I got to Yosemite after dark and was lucky to get one of the last available sites at Wawona Campground. I got up early and headed straight to Yosemite Valley for a dawn reconnaissance. The huge valley walls looming up in the dark was spooky and very powerful. It was a great introduction to a fantastic landscape. I wasn’t going to camp in the valley though, and after breakfast I drove up to the Tioga Road to the campground at Tamarack Flat (6300“).
The weather staggered between decent and threatening most of Friday afternoon, but the overall trend was toward immanent rain. At 5:00 PM a park ranger arrived to inform campers - there weren’t many of us - that a winter storm warning was in effect and they would almost certainly be closing Tioga Road - the only way in or out of Tamarack Campground - for as long as it took for the winter storm and its effects to go away.
The ranger explained that I was free to stay where I was and wait out what at this elevation would almost certainly be nothing more than a heavy rainfall. I would not be allowed to go east on Tioga Road as it climbed to elevations likely to get hit with snow. I had no intention of going that way until the weather cleared anyway. I could leave west and down elevation on Tioga Road but if I did that I would have to take my stuff with me as I would not be allowed to come back this way during the road closure.
My plan had been to go into Yosemite Valley for the day then come back to Tamarack Flat to camp. Now if I went to the valley I would have to camp at Crane Flat for $20. At first I thought that was my only option. But then I realized that this would entail packing my presumably soaked camping gear and bear box full of food the next morning, only to have to set it all up again that evening, also presumably in the pouring rain - this in order to spend a rainy Saturday in Yosemite Valley with hundreds of other stranded campers looking for something indoors to do.
My best bet, I realized, was simply to hunker down where I was. The storm was only expected to last a day. The forecast called for sun on Sunday. I'd be able to leave my stuff up here then and let it dry in the sun. My main concern was how well my tent would hold up in 24 hours of pouring rain. I was thinking it had a weakness on the back side and required a guy, which would require me tying a knot, and I had thus far thoroughly failed to tie a successful knot, even a simple knot that a friend had taught me before I left. That failure really bugged me, even as I did little to remedy it, a failure that bugged me even more. Ah well. Here it was: the first real challenge of the voyage. Actually I was hoping for snow. That would be more fun.
The rain came as predicted late in the evening. Heavy rain on the tent made for pleasant sleeping but I awoke in the middle of the night to the sensation of lying on a water bed. The tent itself was holding up just fine but the ground was flooding beneath me. I had apparently placed myself in the path of a forest freshet. Not that it made much difference; by morning my entire site was pretty much an enormous puddle. But rather than suffer slow saturation, I moved my entire camping operation - except the tent - into my car. It was 2:00AM. My first real rain test and I surrendered.
I was surprised to find I could almost stretch out in the front seat of the Yaris. I was even able to cushion it into adequate comfort, as Lord knows I had enough clothes. I even fell asleep a couple of times. Not enough sleep but it helped pass the time. Dawn came and the rain kept coming hard. I got up and moved my tent from the freshet to dry ground, well, not puddled ground; there obviously was no dry ground. But nearby patches of forest had ground above water and I moved my tent over to one of them. The campground was nearly deserted so I was hardly encroaching.
On my second outing I brought cereal from the bearbox to the car, not easy since the river that was running through my site was at its deepest right in front of my bearbox. A third trip was to make coffee, which I managed despite the torrents and soon felt better. I propped myself back up in my car reasonably comfortably except then I had to make another foray, to the bathroom of course. This was too bad, because while I was able to get pretty comfortable in the front seat of my Yaris, ungetting that way was a lot harder.
My bathroom run yielded wonderful news. It was no longer pouring. It was drizzling and foggy but that was a major relief. A campground maintenance man came through and reported that the Bay Area was clearing up and we were about 6-7 hours behind them. This was at 9:30 A.M. I settled back in my car for easy chair reading, turning on the engine now and then to heat up or listen to the world financial ruins.
Remarkably I made it to 12:30 and lunch just lounging in my car. Not at all bored, somewhat uncomfortable, but not badly so. Lunch was not much of a problem. I was able to cook and eat outside in a mild drizzle. The sky was getting a bit brighter as the sun began making a vague showing. I started wondering if that had been it. I’d have been one happy camper. The sun became so alluring I sat out in it for a bit, but this proved to be a lull. The sky began getting very dark. I began to think of the little chores I should attend to.
I should go look at my tent. I should peruse the documents Judy sent me. I should write postcards. I should re-program my camera. I went one for four. My tent looked decent. I would be able to sleep in it. Rain resumed at 3:00PM. Nearing 5:00PM it was just a drizzle, but it was also getting cooler and approaching nightime. An odd day, reading and waiting for my next meal.
Dinner at 7:00PM, again in a light drizzle. Some fine Wendell Berry. Some intriguing This American Life on the financial crisis: basically it is all symptomatic of the enormous debt everyone is in. The skies were actually clearing and now I had to go into 'cold mode', as I was now freezing. And damp. By 9:00 PM the sky was alight with stars. The whole thing lasted less than 24 hours!
The following morning was beautiful and intense. Blue skies and sunny, but the overwhelming effect was a near blinding mist of water evaporating in the sunlight from the saturated forest ground meeting the still substantial dripping from the trees above. Steam rising, droplets falling, backlit by bright sun. The younger firs positively glowed in backlight. Beautiful really.
The sun stayed low and never really cleared the treetops, so I had to keep moving to the next clearing in order to stay in it. Then I got stung by a bee. The park maintenance man came by and informed me the road was all clear. I was free to come and go. So I kept my site and went into the valley for a sunny Sunday afternoon.
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