So looking forward...
It just so happens that it was just as well that I've been wrestling these past few days with all these technical puzzles I wrote about earlier, because it ensured I wouldn't be arriving at Tuolumne Meadows during the weekend. I was actually expecting to be back on-trail mid-day today, and just go a little ways this afternoon, in which case my ETA at Tuolumne would have been Sunday afternoon. I'm now planning to leave tomorrow morning (Friday Aug 9), but hike for the full day, so the eta is still the same. I'll be starting from Agnew Meadow, hiking somewhat short of Donnahue Pass so I can do the pass Saturday morning before the thunderstorm risk in the afternoon. Beyind the pass is Lyell Canyon, and there are two constraints about where I can camp in that canyon, one is "legal" - I can't camp closer than 6 miles from Tuolumne Meadows/hwy 120; the other is practical - from all I've read and heard, bears become more likely to be a problem the further down into the canyon I go. So, I plan to camp about ten miles from Tuolumne Meadows, so I can easily hike the distance to hwy 120 on the last day, Sunday. Yep, it's just three days from here to Tuolumne. There's a walk-in hiker's campground at Tuolumne near the general store I'll be staying there Sunday night.
I plan to take the YARTS bus on Monday to get back to my car at Mammoth.
Then I think I'm heading for the Bay Area to check my mail and try to connect with friends & family, maybe even somehow arrange a ride from sonora pass where I hpe tp leave mhy car next, back to Tuolumne Meadows with my backpack to do that longish section.
My basic plan for that section sans help ould be a somewhat more strenuous bike trip up a few hills east of Sonora pass before a long downhill to hwy 395 and 15mile mostly-level pedal along 395 to Bridgeport, then thye "Reno-to-Lone-Pine" bus from Bridgeport to Lee Vining, then YARTS from Lee Vin ing to Tuolumne Meadows to start my hike. I would first have to leave my backpack at Bridgeport or Lee Vining, or Tuolumne Meadows, to make the bike ride feasible. This would be a timeconsuming trip.
I've been looking at alternative logistics of that next section and more generally future sections, mainly with an eye on my main constraint at the moment - camera battery range. I've got 5 batteries, each lasts me about a day. I'm carrying a solar charger but that maxes at about 4watt while the camera battery charger with 12-24V adapter I have says it requires 8watt minimum. Obviously I could buy more batteries, (and a few more CF cards) but they also take some time to charge them all, and time and laptop power to back up the cards for reuse. Also, need to download tracklogs.
It occurred to me I might be able to store a car battery (and my eeepc and del laptop and cables & inverter, in one of the bear boxes, and then be able to leave my car further up-trail. Still need to work out all the details, and evaluate whether this will indeed help...
In the case of the Tuolumne to Sonora section, I might be able to leave the "battery-cache" at the Twin Lakes trailhead SW of Bridgeport, and my car at Sonora Pass. This would be a 10mile one-way detour off the pct, about midway along the pct between Tuolumne and Sonora, similar to the Bishop Pass detour that was about midway between Independence/Kearsarge Pass and Mammoth Lakes/Reds Meadow. My thought is that with just the batteries etc there, that would be more like my recent stop at VVR, rather than splitting the section entirely into two full "loops" requiring an additional trip along the road to twin Lakes.
At any rate, beyond Sonora Pass, there seem to be a lot of options including some day-hikes to negotiate the sections with many roads crossing the pct north to hwy 80. This is also fairly close to bay-area. Maybe I can persuade some of you to join me on a weekend walk late August or September.
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