Welcome to my Wilderness Journal

You may enjoy my September 2012 blog: Sharing Experiences of Great Mystery, which describes the purpose of this wilderness log, photo-art gallery, and poetry corner. In Peace, Bob

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Return to Yosemite's Nelson Lake



 
Alpenglow reflection of Choo-Choo Ridge on Nelson Lake

As noted in my last post (see Regathering at Tuolumne Meadows in Blog Archive) I and about a dozen researchers gathered in mid-September 2013 with friends and family where we worked together four decades earlier. The place was Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows and the research included evaluating the impacts of backpacking on Yosemite’s subalpine ecosystem and gathering data about the park’s black bears
 
The Seven Sixty-something Samurai (minus photographer Bob): Dan, Rich, Avis, Bob, Heidi and Snowy
After two days of sharing stories at Parson’s Lodge about what happened to us and what we’ve done over the past forty years, seven of us donned backpacks with gear and two days of food and left the Elizabeth Lake Trailhead headed for Nelson Lake—the site of much of the backcountry research. I had never been on this trail before and I was looking forward to spending more time with these folks.  
 
Snowy celebrating being at Elizabeth Lake and pointing out Unicorn Peak
 We headed up through the dense lodgepole pines past the wilderness boundary and climbed 750' up to the lake where we had lunch. 
Avis and Bob at Elizabeth Lake
 
Along Elizabeth Lake headed toward the pass
Then we had a much steeper 750' climb on a use trail up to Elizabeth Pass....
...where we took another break...
...and met a backcountry ranger (who headed off trail to Reymann Lake and later met us at Nelson Lake).
Then it was down the Echo Creek drainage with the Cockscomb looming over us on the right.





 
After we got near the toe of the cliff on our left we lost the trail and turned a bit early to the east and found our pack-weary selves wandering about for a while exploring steep forested slopes looking for Nelson Lake. 
But we soon enough found ourselves overlooking the lake from a ridge above the northwest shore. I dropped my pack and climbed a rock outcrop and ran into our backcountry ranger friend who likes camping on ridges where the early morning sun will wake and warm him. 
Nelson Lake is dominated by the 1,600' high wall of unofficially-named Choo-Choo Ridge (which has a line of blocks at the top that resemble a child's toy train).
We hiked along the pebble beach, left by the late-season receded lake level... 

...and Dan picked out a camping spot among the trees of the southwest shore.


Soon the westering sun set and a magnificent alpenglow spread over the face of Choo-Choo Ridge as we prepared dinner. 
 
 Then a nearly-full moon rose over the ridge.
The next day Rich and I climbed up to Reymann Lake to attempt an ascent of 11,100' Rafferty Peak. We climbed a steep scree slope in the hopes of going up the ridge and approaching the peak.  
Rafferty Peak at left with our high point in the notch to the left of the knob on right
But we found it too windy, too much whitebark pine, too rocky and too late in the day. 
 
Reymann Lake from the scree slope
We enjoyed the view and headed back to camp, taking in the gorgeous backlit fall vegetation, flitting mountain bluebirds and mossy pools.













Back at camp we enjoyed another magnificent alpenglow and moonrise and hearty hot food.
The next morning I got up early and found the shoreline lined with ice crystals and beautiful reflections. 





My cold camera soon made my hands numb and I climbed the ridge to find the morning sun to ease the pain of my throbbing hands. It took a while, Ouch!

Back at camp I hurried to have breakfast and break camp so as to not hold up the others. 

I had scouted the first part of the trail back so we didn't have any trouble.




Avis brings out her mandolin at the end of the trail. We all headed home with full hearts and Highway 120 reopened to the west due to better control of the Rim Fire.

A wonderful end to a fantastic 40 year reunion. Thank you Dan for making this reunion and hike possible and to Rich for hauling all our stuff in his truck!
Happy Trails to you!
 


Regathering at Tuolumne Meadows after Forty Years



The autumnal Tuolumne River near Parson's Lodge




In mid-September 2013, as the Rim Fire raged just to the northwest, about a dozen researchers gathered with friends and family where we were privileged to work together four decades earlier. The place was Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows and the research was surveying backcountry use and evaluating the impacts of backpacking on Yosemite’s fragile subalpine ecosystem.



26-year old Bob taking the pulse of a Yosemite bear in 1975



In 1975 I was a long-haired graduate assistant helping the Park Service research and manage Yosemite’s black bears. The tent cabin I shared with my fellow bear researchers was located in the same Tuolumne Meadows “Bug Camp” that was the home base for the backcountry human impact researchers, who were mostly college students who hiked and camped for most of the summer in Yosemite’s backcountry.



Dan welcomes reunion participants



Dan was the lead backcountry impact researcher in the 1972-1975 study. As an undergraduate Dan initiated the project, hired his young researchers (most of whom had never backpacked before), enrolled the Park Service in the project and cobbled together funding and logistical support from friends (including an essential Dodge Power Wagon). The result was Dan’s graduate thesis which helped establish the ecological carrying capacity of Yosemite wilderness and led to the current wilderness permit system.




Tuolumne's magnificent Maybeck-designed and 1915-built Sierra Club Parson's Lodge



Naturally, it was Dan who organized the 40th Reunion at Tuolumne Meadow’s Parson’s Lodge. I was the only one of the bear researchers able to attend and I didn’t have a clear recollection of any of the backcountry impact researchers who attended (they worked mostly away from Bug Camp and we often worked at night and slept during the day). But I and my wife felt very much at home and welcomed at the reunion and we quickly made many new friends.




Dan and Jan reminisce and reflect on Yosemite wilderness research and management



Dan invited Jan, emeritus Park Service researcher, who was involved in the 1972-75 work and Mark, the current Wilderness Specialist who continues managing impacts on Yosemite’s backcountry. Those who wished to make a presentation shared how their careers and lives had unfolded since those formative summers in Yosemite. My presentation was Yosemite’s Cathedral: Entering Sacred Wilderness.



Sunrise behind Cathedral Peak



I was struck by four things: 1) the lasting value of this pioneering wilderness impact study, 2) Dan’s generous mentoring and support of his young students in the 1970s, 3) the wonderful personal and public accomplishments his researchers have individually created with their lives since their Yosemite work, and 4) how this group of talented people are a creative bridge between important wilderness conservationists and artists of the past and those just finding their voices today.



Obata's 1930 woodblock: Lake Basin in the High Sierra
My 2008 rephotograph of Obata's painting position and view

This intergenerational bridge includes reunion attendees who worked with or knew as family friends the wilderness activist David Brower, photographers Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell, and the artist Chiura Obata. Our common roots are interwoven with U. C. Berkeley, the Sierra Club, saving Mono Lake and Yosemite. I watched as Dan began to pass this wilderness preservation torch on to the next generation in the form of mentoring a young backcountry ranger named Chris who we met on our post-reunion backpack trip to Nelson Lake. Dan, whose mother was Obata’s last student, is encouraging me to get the unnamed lake that Obata painted in 1930 officially named Obata Lake.


Here are some of the achievements of this extraordinary gathering of Yosemite-inspired souls:







Anne, now a professor at Naropa Institute, has led western pilgrims on month-long trips to and around the sacred Tibetan peak of Kailas. Joe, an accomplished photographer and former student of Ansel Adams. Ellen, a professor at San Diego State, helps medical students learn compassion and patience by working with horses. Margo devised a process for building consensus among polarized stakeholders of Alaskan wilderness. Heidi, a professor at Whitman College, conducts bee research in the U.S. and Sweden. Steve helped start the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and received a Nobel Prize for his work on protecting the Ozone Layer. Avis was an early  designer and promoter of organic gardening. And Kathy, who successfully got the polar bear listed as endangered due to Global Warming, the first species to be so listed.






My most lasting impression of this reunion is how we share a special love for Yosemite and Tuolumne Meadows and how we value our formative time spent here. A century earlier this extraordinary landscape shaped a young John Muir and led to the creation of national parks around the world. This unique spiritual landscape continues to bless the world through the healing it works in the hearts and lives of generations--past, present and future.