Yosemite High Camps - Helpful Packing Tips and Miscellanea

[How to keep your pack weight down, enjoy yourself and still be comfortable.]

Last time I was at the Sierra High Camps was around twenty two years ago . Seeing as I can’t remember exactly where I went, when I went to go this year, I needed some updated information. Here are a couple of notes from my trip this year, mostly on things I wished I didn’t bring, or did bring.

When writing this I found myself thinking about ‘spoilers’. One if the things I like best about back-country is it is one of the last places in the States where a person has to rely on their own judgement and have their own experience. There is no one out there to tell you, ‘Hey, climbing up that sheer rock face in your slippers is a really bad idea.’. I believe this is a good thing. Self-reliance and good judgement are not fostered in environments where everything is signed, proscribed and wavered. There are no surprises. Because of this, I don’t want to write about all of the amazing experiences that I had, and how you can have them too. I want you to have your own experiences, your own adventures.

So the following are tips that won’t keep you from having your own experience. Rather, these are little tips that might make your own adventures more enjoyable.

Save Your Napkin

Sounds funny, but the napkin they put in your lunch is also a pretty good map. Endless hours of enjoyment, or frustration, depending upon whether or not you are lost... The picture of a map at the beginning of this blog is actually a piece of it.

Camp Voice, Earplugs and Drugs

Most of the High Sierra Camp Tent Cabins are in very close proximity to each other. While the white canvas tent is an effective visual barrier, it does nothing for sound. Auditorially you are effectively living in one large room where sound carries extremely well - with 35 other people. So they don’t feel the need to eliminate you in the morning or visa versa, use your ‘camp voice’. Additionally, if you feel the need to complain bitterly about the obnoxious people you met on the trail, do it really really quietly; those same obnoxious people are probably sleeping, or not sleeping, next door. Lastly, take earplugs. If the conversations next door don’t put you over the edge, the slamming cabin doors, snoring, and squeaky mattress's probably will.

If you don’t know if you have a hard time sleeping at altitude or not, bring drugs for sleeping. Or, if you really want to make friends, bring sleeping drugs even if you don’t need them - someone will. There is nothing worse than hiking all day through stunning terrain and not being able to enjoy it because you were up counting sheep or praying for someone to knock you unconscious. I have seen people try everything in their arsenal to no avail so bring something you are sure will put you out.

Your Weight Problem

You look beautiful just the way you are. Really. But, you are going to gain 20 to 35 pounds in the form of a backpack, that you will be carrying with you at almost all times. The difference between carrying 20 pounds and 35 pounds will quickly become apparent. Here are a couple of tips that might help you keep the weight down without making you any less comfortable.

• If you are traveling with other people, combine, combine, combine. Do each of you really need your own bottle of bug spray which contains enough Deet to make you unattractive to bugs for an entire year? Probably not. The small bottles of creams, salves, balms and ointments really add up in weight. Consider pooling shampoo, conditioner, anti-itch ointment, bug spray and any and all first aid. If jointly you can bandage every toe, ankle and heal you all have every day, twice a day, you probably have too much.

• A note on moisturizer and skin creams - you will be so dirty that you will not want to look at your legs after a day on the trail, let alone smear lotion into the dirt to form a paste that can not be removed. Bring less than you think you will need -- you will probably only use it after showering, which occurs infrequently.

• Bring a sleep sack, you will not want the army issue wool blankets next to your skin. The silk ones are worth it. They are much lighter and less bulky than cotton. You can slip into them easier than into cotton.

• Rain Gear. You will hate taking things you don’t use, because you have to carry them. Rain gear is one of those items. If you want to keep weight down, take lightweight rain gear (do not bring the two pound plastic poncho from the drug store - you will rue the day). You can use your rain gear as part of your layering system for cold weather. I bring a down jacket and put on my rain jacket over that when it gets really cold. You can use long underwear and your rain pants for warmth on the bottom half.

• Pair down the clothes to a bare minimum. Here are my preferences: For hiking, boots, 3 pair of hiking socks, long johns, one pair of shorts, rain gear, two t-shirts (luxury), one long sleeve sun shirt, a mid-weight wind-proof , non-bulky fleece and down jacket should do it. When you get so scummy you can’t stand it, you can wash your shirt, shorts, etc at some of the camps. For swimming, and you must swim every day, bring something you can get wet in and not have to hike in later. Alternatively, skinny dip. It weighs less but might freak out other hikers. For in camp, sandals (or ‘crocks’ which are really lightweight) are a must. Your feet might refuse to get back into boots and you will be trapped on your cot in your tent for lack of comfortable footwear. Also a ‘must have’ is one outfit for the evening. This is one pair of socks (warm), one shirt, and one pair of pants that you do not hike in. Your table-mates at dinner will thank you and it will give you the illusion of being clean, even if you are not.

Random Miscellanea

• Bring a Sarong. This is a very lightweight tight weave piece of cotton. It can be so many things. It’s a towel for drying off or sunbathing. It’s a pillow if you need one. It’s a satchel for carrying items. It is a picnic table.... or a sun shade; a football for a quick pickup game. Lastly, it can be used for it’s original purpose of wrapping around your waist and legs should you rip or lose your shorts.

• Cold weather gear. Sunrise and Vogelsang can get really cold. You will appreciate a warm hat, neck warmer, and lightweight gloves if you are going to spend time there. They do have small pot-belly stoves in the tents. Bring someone with fire-making skills or befriend them and get them to put logs on every couple of hours throughout the night.

• Boots. Make sure they fit. If you are solid and are sure they fit, you might be able to get away with not bringing a second pair of hiking shoes. This gets rid of a lot of weight.

• Pee cup. Someone has to say it. The bathrooms are usually far away and no one wants to get up in the middle of the night and trudge all the way down there. Some sort of tupperware can be used and emptied in the morning. All the cool kids are doing it... you can too.

• Water purification. If you have a water purification pump or tablets that you feel comfortable with, using them can be a great way to bring down water. There are streams and lakes all over the high country. Make sure to ask folks which streams are running before you set out.

• Flashlight with red light. Probably a luxury item, but your tent mates will thank you. When you are rooting around in your backpack for your [insert your item here] at 3 am, a nice mellow red light is much less jarring than a blinding white beam. They are also great for star-watching and general night vision.

That is all I have for you from this trip. Have a great time.

- Stephanie Left.

One more thing, this might be a bit of a spoiler but I have to talk about the lunch sacks. It is old school and some camps might not do it, (and if they don't they might be called slackers by members of the camps who do), but if you are lucky you might get your lunch sack illustrated.

This one was done by a wonderful young man at May Lake who will be going on to art school. I liked it so much I had him sign it.

Doing the Yampa - Sea Kayaker's First Time River Trip

I vaguely remember being on rivers, a river, some river, as a child, but this was the first trip I had taken as an adult. I am an ocean girl, surfing, swimming, sea kayaking. If it doesn't have salt in it, I don't get it. As someone who has guided sea kayaking expeditions for years, I was very excited to have the opportunity to be on a river for the first time. This trip was a benefit for a friend of a friend, Kelley Kalafatich, an accomplished paddler who has developed a rare spinal cord injury which has left her with paralysis and severe nerve pain. She is facing challenges greater than I have ever been given. The trip was run by Don Hatch River Trips who donated the proceeds.

Here are some "notes to self" as one new to a commercial river trip.

©2008 Catherine Aurelio
[Normally, this is a campground.]

What's The Tide Doing?
When I got on the water, my first ingrained thought was, 'What is the tide doing? -- ebbing or flowing?'. Ya, so, this is a river, Steph, tide has no appreciable effect. It was amazing to me to be on a piece of water that always flows in one direction. We didn't have to think about tides, but we did happen to hit this river at a flood stage. It was about 10 feet higher than normal for this time of year. No one who had guided the river had seen it this high and fast in 12 years. The CFS (Cubic Feet per Second) is a measure of the rate of flow, or speed of the river, and kind of like the length of a fish that someone has caught (but can't show you) from what I gather. At any rate I heard all kinds of differing measurements, but all agreed it was huge. The rapids became almost unrecognizable to guides familiar with the river. Some estimates were that a normal flow for this time of year might have been 4 - 6,000 CFS and we were supposedly at anywhere between 20 and 30,000. Entire beaches and campgrounds were underwater. There were massive tree trunks and root systems floating down river at what looked to be about 12 - 15 miles an hour.

©2008 Catherine Aurelio
[Where did I put...]

Its like summer camp - label everything.
If it had been just me, soloing down the river, I might not have needed this, but since I was with 22 other people, I would have appreciated having my name on ... everything. I am pretty attached to my gear, and suffered from mild separation anxiety to see it all go into identical dry bags and then get packed onto any one of five boats. I like to think that I am unique, but my sleeping pad certainly is not. One night, my sleep kit dry bag wandered off with other campers. I tried call and response, but no luck, unlike a duckling, it refused to identify itself to it's mother. My own, uniquely painted carabiner or ribbon, to attach to the outside of the dry bag would have been great. Packing for this trip, I looked at my trusty indelible marker around which I wrap a couple of feet of duct tape for emergencies, and thought, Steph -- you are not guiding this trip, put away the CPR mask, the blood pressure cuff, the radio, the repair kit, and the marker. Wrong! Bring the marker.

©2008 Catherine Aurelio
[Pulling like heck to avoid bad things.]

From Paddle to Oar.
I am used to a sea kayak, usually no more than 17 feet long and maximum 300 pounds fully loaded. These boats were around seven to nine hundred pounds with gear and people. They have two paddles, not one. Basic terminology those of us new to rafting: when you are on one of these things you are on an "oar boat", you "row" (not paddle), it is an oar (not a paddle), and you are a "boatman" (all of us women just get thrown into the same terminological bucket as the men). When you navigate down a rapid, you can "push in" or "pull in". Before I took a turn in the hot seat, I had a hard time intuitively understanding why one would want to turn their boat and their back to a turbulent piece of water. Once I tried rowing I got it immediately. Women tend to pull and men tend to push into rapids. Most everyone feels that they have more power pulling as you can put your back into it. The power increase is worth having to swing the boat around and go in backwards. Rowing for the first time was so fun. Much of my experience with other kinds of craft translated, but it was different to have two large water-moving devices in the water instead of just one. Turning the boat was a bit like trying to rub my head and pat my stomach at the same time.

©2008 Catherine Aurelio
['Maytag', meet Nervous Paddlers,
Nervous Paddlers, meet 'Maytag'...]

Just Sit There and Pray.
The rapids seemed fun and easy until we got to one named "Warm Springs". Normally challenging, it had morphed into a class 5. I don't know the technical definition of a class five exactly but I think it is something like "Bad Things Will Happen If You Mess This Up". The telling signs for me that this was a big piece of water were: 1) all the guides changed out of their shorts and t-shirts and into wet suits 2) some dunked themselves in the river prior to running the rapid -- something I normally do before paddling out to surf, making the assumption I am going to get wet 3) after scouting the rapids many experienced people had dry mouths, their breathing changed and pupils dialated 4) it was a boiling cauldron of water that looked like it could either crush me or hold me under for a long time. It spelled one thing for me: Loss Of Control. I was in an oar boat. What I did not understand prior to coming on this trip is that "river rafting" can mean "sit in a boat and do nothing except hang on while someone else oars you around". This is something I have to work at. I am not good at just sitting. It was a challenging experience for me because it was all out of my hands. I had the utmost confidence in my guide. He was a wonderful fellow, all experience and muscle. There was one move in the rapid that required considerable strength and skill -- maneuvering around a hole called "Maytag". While I did have to let it all go and just sit there and pray, it did help knowing that the guy rowing could dead-lift over 700 pounds. It was a wonderful experience and even though I had nothing to do with the successful run of the rapid, I shared in the excitement of making it and not having to swim in 48 degree, chocolate-colored, roiling water.

The Nature People

Running through the forest. I am fortunate enough to have a old growth redwood forest next to my house. I get to throw on my running shoes and fly through the big trees that most folks have to travel far to see. Today we met the nature people. We were trying to find a new trail, (you can't be lost if you have no destination, so no, we weren't lost) and ended up running into a small man-made pond in the middle of a clearing. On the periphery of the pond were ducks, beautiful with the late afternoon sun glinting off of their backs. In the middle of the pond was a large clump of rushes. Amongst the rushes were little black birds with red patches on their wings. We had ended up at the back side of the steam train yard adjacent to the edge of the forest. There were a couple of people a little farther on. The woman was using binoculars to look at something in the general vicinity of her feet. The man was photographing the same general area. Already in the spirit of adventure, we snuck up quietly to see what they were looking at. We assumed that they had indeed, seen their shoes before. K. It was the biggest, fattest bull frog, ever. Just sitting there, looking like a log, except for it's big shiny eyeballs. You can't be as excited because you can't see it. You can only read about it. Trust me it was exciting.

The woman had a forest green parka on, salt and pepper hair, and a winning smile. She was a nature person. I love nature people and aspire to be one when I grow up. You can generally identify them by their relaxed, peaceful, curious-about-the-world attitude and sensible shoes. I am in nature a lot but I can't be considered a nature person until I can remember the names of more nature things so I might never get there. We were very excited about the bull frog and the presence of a fountain of nature knowledge in the form of our new friends.

We asked them about the pretty black birds with the red wings - what they were called. The woman asked us if we meant (and she paused here) the red-winged-black-birds? I have long since gotten over my embarrassment of not knowing things that might seem obvious. The woman looked a little nervous, clearly people who do not know a black bird can't be trusted. She tentatively asked us where we were from. (As you know, I live across the street.) I think they liked us though, even though they might have thought we were a bit touched in the head.