This trip materialized last Spring as I was going through some serious granite withdrawal. First was to figure out how to get the time off and away from my kid and second was to find a willing and free buddy to do it with. The plan started to shake out when my mother and father wanted (needed) to see their grandkid. I took that as grandparent camp was open for business! So the plan became, drive down on a Friday/Saturday, hang with family till Tuesday morning, and then head out to the mountains until late Friday while my daughter parties with my family.
The next step was to pick out a trail--preferably with creek/river fishing and roughly 30-40 miles. I put out a request here on PNWFF and was able to parse out a great looking route in the 30+ mile range with a creek, and multiple lakes to fish (with some off trail bushwhacking to a possible Golden Trout lake), thank you @GLC and @Travis Bille--that zone we talked about is on our list for next year!. Well, then I some how stumbled into 4 permits for the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite and said DUH. Once that happened, my buddies wife asked to tag along and after that my Wife wanted in as well (the more the merrier!).
My kid and I drove down on Friday, camped about halfway around Mt Shasta and finished the rest of the trip on Saturday. Did the family stuff and even snuck away for a little hike out on the Coast.
My wife flew down Monday night and we began our final preparations. Which also including locking in our Plan B hike as Plan A suddenly became in jeopardy. The week prior, a lightning storm passed through and started 7 or so fires. The biggest--around 300 acres--was about 2-3 miles West of our starting trailhead. We were hiking away from the fire, but the fire was moving towards the trailhead where my car would be parked for 4 days. We couldn't get a ton of information from Inciweb or even by calling the rangers, but we figured with the 40% containment and it not growing much we figured it was fine. There was also another 30 acre fire smoldering ~500' above the trail that was a bit alarming as we could see it, but ultimately was harmless.
The first day of the hike was a long day. My wife worked a half day (off at 10am) while I confronted my father about past childhood traumas (apparently I needed to give myself something to process over the course of the next 4 days
). We then drove the 4+ hours to the the end of the trail, met our friends and shuttled back to the beginning of the hike. We finally got on the trail at about 5:30 and had ~6 miles to hike to get to our first camp (the permit system is weird about where you have to get to on your first night). The trail was mostly flat with a faint smell of fire but not really smokey.
The next morning we woke up to a perfect day and prepared to drop 4,500' over the course of a couple miles to our lowest elevation of the trip (~4,000'). Similar to @Wadin' Boot, I've never been real sold on on trekking poles, but after this trip I will never do a hiking/backing trip that has considerable elevation without poles again. They absolutely saved my knees, especially in the descent.
The switchbacks as we descend the canyon wall into the Valley.
Our first peak at the river.
Passing below the 30 acre fire, It was still smoldering and smoking quite a bit. This fire wasn't on Inciweb so we didn't even know about it. Prior to our trip we appointed a "fire czar" one of our friends who sent us fire updates via a Garmin. We were able to check in on this while on the trail and still felt comfortable. Regardless, it was a bit eerie passing below an active fire in a place where it would be very difficult to get out in a hurry.
Once we got down into the Valley, it was time to eat a snack, jump in the River and rig up my rod. For this trip, I brought my C. Barclay 7' 10" 5 piece fiberglass rod. It packs small and is just so pleasurable to fish with. I first tied on one of Andrew Grillos' Fat Caddis and landed a 10" brown on my first cast (uh oh). I tried to explain to my Wife that that was a bad omen but she didn't get it. Turns out it wasn't
. It took a bit longer to land my next fish but I ended up getting this beautiful brown on a purple Hippie Stomper (another Grillos' pattern). It ended up being the best fish of the trip and the last brown of the trip as well.
The (good) problem with this river is every single turn has fishy runs, buckets, cascades, and pools. I didn't want to miss anything so I ended up carrying a rigged rod for most of the trip. As long as we weren't on a big descent, ascent or far from the river I hiked with my rod in one hand and a pole in the other. This allowed me to take a few casts in any likely spot without slowing down my group. They would either quickly go for a dip, eat a snack or keep going and I would catch up.
My buddy brought his Tenkara and also fished the whole trip with me.
My wife doesn't get too impressed by my fishing often, but one fish did impress her. We were hiking side by side and I saw a really cool spot. Unhooked my fly, took one cast to the best spot, a fish rocketed up from the depths (this water is so clear you can see everything), shot out 12", hooked it, landed it and released it before she barely came to a stop. Casually hooked my fly back to my guide and kept hiking like nothing happened.
I didn't take a ton of fish pictures because I didn't have a net and didn't want to stress them out. Most fish were in this 10" range with a few in the 12" range.
The canyon has some of the best swimming holes I've ever had the pleasure of soaking my sore body in. There's also countless natural waterslides that we took full advantage of.
The first day ended up being a really long day. We went 13.5 miles with 4,500' in descent and then another 2,000' ascent after we put in 11 miles. By tackling that end of day ascent, it set us up for an easier next day.
See below for part 2!
The next step was to pick out a trail--preferably with creek/river fishing and roughly 30-40 miles. I put out a request here on PNWFF and was able to parse out a great looking route in the 30+ mile range with a creek, and multiple lakes to fish (with some off trail bushwhacking to a possible Golden Trout lake), thank you @GLC and @Travis Bille--that zone we talked about is on our list for next year!. Well, then I some how stumbled into 4 permits for the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite and said DUH. Once that happened, my buddies wife asked to tag along and after that my Wife wanted in as well (the more the merrier!).
My kid and I drove down on Friday, camped about halfway around Mt Shasta and finished the rest of the trip on Saturday. Did the family stuff and even snuck away for a little hike out on the Coast.
My wife flew down Monday night and we began our final preparations. Which also including locking in our Plan B hike as Plan A suddenly became in jeopardy. The week prior, a lightning storm passed through and started 7 or so fires. The biggest--around 300 acres--was about 2-3 miles West of our starting trailhead. We were hiking away from the fire, but the fire was moving towards the trailhead where my car would be parked for 4 days. We couldn't get a ton of information from Inciweb or even by calling the rangers, but we figured with the 40% containment and it not growing much we figured it was fine. There was also another 30 acre fire smoldering ~500' above the trail that was a bit alarming as we could see it, but ultimately was harmless.
The first day of the hike was a long day. My wife worked a half day (off at 10am) while I confronted my father about past childhood traumas (apparently I needed to give myself something to process over the course of the next 4 days
). We then drove the 4+ hours to the the end of the trail, met our friends and shuttled back to the beginning of the hike. We finally got on the trail at about 5:30 and had ~6 miles to hike to get to our first camp (the permit system is weird about where you have to get to on your first night). The trail was mostly flat with a faint smell of fire but not really smokey.The next morning we woke up to a perfect day and prepared to drop 4,500' over the course of a couple miles to our lowest elevation of the trip (~4,000'). Similar to @Wadin' Boot, I've never been real sold on on trekking poles, but after this trip I will never do a hiking/backing trip that has considerable elevation without poles again. They absolutely saved my knees, especially in the descent.
The switchbacks as we descend the canyon wall into the Valley.
Our first peak at the river.
Passing below the 30 acre fire, It was still smoldering and smoking quite a bit. This fire wasn't on Inciweb so we didn't even know about it. Prior to our trip we appointed a "fire czar" one of our friends who sent us fire updates via a Garmin. We were able to check in on this while on the trail and still felt comfortable. Regardless, it was a bit eerie passing below an active fire in a place where it would be very difficult to get out in a hurry.
Once we got down into the Valley, it was time to eat a snack, jump in the River and rig up my rod. For this trip, I brought my C. Barclay 7' 10" 5 piece fiberglass rod. It packs small and is just so pleasurable to fish with. I first tied on one of Andrew Grillos' Fat Caddis and landed a 10" brown on my first cast (uh oh). I tried to explain to my Wife that that was a bad omen but she didn't get it. Turns out it wasn't
. It took a bit longer to land my next fish but I ended up getting this beautiful brown on a purple Hippie Stomper (another Grillos' pattern). It ended up being the best fish of the trip and the last brown of the trip as well.The (good) problem with this river is every single turn has fishy runs, buckets, cascades, and pools. I didn't want to miss anything so I ended up carrying a rigged rod for most of the trip. As long as we weren't on a big descent, ascent or far from the river I hiked with my rod in one hand and a pole in the other. This allowed me to take a few casts in any likely spot without slowing down my group. They would either quickly go for a dip, eat a snack or keep going and I would catch up.
My buddy brought his Tenkara and also fished the whole trip with me.
My wife doesn't get too impressed by my fishing often, but one fish did impress her. We were hiking side by side and I saw a really cool spot. Unhooked my fly, took one cast to the best spot, a fish rocketed up from the depths (this water is so clear you can see everything), shot out 12", hooked it, landed it and released it before she barely came to a stop. Casually hooked my fly back to my guide and kept hiking like nothing happened.
I didn't take a ton of fish pictures because I didn't have a net and didn't want to stress them out. Most fish were in this 10" range with a few in the 12" range.
The canyon has some of the best swimming holes I've ever had the pleasure of soaking my sore body in. There's also countless natural waterslides that we took full advantage of.
The first day ended up being a really long day. We went 13.5 miles with 4,500' in descent and then another 2,000' ascent after we put in 11 miles. By tackling that end of day ascent, it set us up for an easier next day.
See below for part 2!
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. I think Camp Grandparents is going to be yearly thing.
