~Thursday, August 18th ~
Going to our first High Sierra Camp! So what are the High Sierra Camps (HSC)? There are six HSCs that are about 7 - 10 miles apart from one another that people can hike (usually in a loop of some sort) and not need to bring a ton of equipment since breakfast and dinner are provided, as well as shelter. You can even purchase a lunch ($17: sandwich, bag of chips, cookie, apple and juice box) to take with you on your hike. All you really need is some clothes, a sleeping bag liner, and personal items. The HSCs are in such demand, that there is lottery each year. We entered on 9/1/2015 and when "winners" were announced throughout April & May, 2016, we did not "win." However a list of "leftover vacancy" dates were published on 5/30/2016 and Suzanne pounced. Yes, pounced - she was the 10th person to get a reservation in the 30 minutes the list had been made public. (She'll admit that checking the status of the HSCs was a bit of an obsession.) By the next day, almost all vacancies were gone!
Our first High Sierra Camp - Vogelsang! As you can see, it's 6.7 miles away and 1,360 ft elevation gain - and pretty steady at that - some hikes had a net elevation gain (or loss) of such-and-such, but it was up, down, up, down.........
Let's go!!!
Started flat - always nice to get a bit warmed-up with no elevation gain.....
A bridge (duh)
Views.....
There were trail markers/signs along the way fairly frequently. We realized a few days later that if you double-check, the mileage never seems to add-up correctly...... :-)
More views..........
Still pretty flat..........
We walked though some meadows.......
What happened? Where are all the pictures of the elevation gain part? Yeah, well, it was hot (our hottest day) and we think Suzanne just forgot to take a lot of pictures - or - they weren't good and got cut from the 1,060 she did take. Also, suddenly we were at Tuolumne Pass - we were hiking much faster than expected. In fact.......
Just a bit more to go.......and.....
We were here ~ Vogelsang High Sierra Camp! Seriously, we were surprised how quickly we got here. It was too hot to want to stop for lunch, so we just snacked along the way and kept going. Don't even think we stopped to pee more than once. This is the highest of all High Sierra Camps at 10,130 ft.
Brown building on the right are the bathrooms - composting toilets. White, small building are sinks. Far building is the dining area/kitchen.
Rock building is the kitchen. Notice the bear boxes again.
Welcome to Vogelsang!!!
So meals - again, family style and each night is a different meal. Thursday night is pork night. More on meals at the HSCs in a bit......
Our cabin, #2!! So.....normally people share cabins and usually each cabin sleeps 4 - 6 people. However, on our hike up to Vogelsang, we briefly chatted with some people who told us to request Cabin #2 - only a 2-person cabin and Fletcher Creek flows right in front. Since we got here so (unexpectedly) early, we asked, and got, cabin #2!! :-)
Home! (And another wood burning stove!)
Fletcher Creek. Heard it all night long........
Views around Vogelsang.
Vogelsang camp. Oh, so I alluded to this before - the first night we had dinner at Tuolumne Meadows, we sat with six other people, two of whom were men from Atlanta - Ray, a veterinarian and Ken, a pilot for Delta. The minute we walked into Vogelsang and checked-in, there they were! So that was cool!
It was quite cool at 10,130 ft!! Just chillin' and enjoying the time 'til the dinner bell.
So the food. As mentioned before, Thursday is pork night. Well, Suzanne doesn't eat pork - no problem - they made her (and others) a fabulous quinoa vegetarian cowboy chili (it's even vegan) and it was awesome! In fact, we asked the cook for the recipe. Here - in a kitchen that was like a cave, run by guys in their 20's, 10,130 ft in the middle of nowhere - asking for a recipe - go figure! Along with the main course, dinner tonight was: green salad with cranberries & garbanzo beans, corn bread with honey-butter, mashed potatoes, freshly steamed broccoli, and for dessert - apple cake with whipped cream - YUM!
After dinner - it was story time. Guy on the left is Kevin - he runs Vogelsang. Tall guy in the middle was the cook.
Story time accompanied by drumming.
Then just a jam session. In hindsight, this was our favorite group of staff- very passionate about why they want to be here and about their guests.
Dusk shot....
As the sun set, a ranger gave a talk about the Vogelsang area - we learned that Yosemite is the only National Park with a hut-to-hut system as it was John Muir's favorite park.
More fun with the new superzoom!! Remember, the moon is 93,000,000 miles away!!
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