Southern California: National Forests Road Trip (Part 3)

I’ll start this part by thanking you for reading the first two parts! If you’ve gotten this far you must either really enjoy reading other people’s adventures, or you’re one of my family members or friends who support me in my endeavors. Either way thank you! If you’re on this post without having read the first two parts use this link for the first post, or this link for the second post, or use the arrows on the bottom to read the two previous posts.

We last left off with me going to bed at my camping spot at Nelder Grove Campground. One thing I hadn’t mentioned in the last part was that my first night at Nelder Grove was incredibly buggy. When we purchased bug spray for Jay to take on his hike, I forgot to think about bug spray for myself for the next few days. Thankfully my camping neighbors had some that they let me use. The next morning I woke up to the sound of the stream that I was camped next to, and the sound of my alarm at 6am. It takes about a half hour to reach the town of Oakland, the only place that seems to have enough service to get online with data. When I reached Oakland, I had a little while before the Yosemite reservation tickets became available online at 7am, so I first stopped at a gas station to see if they sold bug spray, but they were out. With still a bit more time, I drove over to a grocery and pharmacy store. I arrived there with enough time to sit in the parking lot and log in to my reservations.gov account and get ready to purchase the ticket.

The clock showed 7am on my phone and yet still it showed nothing available yet, after a few minutes it let me select the day and showed that there were 25 more tickets left. I selected the “continue to booking” button and then got another prompt to login for some reason. Once I had done so, I had to re-select the day but then it showed nothing available. I went from having hope to being completely crushed in the span of a few minutes. Yosemite would have to be visited during my next southern California trip. I then decided to spend the next few days exploring the Bass Lake Recreation Area instead of driving down to Huntington Lake- the region I originally was going to stay in before finding out a lot of the free campgrounds were closed- because for day trips it would take a few hours. I had already done a lot of driving in the past few days and just wanted to enjoy an area and stop driving so much.

After deciding what to do for the next few days, I bought both natural and deet bug spray with the intention of returning the deet, but unfortunately I discovered later that night that the deet one was going to have to be used because the bugs were relentless. I then made my way over to one of the day-use areas around Bass Lake and made breakfast with my MSR PocketRocket on a picnic table. After eating, speaking with my lovely cousin, and doing a few dishes using the Sea To Summit Kitchen Basin (which takes a lot of water so I mainly just use dishes to prop it up so I can use less water; we’re still figuring out a washing system, comment below with any suggestions!), I floated around in the lake using a log and then swam down the shore and back.

After drying off from my swim, I drove around the lake and found another recreation area. The parking area is across the road from another day use area and then down the road theres a bridge over a stream with a trail on the side closer to the parking area. I was more interested in the stream than the trail, so I put my ukulele, a snack, and my camelback in my backpack and made my way over to the stream to hang out by the water and play a bit of uke.

Once it got closer to dinner time I drove back up to my campsite and made a beyond beef stir fry with some potato, peas, and corn. This dinner that I had that night is definitely one of my new favorites because it’s very filling, full of veggies and protein, and is super easy to make, especially while camping! Lately I’ve been trying to incorporate more veggies into my diet, mainly because I’ve recently gone gluten and dairy free due to digestion issues I’ve had with those foods. After dinner I learned a new song on the uke- Outnumbered by Dermot Kennedy- by using basic chords on Ultimate Guitar.com that were super easy to learn. I enjoy picking on the uke the most, and I find that since I’m playing acoustically, this song sounds the most melodious and rhythmic when picked.

The next day I woke up a bit later than the day before because I didn’t need to be in range of wifi to apply for a reservation ticket to get into Yosemite since I had ran out of days to be able to go. After making some oat and banana pancakes, I made my way back down to Bass Lake to go swimming and hang out by the water. I decided to head back to the stream I played uke next to the previous day to go swimming in the stream this time. One thing I forgot to mention about where I parked to access the stream the day before is that I found out something surprising and unfortunate.

Apparently the annual park pass doesn’t cover day use fees for all of the types of areas covered under the pass. Some areas are managed by private concessionaires that require separate payment. I know I shouldn’t complain considering at least 75% or so of areas are covered under the pass and that the amount I pay per year relevant to the amount of areas I visit per year provides me with a huge discount, I can’t help but feel a bit gypped.

Because I wasn’t too excited to have to pay extra to park, I found a pull off a few minutes walk (or swim) from the stream on the other side of the bridge. Because I wanted to get in a swim that day, I made my way down the bank and swam over to the bottom of the stream. The previous day I had noticed families anchoring in the lake a little ways from where the stream meets the lake. The kids and a few of the parents would then swim from the boat to the rocks where the stream flows into the lake. The stream over time has eroded the rock to create a shoot that can be slid down. I spent most of the afternoon sliding down the rocks and lying in the small pools above the rock slide staying cool. After hanging out by the stream, I made my way back up to my campsite and went for a run on the small trail that features the giant sequoias in the forest surrounding the camping area. Below is a huge pinecone I found near my campsite and a butterfly that hung out with me before I went for my run.

Side note: During this road trip, and for several weeks prior to the road trip, I had been trying interval training with an elliptical and stationary bike, and then when my condo’s gym closed, running. I found that I was able exercise for longer and feel less exhausted the next day. Unfortunately a few days after getting back from this road trip, and after running, I got a really bad headache caused my neck a lot of pain, and every time I’ve tried to get off muscle relaxants and ibuprofen I get the headache again. Currently trying a few different things with my PT and doctor so hopefully soon I can get at least back to the point of being able to do cardio and fall asleep with less pain in my neck and not have to have prescriptions for pain, inflammation, and muscle relaxation.

The run was enjoyable and took longer than expected because I kept having to stop and gaze at the giant sequoias. After running I ate another beyond beef veggie stir fry and made a new friend. A girl that was camping at one of the walk-in sites introduced herself to me and we got talking about all sorts of topics including LNT (Leave No Trace), my car camping set up, and where we live. We said our goodnight’s and went to our respective sleeping quarters.

The next morning I packed up my gear and made my way back over to the Hume Lake Recreation Area so that the next morning I didn’t have to rush to drive in to Kings Canyon to pick up Jay. While I was hanging out on my own for a few days, Jay was hiking 45 miles through Kings Canyon and gaining over 6,500 ft. in elevation.

The hike begins and ends in the Kings Canyon Valley but the bulk of it brings you up above or on the tree line. Jay chose this hike because of its loop feature, mountain views, and easy water access. The trail passes around a dozen alpine lakes. Jay isn’t much of a swimmer so he enjoyed their visual beauty versus their cooling aspect.

The highest point reached during this hike is upwards of 11,900 ft. During the middle of the loop the hike intersects with the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) and the JMT (John Muir Trail). Apparently the bulk of the hikers Jay ran in to were older folks, some doing the same loop, but some were doing doing the JMT. The most interesting character on the trail though was an average looking middle aged guy, though on the top of his backpack he had a cat. Over the last several years I’ve noticed that it’s become more common for cat owners to walk their pet on a leash or carry them in mesh backpacks on recreational outings. Backpacking with a cat however is a new concept to me, but I guess whatever floats your boat, and as long as the pet is well taken care of!

Before moving to Arizona, I never thought of it as a state that got snow. I had never heard of Flagstaff and how it was an oasis within the desert. For those of you who don’t know much about Flagstaff, four seasons are a regular occurrence because the city sits at 7000 ft. next to a mountain. The Grand Canyon also receives snow during the winter months even. Snow on the hills and on Mt. Humphreys (the 12,000 ft. mountain that looks over Flagstaff) often doesn’t melt until May or even June. The same effect occurs in the area that Jay was hiking in. The sierra mountains in California are high in elevation and very sheltered from the hot and arid topography surrounding them. Because of this, snow was still visible in shaded patches along the hike. While Jay was camping one night, he found one of these patches of snow and made a little nature character, something I appreciated since that’s something I seem to do when presented with snow, sand, or rocks.

Jay camped for four nights on the trail while backpacking in Kings Canyon while I was over in Sierra National Forest. Two of his staple backpacking items are shown below. Other items are his Osprey backpack, Lafuma 30 degree sleeping bag, camelback, sawyer water filter, pack towel, and misc toiletries. For hiking he had been using a pair of Scarpa boots but found that they were too tight and gave him crazy blisters on his toes. I’m currently attempting to convince him to try out some wider boot brands like Oboz or Altra so fingers crossed he finds some to his liking!

On Jay’s last backpacking night, I was setting up camp back at our Hume Lake Recreation Area camping area. This time however I had to camp at a different spot since someone else had our spot. That night I made a yummy grilled cheese with some veggies and the rest of my beyond beef crumbles and then made my way down to the stream that feeds into Lake Hume to watch the sunset. The sunset wasn’t spectacular but I still got an interesting photo of the stream and bridge walkway at twilight.

The next morning I made my way back out to the trailhead in Kings Canyon to pick up Jay. When I got there Jay met me and since he was melting from hiking in the heat that morning, we jumped off some rocks in to a river near the parking lot. Super cold water, but very refreshing when it’s 90 degrees out! As we started driving back out of the canyon we got to talking about where we’d camp that night on our way back to Flagstaff. We decided both of us wanted to sleep in our bed that night and that if we drove until 1am we could do just that. On our drive back through the Mojave desert, our car thermometer read 109 degrees at 9pm! We finally rolled into Flagstaff just past 1am, showered off all our sweat and dirt from the day and from the past week and swiftly crawled in to bed to sleep for almost 12 hours.

Finally we’ve reached the end of the road-trip adventure through southern Californias National Forests! Thank you for patiently waiting for the completion of this 3-part post. Next week I’ll be writing about the first week Jay and I spent on the south island in New Zealand. Post will include our first great walk experience hiking the Abel Tasman and a stay at a holiday park nearby. See you next week!

Mahalo and Kia Ora!