Yosemite National Park, CA: 17+ miles Tamarack Flat to El Cap Summit

Alex, Kim, and Curt pre hike (Photo credit: The man himself- Cinnamon, yes like the spice)

We had all been itching to get up for an overnight hiking adventure and what better day than Memorial Day! And what better overnight than on top of El Capitan! Alex had Monday and Tuesday off so we left Monday morning in the Zinger and arrived an hour later in Yosemite to sign in with the wilderness office for an overnight permit and more importantly to get our bear canister (a must if you don't want to wake up in the middle of the night with a black bear on top of you).  Alex (or as we call him our Hippie Sherpa Guide) had done some pre-planning and researched the best starting point for us: Tamarack Flat Campground. So we headed up the Tioga pass road to our parking and trailhead spot.

Curt and Hippie Sherpa Guide Alex

As we pulled into the Tamarack Flat campground, it was unclear as to the best spot to park, so we turned the Zinger around and just outside the campground limits, we saw a motorhome parked in what looked like one of two "ok-to-park-in" parking spaces. As we got our gear together and had a preliminary IPA to get us psyched up for the hike, a man came walking up. After a few words we realized it was his motorhome and he proceeded to recall some amazing life stories to us. It must have been a half hour before we peeled ourselves away but not before we learned his name. Of course, his name was Cinnamon, yes like the spice. Cinnamon took our picture (after a small tutorial of how to work the i-phone camera), we shook his hand, and were on our way.

2.5 miles in we crossed a bridge!

At about 2 1/2 miles in, we stopped and ate our lunch. Within a half a mile from our lunch spot we met up with a group of about 20-30 men all on a day hike. As we put our heads down and sped up to pass them all, it proved difficult as they were so uniquely spaced apart. Finally, we hit a straight away that would prove to be the point to pass them all and one of them sparked up conversation and asked where we were hiking to or from. As we told him our plans, he remarked we had missed our turn and laughing, we ignored him and kept walking. But alas, he was persistent enough that we eventually realized that in our haste to pass this large group of jolly men, we had indeed missed by an accumulated mile our much needed turn.  So, as we let the majority of these men pass us back, we laughed to ourselves and got on our way, the right way.

Set up camp at the top of El Cap

Notice the deer in the background?

 So, our 8 1/2 mile trek up El Capitan turned into 9 1/2 but we were sure as hell not complaining once we got to the summit! We found an incredible spot under a tree with rock walls built up around and an awesome campfire spot.  We immediately set up camp, started a fire, and were pleasantly interrupted by a family of deer who joined us for the remainder of the night at a comfortable distance. It was an unreal feeling to be on top of one of the most impressive granite Monoliths in the midst of unpredictable weather and unbridled wildlife. We had PB&J for dinner and decided to finish the night with an El Cap party. We hadn't been too good at bringing the right amount of water but we made up for it with alcohol which was a good thing since we needed help sleeping as it started pouring around 10pm and didn't stop until we awoke around 6am.  We were thankful for this weather because it brought some amazing views that became majestic as we were high up enough enough to be within the clouds!

Half Dome in a cloud of awesomeness!

We were planning on hiking an additional 2 1/2 miles the next morning but the clouds turned us away from the trek as where we were going was contingent on the sky's weather for views. We started our descent and low and behold, who do we run into but Cinnamon himself! After another 10 minutes of conference with this legendary man, we headed on our way deciding that we too needed spice names. Alex, Sugar; Curt, Nutmeg (cause he's from CT and that's the nutmeg state); Kim, Paprika. Could you tell we had begun our exhaustion phase of the hike? Well, even though we were exhausted, we made it back to the Bug just in time for dinner and a reminder we had planned a Bug party with coworkers. And the adventure went on!  Check out all our awesome pics from this super hike here.

Yosemite National Park: Moonbow Bug Party

The Zinger's first overnight in Yosemite National Park

Our friends at the Yosemite Bug Hostel were all talking about getting a group camping trip to Yosemite set up. There was an obvious event coming up that none of us wanted to miss: an amazing moonbow sighting! Moonbows, Lunar Rainbows, or what John muir calls Lunar Spraybows need a few factors to make them visible. These include: clear skies, enough flow from the waterfalls, darkness, bright moon, and correct rainbow geometry and according to the University of Texas (moonbow experts for some reason), May 24 had all of these factors. So, we decided to head up to Yosemite that morning, set up camp and have a good time!

Our friend Cameo had just bought a motorhome (named the "Heart of Gold" or the H.O.G) she would be driving to Missouri to meet up with her boyfriend who relocated his chef position. So, we coordinated with her, Donny, Liz, Colleen, and Alex about weekend adventures. We drove up in the Zinger with Liz and followed Cameo and Donny in the H.O.G. Colleen and Alex had to work so they met us up there a little later. 

Walking Autumn and Gonzo. Two happy pups!

As the early crew set up camp, we made sure to get everything edible into the bear locker and all things drinkable into the H.O.G refrigerator. We got up there around noon and had until 8pm before we needed to meet up with Colleen who was getting off the YARTS bus. Cameo had brought her two amazing pups and because we were going to be leaving them in the H.O.G all night to view the moonbows, we needed to walk them around the valley floor to get their energy out. Although we were all antsy about being in the Valley without going on a real hike, time flew by and we finally met up with Colleen. After eating a balanced meal of PB&J and putting the dogs to bed for the night, we hit the Valley floor on foot with our destination being any place with the BEST view of the MOONBOW!

We did a little off-trail trip!

 According to the Texas State University's research on the Moonbow, there were two spots in which to get the best view. One was from a parking lot adjacent to Sentinel Bridge, the other at the bottom of the lower Yosemite falls. We tried taking pictures, but our cameras were just not good enough. Here are some pictures downloaded from offline taken from the two best viewpoints!

View from the bottom of Lower Yosemite Falls

View from the parking lot adjacent to Sentinal Bridge.
 We actually couldn't see the rainbow as seen in the picture but we think it
was because we were at the viewpoint a little too early

Walking around the Valley in the bright moonlight was an adventure in itself!  There were so many cool sights to see other than the moonbows.  Everything was illuminated and awesome looking.  We even saw lights on the sides of cliff walls, signs of rock climbers camping halfway through their ascents.  There were lots of other 'moonbowers' out and about and the park had a special energy that we had not felt on any of our previous visits.  Even though there were LOTS of people at the 'official' viewing sites our group had plenty of solitary adventure time walking around.  It was so much fun to have a big group of friends for this journey.  We must have walked a total of almost 10 miles!  By the time we made it back to our campground most everyone was ready for bed.  This trip was one to remember!  To see all our pics from the moonbow trip (plus some more from the Bug) check out this Facebook Album.

"Midpines, Pride Of The Sierra" - Yosemite Bug Rustic Mountain Resort, Midpines, CA

Make it 433 til June Mr. Mayor!

We're now in the middle of week 7 here in Midpines and things are cranking!  It's been a long process to get to where we are now but it seems our projects are finally bearing fruit (although not yet literally).

All 38 raised beds are double-height with new boards, many re-gopher-wired, and all filled with manure and mushroom compost.  Kim has been in charge of organizing garden planting while Curt has been in charge of creating and assembling the drip irrigation system.  All of our squash and cucumbers are planted and have sprouted.  The tomatoes have been transplanted and are doing great.  The peppers, eggplants, and basil are looking good but won't be transferred from their home in the greenhouse for another few weeks.  These are all the main crops destined for the Cafe at the Bug, where they will be transformed into delicious gourmet meals for the hostel guests (and us employees!)  We've also planted some beans, tomatillos, dill, okra, peas, carrots, radishes, beets, chard, lettuce, turnip, parsnip, and corn.  Our drip system is totally set up and functional in the North Garden (the big one!) and we've started to set up a system for the South Garden.

Overlapping projects for garden success!

We had a bit of trouble with some bitten chard and bean sprouts (as well as random bite marks on other things) and ramped up our regimen of pest control.  We created a pepper/garlic spray (using ingredients from the Cafe) for the seedlings in the greenhouse and got some neem oil and diatomaceous earth to rid the garden of slugs and bugs.

Givin' those plants a spritz of garlic/pepper!

Our bags of oyster mushrooms that we got at our mushroom class have gone nuts and we already cut and ate a batch.

This picture was when they were real small but after a few days they were huge.  Next batch we'll try to get a big picture.  We've had some fun weekend times with the Bug hosting a well-known area band called Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit (long name, good band- look them up on YouTube!)

We ended up picking up a similar aged hitchhiking man and because he couldn't find a ride all the way to Yosemite he came to the show with us!  We also got invited to Mariposa Fun Day (that's probably not what it was called but that's what it was) which was the next town over from Midpines (which is not much of a 'town' at all).  We drank some awesome locally brewed beer at Prospector's (on tap at the Bug Cafe woo-hoo), listened to some live music, got to check out the Mariposa museum of the olden tyme gold-diggin' days, and even saw the 'Cirque de Sierra' which was a circus style event hosted by what appeared to be local young people of Mariposa.  All good fun!

Curt and Doug after the Cirque de Sierra, clown noses and all!

For more good fun check out our latest pictures on Facebook!