Heaven Is Hiking the Sierra--With Hot Showers

Strewn about the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada in Yosemite National Park are five incredible little islands of relative comfort, placed strategically in a remote wonderland accessible only by pack mule, helicopter or one’s own two feet.

They are known as the High Sierra Camps (HSC), and whoever dreamed them up has my eternal gratitude.

With names such as Glen Aulin (Gaelic for “beautiful valley”), Sunrise and Vogelsang (old German for “a meadow in which birds sing”), the camps operate only from late June to the weekend after Labor Day, since they are high enough to be snowed under the rest of the year. They are spaced eight to 10 miles apart on a circular route centered on Yosemite’s Cathedral Peak. Each eight- to 10-mile segment is a convenient day’s hike on well-maintained trails . . . if the hiker doesn’t get too spellbound by the incredible vistas continuously revealing themselves.

Operated by a concessionaire of the National Park Service--Yosemite Park and Curry Co.--the HSCs are supplied by mule trains. There is no electricity, phone or entertainment. But for about $70 per night (prices may rise slightly next year), one can get a hot shower; a well-prepared, ample dinner; a bed with clean linens and down comforters (at the higher camps), and breakfast the next morning--served amid some of the country’s most awe-inspiring scenery. Lunch is not served, but prepared sack lunches are available to take on the trail after breakfast.

Each camp is a cluster of 10 to 12 four- or six-person tent cabins with steel frames and raised cement floors, plus a permanent stone-hut pantry-kitchen, a large dining tent and smaller tents housing showers and toilets. Inside the dormitory tents, four or six sturdy iron beds with full mattresses line the sides, leaving room for a table and chairs in the center, a small wood-burning stove and a minimum of backpacks, fishing gear and other paraphernalia. Tent-mates are usually same-sex, unless couples or families request that they be together--and there is space to accommodate that request. Children under 7 are not permitted.

These camps are so popular that reservations are required, and most of the season’s spots are usually filled on the first day reservations are taken in December. Yosemite Park and Curry Co. staff employee Jennifer King notes that there may be spaces left at Merced Lake as late as January or February because that camp is harder to get to and larger than the others. “But generally,” King says, “by the time we’re through processing the first day’s mail, most of the trips are full.”

Potential campers must first secure an application form from the High Sierra Camps office in Fresno. Filled-out applications for next summer’s camps will be accepted by mail (or in person) beginning Monday, Dec. 2, at the Fresno office (see accompanying Guidebook for address and telephone number). Applications received before that date are returned unprocessed. King says people have devised various strategies for getting their applications to the HSC office in the narrow window of time allowed. Many send theirs by overnight mail. Some make personal trips to Fresno to hand theirs in when the office opens at 8 a.m.; some have paid couriers to do it. One year, King recalls, some people pitched a tent near the office to wait for the Monday morning opening.

Why all the fuss over the opportunity to sleep in a tent on a cold mountain for fees that this year ran $72 per night for adults and $56 for children? Most aficionados say it’s unique, and the only way they know to enjoy back-country hiking--amid some of the most beautiful scenery on the globe--without having to tote bedding and food.

It’s the camps’ twice-weekly mule trains that enable campers to travel light. The pack mules bring in towels, sheets, food, butane, firewood and paper products, packing out the empty butane tanks, dirty linen and all trash. The camps--Glen Aulin, May Lake, Sunrise, Merced Lake and Vogelsang--are staffed largely by college students on summer break, who cook meals and perform housekeeping chores. They use butane lamps in the galley, butane burners in the galley range, candles on the tables--and youthful energy throughout. The camps have chemical toilets and composting systems, and water for cooking and showers comes from nearby streams and springs and is chemically treated for safety and purity.

The starting point for most campers, and for the guided backpacking and mule trips is Tuolumne Meadows base camp near Yosemite’s Lembert Dome. It is accessible by car, and the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, the stables and parking lots are there. Lodging at Tuolumne Meadows is in individual family tents, much like the HSC tent cabins, but there is a large dining tent that serves meals from a menu, restaurant-style, and also a hamburger stand/snack bar. Individual or family tent spaces at Tuolumne Meadows Lodge can be booked along with reservations for the HSCs (this year’s rate was about $36 for two people per night, not including meals or tax), and there’s no charge for leaving cars in the parking lot.

Tuolumne Meadows is where most High Sierra campers spend the first night, as I did both last year and the year before--when I took my first HSC vacation by guided mule trip. Two years ago, I went during the last week in August, staying a night at each camp on the loop. After that “shakedown cruise,” I went back last year, this time hiking in by myself in early July to the two camps I’d liked the best, and staying a little longer: almost a week at alpine-level Vogelsang and a couple of days at Glen Aulin at the foot of the White Cascades on the Tuolumne River.

The most popular trip offered by the Yosemite Park and Curry Co. is probably the seven-day guided hike led by Park Service ranger-naturalists (for adults, $562 this year, including lodging and meals). On this trip, campers hike counterclockwise from Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, staying one night at each camp, except for Merced Lake, where they spend two. Campers may also do the loop independently, stopping at each camp overnight. Or they may stay at only one camp for several days--or any itinerary in between.

Another alternative--for independent backpackers--is to carry tents and sleeping bags and stay at the backpacking campgrounds located near each HSC, but take meals at the HSC. Last year, meals only--dinner and breakfast for one person per night--cost about $27. Backpackers who elect this option must have advance reservations for meals, and will need a wilderness permit available from the Yosemite National Park Wilderness Office or an issuing station near the trail head--given out on a quota system, to protect the back country from overuse.

If you would rather ride than hike the loop, four- and six-day saddle trips are available, which are reserved at the same time and the same way as HSC accommodations ($737 for adults this year). And consider this tip: “You’ve got perhaps the best chance of getting into the High Sierra Camps on late notice by requesting a six-day saddle trip,” according to Yosemite Park and Curry Co. vice president of communications John Poimiroo. “This trip is always the last to fill and offers the greatest opportunity to visit the camps,” Poimiroo adds.

On the pack trips, such as the one that provided my introduction to the HSCs, there are 10 riders led by a guide from Yosemite Stables, and an extra pack mule to carry the group’s personal gear--limited to 15 pounds each. Each rider is allowed to carry a water bottle, camera, coat and lunch in two saddle bags on his or her mule. The trips use Kentucky-bred mules--the same animals used in Grand Canyon National Park--because they are trail-wise and more sedate and nimble-footed than horses.

We left the previous night’s camp about 8:30 each morning and arrived, unhurried, at the next camp about 3 in the afternoon, which allowed time for a bit of local hiking before dark. And the guide had a repertoire of magnificent scenic spots for lunch stops. To minimize the impact on the fragile alpine meadows, the mules are not allowed to graze, but are kept overnight in a small corral. They’re fed alfalfa pellets packed in by the mule trains and kept in a steel closet designed to exclude the natural inhabitants of the area--bears, squirrels, marmots and mice.

Since all the camps are in bear country, everything that smells like food is protected at night in stone-hut pantries designed to withstand bear attack. At many campsites, the rangers have strung steel cables between trees high enough for campers to suspend their food out of bear reach. Otherwise, the bears, which are California black bears, would certainly get it, since they patrol the campsites nightly. Campers are routinely briefed on the need for caution regarding the bears, but no one I talked to could remember a serious incident involving campers and bears at the HSCs.

Speaking of food, it was good. Breakfasts usually included some sort of eggs and bacon, cold and hot cereals, fruit, orange juice, coffee, hot chocolate, sometimes homemade biscuits, sometimes just bread--basically, what the mule train brought in. During the week or so I was there, dinner was different every night, involving entrees such as pork chops, lasagne, spaghetti and meatballs, with a salad every night, deserts such as pie, cake or strawberry shortcake, and almost always fresh baked biscuits, rolls or muffins--no Wonder Bread at this restaurant!

The highest camps, such as Vogelsang at 10,300 feet, get very cold as soon as the sun sets, and most people turn in early. But there are some wonderful sunrises and sunsets and, if you are lucky, the alpenglow lights up the peaks in hot pink about 30 minutes after sunset. The camps are high and remote enough that there is no “bloom” from city lights, so the night sky is spectacular--not an inch of it not peppered with brilliant stars. In fact, the starlight was sufficient to permit night hiking on the smoother trails.

Wood and kindling is laid out for evening campfires at all the HSCs except Vogelsang, where park rules prohibit open wood fires because the forests at that altitude are very thin and dead wood is needed by the creatures that live there. The student caretakers sometimes make popcorn in the galley, provide marshmallows for toasting and join the others for evening sing-alongs. Such interludes almost guarantee the making of new friendships, and the inevitable fishing stories help, too. Fishing is allowed in the back-country lakes and streams, with a current fishing license, which one can get at the store in Tuolumne Meadows. Hiking between camps, as I did last year, made all of the preparation worthwhile. As it leaves Tuolumne Meadows for Glen Aulin HSC, the trail passes glacier-polished granite domes, parallels the Tuolumne River, winds under pines and firs, and skirts waterfalls. Sharp observers may see the strange little bird known as the ouzel fly into the water to feed on the bottom and bop on down the river, dancing on the rocks. Its peculiar dance has earned it the nickname “little dipper.” Rainbow trout up to 17 inches long can be seen in the quiet, slow-flowing sections of the river, and it is tradition for the camp cooks to prepare for breakfast any fish caught the previous day. Fresh trout, some with pink flesh like salmon, is mouth-watering with scrambled eggs.

In the high country, snow lies in the deep rifts on the north slopes for most of the summer, and in early July all the streams are flowing noisily. Hiking the loop brings many lakes into view. They are fed by snowmelt that streams down the mountain sides in small, medium and large creeks, even rivers.

Approaching a stream, one can usually hear it tumbling down the mountain long before it comes into view. The roar of big cascades brings expectation, while the thunder of a waterfall brings excitement. The bubbling along of a small stream creates the urge to find a shady spot for a snooze.

In wet years, mosquitoes can be bothersome during July whenever there is no breeze. But a light breeze will keep them out of your face, so walk into the wind and it’s pleasant. By August, the mosquitoes are gone and the streams have slowed, but the blinding crashes of thunderstorms are very likely. They are the most exciting and colorful experiences in these mountains. You will never forget the experience of being caught in one, especially at night.

The trail from Vogelsang back to Tuolumne Meadows--the second half of last year’s trip--is seven miles, with an alternate, more scenic route of 12 miles. I took the latter, the last five miles of which go down Lyell Canyon beside Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River. This canyon is actually a beautiful meadow, with many meandering tributaries, some prime campsites and Jeffrey and lodgepole pine. It is such an altogether pleasing valley that the John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail merge going through it. From it, the Tuolumne River continues northwest through Tuolumne Meadows, past Glen Aulin and jumps and tumbles down the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River until it is brought up short by the dam San Francisco built across this canyon in 1923. The resulting lake is Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

A person may elect to spend one day or many hiking this loop. However many, it is a much more rewarding way to experience Yosemite than just driving through the valley’s traffic. Go for it, the way John Muir did!

GUIDEBOOK

High Sierra Camps

For reservations for the High Sierra Camps, guided hikes and pack trips, write or call High Sierra Desk, Yosemite Reservations, 5410 E. Home Ave., Fresno, Calif. 93727, (209) 454-2002, for a brochure and official application form. Filled-out applications will be accepted in person or by mail beginning Monday, Dec. 2, until spaces in all camps and trips are filled. For wilderness permits--which allow access to trail heads and backpacking campgrounds--contact Yosemite National Park, Wilderness Office, Box 577, Yosemite National Park, Calif. 95389, (209) 372-0285. To make a permit reservation, write the Wilderness Office between Feb. 1 and May 31, giving starting and ending points and dates, number of people in your party and your principal destination. It’s a good idea to include alternate dates. Or you may apply for a wilderness permit, 24 hours in advance, at the issuing station closest to your trail head (most people leave from Tuolumne Meadows); 50% of permits are held for first-come, first-served backpackers.