trails to Cloud ’s Rest , Half Dome , and Yosemite Valley ( all of them on our list ) , and many hikers were on their room to one of them . But we turned leave behind on the trail to Sunrise Lakes , a serial of three lakes so lowly that combined , they ’re still less than half the size of Tenaya . But what they miss in size of it , they make up for in privateness .
We reached the first Sunrise Lake after half a land mile , a beautiful blue jewel right next to the trail . We block up for a moment to take in the view , but push on to the second lake , our net destination .
While the trail run right along the shores of the first and third lakes , it pass just 300 yards south of the 2d lake . Day hikers could easy miss the round - off , meaning we ’d see less people at the 2nd lake . The second lake is also the only one with a little island in the middle of it , which we ’d seen on Google Maps before decide which one to bivouac at .
When we arrived , there was not another person around . I immediately befuddle off my clothes and jumped in the lake in my underclothing … I had been hold back all twenty-four hours for this !
Sunrise Lake was n’t as fond as Raisin Lake , but the cold H2O woke up all of my hackneyed muscles within instant . The sunlight was still on the lake , warming my side and my back as I swam around .
After jell up the tent , we commit our chairs up to the shoring and give some wine to celebrate . ( For the remaining five days on the trail , we ’d carry the eq of four bottles of vino with us and made sure none of it was wasted ! )
Just before sunset , we followed a stream behind our tent and walked about a hundred human foot to the bound of a rooftree … We had no idea we were so close !
Not only were we on a lake , we were also camp down luxuriously on a ridge that overlook Yosemite Valley . In the luminescence of dusk , Half Dome was awash in shades of pinkish and orange .
I really did not need to leave the next day and wish we ’d packed an extra duet of daytime into our travel guidebook . decently as we were getting into our groove , totally set up with our collapsible shelter and our clotheslines and our fire pit and our makeshift kitchen , we had to tear it all down for the next journey . Does n’t it always feel that way when you ’re camp ?
With the next stop on our tramp far away from any source of water , we took reward of the lake as long as we could . Again , alone … and on a weekend , no less .
Even though we could swim across this lake and back without much sweat , we still feel very , very small in the grand scheme of things .
Feeling energized from our dip , we strapped on our packs and coif out for the next ramification of our adventure : Cloud ’s eternal sleep . As heavenly as it sounds !
Trail map : Click hereSegment log:4 mile with 1,300 feet elevation changeNext segment : Sunrise Lakes to Cloud ’s Rest
Read the full “Epic Yosemite” series:
