Yosemite 2008 All Cal Meet

I arrived at Hodgdon Meadow camp grounds at a little before 4:30 pm on Friday, I left at 8:30 am from McKinleyville. My round trip was 1003.8 miles and that puts my truck at 19,765 on the odometer. I stayed the night at one of the group sites and packed up the next morning to head for the valley which is 16 miles away. The speed limit is restricted in the park to protect the wildlife, if you hit a bear and kill it because you were going faster than the posted limit, they fine you $5000 and possibly impound your vehicle. I stayed at the posted limits, but most of the drivers were doing as much as 10 over. I guess they did not read their brochure they got at the gate. I parked my truck at the Village store for an hour with two posted signs on the hood to alert any ROCers that may show up. I saw a blue 06 RT two next to mine when I came back from a walk, they had never heard of the club, so I gave them a card with the club info on it. Shortly after noon, Doug ( dsowell ) called and we met up at the Village Store and drove about the park, he called Tony's ( toobuku ) cell and left a message. While Doug and his family went to check out the museum and visitor center, I decided to walk around and left my truck along the road across from Curry Village with a sign on the side with ROC club meet and my cell # in small print. My walk around ended up taking me to Mirror Lake and the base of Half Dome. A group of four nice women asked me if I would take their pictures with the dome behind them and they offered to take one of me with my camera. since only the three of us showed up and Doug was leaving that afternoon and Tony the next morning, I decided to head home for a warm bed, instead of a cold tent adjacent to a Loud group site that was next to mine. One more night of Bongo drumming and a guy singing avery song of the Eagles would have left me with a whopper of a head ache.:mad: I left the Valley at Curry Camp parking lot at 4:30 pm and got home at 1:30 am Sunday; nine hours, 494 miles from the valley to my house, stopped once to fill up the truck. I have to fill up one more time, the tank is above a third, overall, I almost got 22 mpg. Pictures are next. I took 135 pictures, including the one the women took.

At a lookout point along the drive to the Valley at 8:40 am

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3631/dsc05653ok5.jpg



El Capitan

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9550/dsc056642te3.jpg

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/8246/dsc05666vv3.jpg

My truck with a lot of rock.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2767/dsc05699xr5.jpg


Half Dome from the valley floor near Curry Village.

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5750/dsc05696po6.jpg


Me across from Half Dome

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2946/dsc05736fa7.jpg


The park from the lookout point at 5:00 pm.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5992/dsc05783js4.jpg

Man are we bummed we couldn’t make this year’s Yosemite trek Martin!! We were not able to make our Oasis RV Resort trek to Las Vegas either! Being determined (read, Hard Headed) We will be going out to the SoCal desert to ride dirt bikes for the day.

Thanks for posting those great photos and I hope you all had a wonderful time. How was the weather up there? I’m sure it’s a lot cooler than the SoCal Desert this time of year.

Can’t wait for Doug and Tony’s pictures too!

Love the beautiful photographs. Keep them coming!

Was that a Ridgeline on top of Half Dome? :D

Nice Photos guys! Dang that's beautiful country. Thanks for the pics! :)

It was really quite beautiful up there. Manteca, where I stopped for gas before heading up to Yosemite on Friday, was at 105º. The valley floor was 86º to 92º. Pretty hot for me, I do not think we even hit much like 80 here on the coast this past summer, though today it is quite warm here, over 75 already at noon and no breeze. When I got back down to Manteca, it was in the 90's and the sun was setting. I used my air conditioner all the way from here to there and back and still got almost 21 mpg's.


Here come some more pictures.


http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7563/dsc05672hh4.jpg

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3636/dsc056792in1.jpg

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/913/dsc056832ft8.jpg

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5706/dsc056842xc1.jpg

Here are four more. The next time I go to Yosemite, I hope to spend at least five days there to walk some of the trails and to drive to the upper meadows.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/486/dsc05688ae8.jpg

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/7484/dsc05691dt5.jpg

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/651/dsc05694uc3.jpg



http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1434/dsc05698ox0.jpg

The park was packed to the gills with cars and people by noon. The most amazing thing was that I had cell phone reception at the base of Half Dome. Good and clear too.

Some more pictures.

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3786/dsc05738wj5.jpg

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4299/dsc05752yh2.jpg

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/700/dsc05762os5.jpg

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7752/dsc05769cu9.jpg


When we walked back to my truck to get the salsa, we saw several bucks, a doe and her two fawns. Here are the bucks.

In this shot there are two bucks, a doe and the two fawns.

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/155/dsc057782uq7.jpg

that place looks great!

(moved thread to All Cal section)

The reason I put this in Off Topic section is because most do not even scroll down that far. Here is my favorite picture and it was my last as I was leaving. I set this one to 1024 by 768 hoping that it would appear larger on the site.

Here goes.

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4402/dsc05783on2.jpg

More, more! I love all of your photos.

Great photos Martin.:)

Very cool photos Martin. I guess them deer have no fear!

I was less than 6 feet from two of the bucks, there were three bucks total. The park frowns on feeding the animals any sort of food to the point of a $5,000 fine. I read the brochure and the map they gave me at the gate. It warns you that if you hit and kill a bear or deer, they will fine you $5,000 and possibly impound your vehicle. That still does not stop people from speeding in the park. They are in a hurry to get in and in as much of a hurry to get out. The place is exquisite and I took the drive at the speed limit. You see so much more when you take your time. I know that I will be going back. I would love to just spend a week walking around the park taking pictures. I must have walked a good 8 to 10 miles on Saturday, I came home six pounds lighter than I was on Thursday.:)

I tried to get a shot of the two fawns together and ended up with one of those eight legged deer shots instead.:p

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4493/dsc057752ir5.jpg




Watkins Mount above Mirror Lake which is pretty much a dry meadow this time of year. It was a nice long hike up to the top of Mirror lake, a good steep hike. My legs got a good work out.


http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5572/dsc05728yj9.jpg

Great photos

Man! We not only missed you’re great salsa but some really beautiful scenery too. Awesome pictures Martin. Very :cool:

here is my photo contribution of the 2008 All Cal Meet in Yosemite.....

A view of my cabin and it's interior the the beautiful scenery aroud me. including 3 different pictures of El Capitain and 1 of Half Dome.

more pictures....

A few more.....