This was a pretty easy hike — mostly flat (although we gained 1000′ feet from Tuolumne Meadows to the pass area). It was unseasonably cool — we were warned about a snow storm. It definitely was freezing overnight and did snow lightly, but no accumulation in our area. This was a pretty spontaneously planned hike. Terry just happened to be in town and I snagged some days off. Most of his gear is at my house, but he was a little under-equipped for cold weather.

Anyway, we lit out early Wednesday morning, arrived to get our permits at the ranger station around 9, and after gathering some last minute supplies (warm clothes for Terry and some lunch) we were finally on the trail around 1:30.  We hiked in about 6 miles to a point beyond Ireland Creek where we had never been before. It’s always fun to explore virgin terrirory. We found a really excellent site — flat, soft earth, plety of trees for our hammocks (Terry’s tent is a hammock dealy. I have a simple hammock for resting during the day but my tent is a single person tent on the ground.) Close to the Lyell Fork for water, a pretty little falls. Previous campers left some little presents for us — a copy of the novel All Tomorrow’s Parties to use as kindling, some sunblock and a handkerchief.

There seemed to be tons of pack trains on this trail — this is a segment of the John Muir Trail and most hikers are going much farther than we did. Lots of groups were hikers plus horses plus mules. We also saw one Llama train! That was cool. Two hikers leading around four or five llamas. They did not carry as much load as the mules did but they were really beautiful and exotic.

On day two, Thursday morning, it was snowing. We had some hot coffee and Ramen noodles for breakfast, then head down the trail for a day hike. We passed more pack trains and chatted with hikers. One British dude we met was 6 days into a 4 week hike of the full JMT — which culminates with a hike up to the summit of Mt. Whitney. He’s out there now, presumably, so do raise a pint for him. He bid us “Cheerio!” which struck us as archaic, although I greeted him with a “Howdy” so…

We hiked up the switchbacks at the end of the meadow — it really isn’t Yosemite unless you do switchbacks, according to Terry anyway. Got more views of the pass and the meadows we had just come from. But it was a little too cold to linger too long. We hiked back down to camp, lit a nice fire and mixed ourselves some High Sierra Margaritas: water + instant lemonade + tequila + snow.

Friday morning we lingered at the site. The sun threatened to emerge but basically it was still cloudy and windy and cool for the hike out. We drove to Oakdale for our traditional Mountain Mike’s post hike pizza and it was a wrap.

In terms of wildlife, we saw: mama deers with their fawns, a garter snake (first non-poisonous snake we’ve seen in Yose), horses, mules, llamas. No bears, so our success rate for this area dropped from %100 to %66.666. But that’s OK, especially since we saw something rarer. It was either an American Marten or a Fisher. We had stopped on our hike out at Rafferty Creek by a bridge. Right as I was ditching my pack, I saw across the stream an animal that scurried across the rock and stoop and looked at me. I said to Terry, “That’s a huge marmot!” Then the creature slinked away and as it did so I noticed it had a more elongated shape than a marmot. It had similar coloring — a brownish coat with a light colored chest. But the behavior was not at all marmot like — a marmot would have come right up to us to steal our food. Also I have never seen a marmot at this elevation (around 8800′) — they usually appear higher than that and in more rocky terrain. This was woodland. The elongated shape and size were the main giveaways. I came home and wikipediaed the thing and basically narrowed it down to Marten ro Fisher. It looked more like a marten but the size was more like the fisher. So cool, I saw my first new mammal, and a hunter as opposed to a scavenger.

That was a real highlight. Also the lack of mosquitoes or bugs due to the cold weather. Virgin territory, new animals, no skeeters, and snow added up to a really pleasant, highly successful hike. Also cool is that this canyon is a fork of the Tuolumne River, so I essentially hiked all the way to the very headwaters of the source of the water that is eventually captured in the Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Next month when I do my “Restore Hetch Hetchy” hike, I’ll connect up by hiking from Tuolumne Meadows down to the reservoir. So that means I’ll have walked the length of the watershed.

Yosemite Flood, 1997

Why is it better for the planet and all that for him to drive it for the next ten years than for me to be driving it?

uploading a bunch more in coming hours/days. Watch this space:

http://www.youtube.com/user/kimbojava

Milky Way as seen from Yosemite high country

Not my photo, but this is pretty much what we saw at the end of each evening. That’s Jupiter in the center there.

Makes me want to kill a goat.

1. bottled water is expensive
2. production of bottled water is environmentally damaging in terms of energy to produce and the waste byproduct of the bottles, even though they are “recyclable”
3. much bottled water marketing is deceptive in appealing to perceptions that it tastes better or is healthier than tap
4. people who drink bottled water are therefore dupes who foolishly believe bottled water is different than tap; and, paradoxically, selfish litterbugs unconcerned with the damage their lifestyle causes the environment.

There are more objections but I think those are the main ones which you see restated in one form or another.

I agree with all of them in principle. Things that are too expensive compared to cheaper things of equal quality suck big time – agreed. Things that have horrific and entirely avoidable environmental damage way do suck. Marketing which is fraudulent or deceptive can go off and suck for all I care. Selfish dupes are such dicks.

But I’m here to say, but on the other hand… just cause I’m ornery. On the other hand, every single statement above could be said of many other things. Butter is more expensive than gasoline, that does not make the dairy industry criminal. Lying marketing scams occur in every retail sector. Waste is inherent in consumer life. It’s bad, it’s all bad.

But I think it goes way too far to claim that people who drink bottled water are fooled, duped, and somehow the same as bird-flipping Hummer drivers. I know for a fact, as much as I know anything for a fact, that the bottled water I buy (San Pellegrino, Aqcua Ferrarelle, Perrier) is NOT bottled at the local Podunk municipal water source. Perhaps worse than that, it’s imported all the way from Europe. I know for a fact that it tastes better and is healthier than what comes out out of the many tap sources I pass buy in the course of my day (the tap from the BART station bathroom? No thanks!). I do drink tap water at home, as well as expensive bottled water. When I stay in hotels I usually drink their tap water. But there are lots of places in between whose taps I won’t trust, so I’ll carry my own. I do bottle my own from my tap, but I’m not going to dehydrate if I run out. I’ll not hesitate to buy a bottle at the convenience store.

There’s plainly a difference between crappy bottle water marketed by liars, and good bottled water not marketed by liars. I just hate blanket generalizations, and I hate moral posturing. I am certainly guilty of it myself (fuck Hummers and the arrogant assholes who drive them!). I recognize that spending a lot of money for water is unsustainable — most people cannot afford it, so that’s a bit of a clue of how out of whack things are. Water is like air and should be cheap and available to all. The evil in question is not necessarily perpetrated by the consumers (although consumers can have a huge impact on the industry).

What would you say if the bottling of water could be done much more efficiently? And the recycling of the bottles were 100% effective (no landfill)? And all liars were marched off to Liar’s Island, so only truthtellers remained. Then would it be OK to drink bottled water? What if municipal water supplies could improve to produce much higher quality of water? Just saying bottled water is the same as tap is not quite the same thing as saying tap water is the very best that water can be. Even then different kinds of water have different qualities. It’s the same as wine or air or butter. It’s not all exactly the same. Sometimes I like a sparkling water, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I like mineral water and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I feel like a nut. How will these pleasures be satisfied if we’re not allowed to bottle the different varieties of water? I totally recognize how elitist that sounds, but again, it’s absolutely no more true of bottled water than it is of wine. Wine could be delivered to local innkeepers in barrels and only served from there, eliminating the bottling of wine. Maybe the difference between bottled wine and bottled water is scale. You could just drive to a nearby farm and have the butter dumped into your reusable tupperware container instead of buying it at the supermarket. Etc.

My main gripe is really the confusion between the problems of the industry and the consumers who participate in it. If there’s cynicism, deceit, waste in the industry, is it really necessary to demonize the consumer? Isn’t it possible all those statements about the industry per se are true, yet a given consumer could still be making an informed, ethical choice? I feel the same way about cigarette smoking. I am so glad we finally purged that horrible habit from mainstream public space. I am glad we have exposed the cynicism and corruption of cigarette manufacturers and the lobbyists who helped them profit by killing their customers. That said, I sometimes enjoy a cigarette. It’s still possible in spite of everything we know about tobacco, nicotine, and the tobacco industry, that a given individual is making an informed, ethical choice when they smoke. These two things are not incompatible.

How about everything in moderation, (except no Hummers)?

Lake Fausse 2007 Wrap up:

Gators? Check.
Pelicans/herons/loons, etc? Check.
Varmits? Check.
Paddlefish? Check.
Turtles? Check.
Lizards? Check.
Owls? Check.
Midnight kayaking into the infinity? Check.
Blazing constellations? Check.
Orion pursuing the Pleiades? Check.
Shooting stars? Check.
Copious quantities of expensive beer? Check.
Rock and Roll? Check.
All parties present and accounted for? This was our main failing this year, as the Arcturus was with us only in song.
Saints victorious over the winless Rams? Not so much.

Musicological/sociological experiment? Isolate four drunk middle-aged men away from their googles, wikis and twitters but with the entire Pink Floyd music collection on MP3 (no credits) and pose the question: Who sang what? David Gilmour or Roger Waters? Song by song/line by line. (Why is this hard? Listen to “Mother” from the Wall album. Consider: Waters sometimes sounds like Gilmour, but other times sounds like no one else.)

Photos? Check.

Videos? Check.