Goal for the Day: McCabe Lakes

Day 2 started with a great splash of color from the rising sun. Sometimes certain mountains and domes in Yosemite only give you good color at sunset OR sunrise. The rock surfaces visible down in the Glen Aulin from my campsite had pretty good color for both. Not a bad way to start the morning.

I headed back up the canyon, I reached the second possible campsite I had located during planning. It looks like it would have had a pretty good view of the higher part of the canyon, but not sure the extra hour to reach it would have been worth it the previous day.

Then came the meadows part of the canyon. A nice area that was an easy stroll and allowed me to refill my water as I went.

After leaving the meadows and climbing for a bit, I took a break and continued.

Unfortunately, after almost an hour I realized that I had gone the wrong way after my break. I had some clues before I realized I had goofed that I might be on the wrong path. The meadows were looking familiar. Based on my hike last year, I had thought it should be more rocky and more forested as I climbed upward. It wasn’t until checked my GPS map on my iPhone that I saw that I was going down the canyon instead of up. One of my tricks to avoid getting discouraged during my hikes was not to check my GPS that often. That had come back to bite me hard this time.

Cursing myself, I turned around and started retracing the trail I had just accidentally descended. It wasn’t a steep section (otherwise I might have noticed earlier), but this major blunder cost me 2.5 miles of additional hiking and almost 2 hours of time.

Once I really reached the trail junction that lead to McCabe Lakes, I had to choose to continue down that side trail as planned or continue along the PCT to make up some of the lost time. In the end, the time to go out to the lower lake and camp there meant that I wouldn’t have much time to enjoy the lake. So, I decided that I might as well continue along the PCT.

I thought I might camp in the Virginia Canyon somewhere near where I had to cross Return Creek. In the end, I couldn’t find a good site (although I didn’t venture too far off the trail for my search), and forded the creek on my way along the PCT. It was tricky to find an area that had enough rocks to step on and wasn’t running too strong. Still ended up with wet shoes due to the depth of the water. I usually didn’t mind this later in the day when I could get out of the wet socks and shoes when I reached camp.

In the end, I chose to stop and setup camp at the same rock outcropping I had used last year for my campsite in the area. I’d like a new spot, but it was already after 5pm due to my blunder. I knew I couldn’t reach Miller Lake that day.

As last year, it was a great spot for the sunset.

Technically, this actually put me 3 miles AHEAD of my schedule than if I had stopped at Lower McCabe lake. Still didn’t feel like anything to celebrate after my 2.5 mile blunder that afternoon. Well, since following the PCT north from Tuolumne Meadows was the primary goal, maybe it was for the best.

Goal: Missed? Passed? Hard to judge this one.

11 miles including the 2.5 mile blunder
9.5 hours on trail

18.5 miles total for entire trek