When my dad goes on fishing trips, he will sometimes record a cheeky message on his office phone about being at the “No Phone River.”  This is of course a mythical place, but his point gets across — he is unavailable by electronic means until he returns.  In retrospect, I should have left a blog entry of the same vein.

I just returned from a week-long backpacking trip along part of the John Muir Trail, which explains at least part of my absence.  In addition to the traditional backpackers (myself, my two brothers, and my dad) this trip included 4 extra people (my uncle, cousin, best friend, and a colleague of my dad’s).  I was in charge of feeding all 8 people in our party, which is no easy task.   I blame that for at least another week of non-blogging.  :-)

Enough of the griping, and onto the pictures!  I didn’t want to carry all 5 pounds of my good camera and instead opted to carry all 5 ounces of the pocket camera we have.  Glad I did, the pictures still turned out great!  

We started our trip in Tuolomne Meadows, and headed up the Lyell Valley; the weather was beautiful and the mosquitoes were nowhere to be seen.  Thank goodness for that; the little buggers just love to feast upon me.

To get out of the beautiful canyon, we had to climb Donohue Pass, which is chronicled in the next few pictures.  First though, we had to cross a barely-above-freezing stream.  Rather cold on our poor tootsies.  Best portrayed by my best friend Sophie here:

The actual pass (elevation 11,056 feet, the highest point on our trip) wasn’t very picturesque.   It also marked the meeting of Yosemite National Park and the Ansel Adams Wilderness (Inyo National Park).  We then dropped down to 9,600 feet for lunch, then back up another pass before arriving at Thousand Island Lake for the night.  The second pass is appropriately called Island Pass and had a nice little lake.

Thousand Island Lake doesn’t actually have a thousand islands, but it was still very beautiful.  Banner Peak is in the background there, one of the more photogenic landscapes. 

We originally planned to spend an entire day there (can you blame us?), but it was actually very very windy.  So windy in fact we unanimously decided to push on to our next campsite.  I know it looks serene, but trust me — it wasn’t.

 We spent the next few days going from site to site, but none of them were nearly as scenic as the first few.  Our trip ended at Red’s Meadows where we caught a bus and then a taxi to get us back to Tuolomne Meadows. Here are some more highlights from the trip:

Marmots!  We saw oodles of these little fuzzy balls of blubber, and had to pay attention to our packs when we took breaks lest they steal some of our GORP. 

Waterfalls!  We were happy to clamber around these, mostly because we didn’t have our packs on.

“That’s all fine and dandy,” you say, “but what about the birds you saw?”  Yes, yes, of course.  I didn’t even attempt to take any pictures of birds with my little camera, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention to the avifauna.  In no particular order, we saw LOADS of Dark-eyed Juncos, and quite a few Mountain Chickadees.  I didn’t get to hear the Chickadee’s “Hey baby” song very often, but it always brought a smile to my face when I did.  At the higher elevations we saw some Clark’s Nutcrackers and Ravens.  One Olive-sided Flycatcher was spotted by Trinity Lakes (our most mosquito-infested campsite, and we were happy to see him!).  In the meadows some American Robins flittered about.  And, of course, there were the stunning Stellar’s Jays around the more populated campgrounds in Tuolomne and Red’s Meadows.  Along the streams I kept an eye out for American Dippers, but was unable to see any.  My uncle, however, was successful.  We both saw Spotted Sandpipers (including chicks!) along riversides and lakesides.  I believe I saw a Great Horned Owl fly through the Red’s Meadows campground, but I’m not certain.  I haven’t managed to spot one of these in the wild yet, and I really want to add one to my life list.  On the bus we took to Mammoth, a Western Tanager was tallied.  And lastly, at a lake near Red’s Meadows we saw some unidentified Hummingbirds and Gulls, another reason for them NOT to be called “Sea Gulls.”

Three lifers for me:  At the lower elevations I was happy to add the Pine Grosbeak to my life list, and contentedly watched them scout our campsite for fallen morsels.  Hoping up a tree near Rosalie Lake I saw a female Williamson’s Sapsucker, and my uncle saw a male a few days later.  And on the top of Donohue Pass, we got a great look at a female Blue Grouse leading her gang of chicks to get some water.

All in all, it was a very fun trip.  Backpacking is one of my favorite things to do, and I can’t wait until I can go again!