Fire 
has engulfed Los Angeles. As the smoke-filled sky evoked—a little too closely—memories of bad Hollywood movies chronicling the fiery demise of Metro L.A., Mike and myself decided to head out in search of healthier air. Destination: a weekend in Yosemite National Park—the High Sierra at Tuolumne Meadows. The Tioga road closes for good by November 15, so this was our last chance of the season to see the remote eastern portion of the park.
See all of the photos here.
We left late on Friday night and made it as far as Big Pine, following the well-trodden CA-14 to US-395 route. We remembered a convenient dirt lane just outside of town from a previous trip, and pulled off there for the night, sleeping under the stars by the car. The moon was set, so we were treated to a brilliant night sky, though the Owens Valley was chilly. The next morning, we were up at dawn, and stopped for breakfast at the only diner open in Big Pine. We filled up on grease, and pushed onwards. We passed the time listening to the far-too detailed fishing report on Mammoth Lakes radio, and passed small groves of aspen trees blazing yellow and orange—reminiscent of autumn back in the northeast, but oh so sparse. Soon we arrived at Lee Vining, on the shores of Mono Lake, an ancient volcanic crater.
From Lee Vining, we drove up into Yosemite over the Tioga Pass. At 10,000 feet, it's billeted as the highest automobile pass in California. The road winds precipitously up a steeply-walled valley, and is closed to all but hardy snowshoers and skiers after November 15. What we hadn't realized was that all overnight parking in the park is banned after October 15 for the winter weather, so after driving the eight miles to Tuolumne Meadows (that's /tu-ˈwɒl-ə-mi/!), we decided it was best to head back to the park gates and hitchhike back in. It wasn't long before Bruce, a Park Service employee who was staying in a cabin at Tuolumne all winter with his wife, picked us up in his truck. They had to stock all of their food for the season in before the road closed, so he had been making frequent trips back down to Lee Vining. He told us it was a good thing we decided to heed the "no overnight parking" warnings, as the ticket would run $150.
Our route was to cross both forks of the Tuolumne, and follow Rafferty Creek up into higher lakes. We passed by glistening emerald pools and wide rocky rapids on the Lytle Fork of the Tuolumne River, but found that Rafferty Creek was bone dry. As is the norm on my trips, we made frequent snack stops en-route, and I had plenty of plums, grapes and oranges to work through! We climbed a promontory to get our bearings, and plotted a route off the trail up a ridge toward Evelyn Lake. We headed up the ridge, stopping briefly to hunt for a rogue orange that had rolled out of my pack, and were soon above treeline crossing brilliant yellow windswept grass meadows.
Evelyn lake glistened in the sunshine, mirroring the sky, but the water was positively frigid. The breeze on the lake had a slight chill to it, but we found a small sandy beach at one end and rolled out the sleeping pads to loll in the sun and snack some more. Two miles high in the Sierra Nevada and here I was sunning on the beach! We filled up on water, and decided we'd climb to a ridgetop and set up camp. 
The setting was spectacular. The lake was right below, and the panorama swept out in all directions. Mike's international orange tent looked great in the evening sunlight, and we set about making dinner. As the sun set, Half Dome cast its unmistakable shadow to the west, and we finished dinner watching the light fade slowly. Mike noticed tiny filaments blowing in the breeze across the sky. In fact, they seemed to be everywhere! We later found out that these were spider filaments, with spiders attached! This is called "ballooning" where a spider lets out a long thread, which the wind picks up, the spider clinging on for dear life. The threads were hundreds of feet off the ground, floating along... destination unknown.
Once tucked into the sleeping bag, the wind started to pick up. Soon there was a stiff 20 knot wind buffeting the tent. That's what we get for picking such an exposed site! Suddenly, a strong gust picked up the tent vestibule, and Mike's almost new tent collapsed in a heap of snapped tent poles and ripped fabric. After wrestling out the broken poles, which took quite some time in the frigid wind, we secured the collapsed tent with rocks and hunkered underneath for a much colder, louder, and less comfortable night's sleep than we'd planned on.
We packed up quickly the next morning, eager to get into the warm sunshine, which would not reach our campsite until we were long gone. The hike back went quickly, but we realized that we hadn't met anyone else on the entire trip, and if we didn't manage to thumb a ride back to the gate, we'd have to tack on an extra eight miles to the day's hike. Luckily, we found another hiker who was driving back to park outside, just as we had done, so he drove us back in exchange for us driving him back to his trailhead. Back at the car, we started the long drive home to Pasadena, diverting briefly to see some fall foliage up close. Driving across the Mojave, we could see the smoke plumes from the two main fires around L.A. As we reached the Newhall Pass, we could see huge flames on the hillsides, and in Pasadena, we descended into a thick choking brown haze, glad of the fresh air we'd had.
Having a wonderful day. Seems my social dysfunction is bang on... I'm happy. Things have never been better in my life. Just needed to share that.
Yum. Christie and I had kangaroo for dinner. Yup! Kangaroo! Had a lovely meal at 
