Last week I had the privilege of accompanying 11 @turlockhs WildLink Club students on six day adventure into the backcountry of @YosemiteNPS. Thanks to financial support from @NatureBridge, the trip is entirely free for our students. The following are a few of my fav trip pics! 
We arrived to Yosemite Valley on Sunday (10/6) morning with multiple hours to kill before meeting up w/ @NatureBridge staff for the week. We decided to explore Mirror “Lake”- a widening of Tenaya Creek. Surprise! All the flow was subsurface so I got to give a hydro lesson💦.
Also of note were the tremendous amount of butterflies in the grassy meadows along the Mirror Lake shoreline.
After getting settled in our Curry Village tent cabins (Sun/Mon) we scarfed-down the decent buffet dinner at the pavilion and headed out to watch the sunset at Stoneman Meadow. We missed sunset by about 10min, but still got a great group shot. Besides we had other goals...
We really wanted to light paint “I ❤️Yosemite” with Half Dome looming in the background. After 25 takes, we got 3 that we were pleased with.
Monday morning of the WildLink expedition week starts with gear issuance. @NatureBridge provides over $1000-worth (if new) of backpacking gear and top-of-the-line warm clothes. The process takes about 3hrs, but we make sure everyone has what they need to be comfortable!
This year we did our gear issuance at behind the Yosemite Village visitor center. Which made this visiting bobcat even more surprising and special to see. It was slinking under the displays of the Miwok village, likely looking for one of the many fat squirrels we observed.
Our @NatureBridge educators, Nanci & Talia, guided the Ss through several problem-solving and team building exercises. This one involved getting water bottle to their island w/o falling in lava. @nalgene is pretty tough :-)
Everyone was all smiles after temporarily packing our gear for the hike back to Curry Village. No bear cans needed this year b/c we were headed to LYV- Little Yosemite Valley.
By Monday afternoon we were seeing slight impacts from the #BriceburgFire 20+ miles away in the Merced River canyon.
On Tuesday morning we ate a large breakfast, packed our packs, cleared out the tent cabins, said goodby to Mr Testo and set out on the the trail for the day. Particulate matter from the #BriceburgFire was very low, but allowed the Tyndall effect to, erm, shine.
The hike to Little Yosemite Valley from Curry Village is about 7 miles with nearly 2200’ of absolute elevation gain and 2800’ of total elevation gain. Add a 35-40lb pack and it becomes a challenge.
I’ll revisit and add to this thread tomorrow! But for now I’ll leave you with happy faces and a sense of the incline we were about to confront while trying to make it to the top of Nevada Falls.
The stunningly yellow Bigleaf maple leaves made steep ascent to Clark’s Point very aesthetically pleasing.
Blue skies and tremendous views of Half Dome, Mt Broderick & Liberty Cap- each an awesome example of granitic domes that once were magma chambers ~84 million years ago.
The Ss were enamored with the view of Half Dome, Mt Broderick & Liberty Cap. The large, lighter-colored scar on Liberty Cap was the result of a rockfall triggered by the M7.5 Lone Pine Quake in 1872. Greg Stock estimated size at 47,000yd^3.
Moving slightly around the bend from our lunch stop, Nevada Falls came into view.
The students also stopped to marvel at this lichen/moss mash-up that was hanging freely over the side of its rocky home. The lichen was mostly suspended in midair!
Razza & Matt enjoying Nevada Falls view... but notice the smoke from the Briceburg Fire starting to roll into frame.
This section of trail was quite spectacular.
Within an hour of our lunch at Clark Point, smoke from Briceburg Fire started filling the valley below. The air quality where we were wasn’t great, but it sure was better than in the valley. We banked on a forecast wind change to clear the air by morning.
We briefly stopped atop Nevada Falls to fill our water bottles and marvel at scattered light.
A great view of glacially polished Half Dome Granodiorite w/dikes & glacial erratics. Also, I just read this intrusive suite was emplaned 92.8-89.8 million years ago in this amazing paper:
watermark.silverchair.com/1283.pdf?token…
watermark.silverchair.com/1283.pdf?token…
Ss has to use teamwork to set up their “mids” - pyramid-like shelters. The ladies were about 200% more efficient than the gentlemen. Note all the freshly cut drought/beetle-killed trees. Had to cut them to reduce hazards.
After setting up my tent I started to notice ash falling onto my rainfly.
I absolutely love this shot of camp life after dark. Ss were consulting a field book to identify insects and trees while other students learned how to cook on an MSR.
Dinner is captivating.
Wednesday morning arrived and the air was excellent! We had breakfast and tea... on a ‘tea’ter totter.
The air was clear, but winds were forecasted to shift and blow more smoke up valley. So @NatureBridge safety folks radioed to say that we needed to come back down- two days early. On the upside we go to see the inner workings of the composting outhouse as it was being serviced!
In the time it took to break camp and hike five miles (near Vernal Falls), the scattered light cast an epically warm glow on the surroundings. It was gorgeous.
With a few more miles of hiking, we made it back to Curry Village for the evening, de-issued our gear on Thursday morning and made it back to Turlock by 4pm. Happy Trails!
Hey @threadreaderapp unroll this thread!
