June 23: Yosemite and back to the coast

 

Driving across the Valley

So left Pismo Beach on Tuesday with some trepidation on how the Whale was going to perform once it gets into the mountains.  I had jury-rigged the spark plug wires so they did not touch each other and hoped for the best.  Spent one night on the way at Horseshoe Bend lake.  Deserted State park on a beautiful lake.  Only 4 other campsites occupied in a huge park.  I was just waiting for the banjo's to start up, but eerily quiet...

Horseshoe Lake State Park

Hanging with the big boys

Early next morning I started the journey up to 3500ft.  Yosemite Lakes RV Park is part of the Thousand Trails group, and I had booked in for 2 weeks (at no cost).  The park was 5 miles from the entrance to Yosemite National Park, which was still 35 miles from Yosemite Valley - the central point.

Hoping that keeping the plug wires away from each other would help... (it kind of did)

The priest - if they name an incline (as opposed to a pass) you know it is going to be hectic, but the 'new' priest was definitely not nearly as bad as the 'old' priest

First campsite at Yosemite Lakes - the river is at the bottom by the trees

Must have hit a huge swarm of bugs

Made it up the new Priest incline to Groveland and then on to the RV park.  The Whale did stutter a few times, but I was never in a panic.  I was at times doing 35mph with about 20 cars behind me.

On Wednesday I decided to head back to Groveland in the Barbie to get some provisions

The Iron door Saloon - oldest saloon in California

Dollar bills in the saloon...

The iron doors

The next day I took the local YARTs bus down to Yosemite Valley - $18 round trip is really a bargain for getting a tour guide/bus driver for the trip and being able to sleep on the way back.

So 50 years ago there was a huge fire here, and the firefighters used an untested fire suppressant.  Killed the fire, but was also so toxic that no large trees regrew in the area...

Bridal Vail falls and the valley

Yosemite falls.  Lots of water everywhere this time of the year

Decided to walk up to Vernal Falls.  95F day and only 7 miles, but what I did not realize is that the 7 miles was all stairs.  Decided halfway up to Nevada Falls (the next falls after Vernal) that I had enough and turned around...

Trail of mist

Them stairs in the mist

Did not read anything at all, but added some weight...

Vernal Falls - a LARGE volume of water going over

Nevada Falls

Got back to the campsite and had new neighbors who had no sense of space, but the campfire and ice-cream made up for it.  Next day I decided to go see some sequoias.

Huge amounts of large butterflies

 

Their tent was under the Whale

Not a sequoia

A sequoia.  They need heat/fire to germinate their seed pods, and it needs to be a very hot fire.

Someone spent a lot of time hollowing out a dead sequoia.  This used to be the old road into Yosemite Valley.  No idea how they put the road together back in the day.

Looking up into the ex-tree

Time span is difficult to comprehend.  Zoom in

Next day was back into Groveland and the Iron Door Saloon for lunch.  Met the Chef from the hotel next door who had moved there from Florida a month before and was still adapting to mountain life.  Routine each afternoon was sit at the river and read for a while  and watch life go by on the river, and then do a drift down the river on my back - no tube - which was 'fun', if very very cold.  One interesting thing I saw while sitting at the river was a garter snake - and I actually got a video of it swimming under water.  Did not think they did that.

Loved that sticker

Locals in the saloon

Moved to a river campsite as about 80 "Girl Campers" - another camping club for women were coming into town

Bedroom with a view

The new spark plug wires arrived and were installed.  Major success....

Rainbow pools near the park

Fathers day music - one guy playing 4 to 5 instruments at the same time.  That needs some processing power.  Had some good songs too.

Locals

Groveland

Local campers - Mike helped all the kids do their marshmallows for S'mores

Then things got really interesting.  A couple 2 doors down (unfortunately I do not remember their names, but I think it was Greg and Lene) invited me to drive down with them into Yosemite Valley - together with the hotel Chef (see earlier meeting her at the Iron Door Saloon). 

Us at the fountain of life - a very very cold fountain of youth

We took my e-bike along. Had a great day on the Valley floor skateboarding and biking around and managed to make it back to the campsite in one piece.

One of Ansel Adams' pics - Greg went to most of his most iconic photo spots

Upper Yosemite falls

Greg and the Husky skateboarding.  For the most part I pulled Greg on the e-bike around the whole meadow (about 3 miles) and the dog ran along

All stunningly beautiful - half dome

El Capitan

Bridal Veil falls

Greg is a connoisseur and used to grow them but legalization put him out of business

Next day I did a walk to Carlon falls - nice and easy and out of the heat.  Also did a bit of fishing in the camp river.  Caught one 10inch rainbow and a good day was had by all.

Carlon falls - very very cold

My campsite for the last few days - needed the shade

Idyllic

Then headed back down the mountain to the coast.  Stayed over one night in French Camp - which is in the middle of the central valley and just unbelievable fertile farmland.  From there back to Half Moon Bay. Unfortunately again no surf at Mavericks.

The problem with driving through farm country...

Crossing the bay

Was amazed by the amount of Spanish moss - thought they liked warm moist climate

At the Half moon Bay state park

Not sure I would enjoy tent camping on the California coast - wet and damp and cold

Little library across from my site

Lots of walking and riding

Bach dancing and Dynamite Society - apparently THE jazz club to be at - unfortunately it was closed on the days I was there

Half Moon Bay RV park - quite the English theme. Actually heard a lot of English accents around the area - they must be drawn to the weather/climate

The pub at the RV park - went to watch some sport there

Large selection of lagers

The weather sucks

Hit 2,600 miles on the bike

Half Moon Bay harbor

Finally back to Pacifica and the San Francisco Bay RV park where Gene and I stayed a in April.  Headed straight to the Winters pub and by luck they had a Sunday afternoon head-banging marathon on.  Each band had 45 minutes to play and they were all older than me, but made great music.

View at Pacifica

Striper at Pacifica Pier - they are considered an invasive species on the west coast, so the restrictions are much more lax than on the east coast.

Unfortunately I only got a video of the first band but this was them setting up - will try upload the video at the end

Very DEVO vibes from this band - they did really well.

Sunset at Pacifica