Okay so this is over 2 months overdue...what can I say it's been a very busy travel season. This was my second time into the Young Lakes area I had been there the year before on trip to Upper Young Lake. This however was going to be my first time leading a trip with Sierra Club. I thought Upper Young Lake was a perfect place to go since it gets relatively little trail traffic and it's a really spectacular area. The plan was to hike to Upper Young Lake on Day 1 and then do a x-country day hike over to Roosevelt Lake that sits right below Mount Conness. I considered the trip to be a easy-moderate hike. It's only about 7 miles to Upper Young Lake with about an 1800 foot gradual gain.
We had a great group assembled for the hike and no newbies everyone had been on a Sierra Club trip before. I drove up with Suzanne and Nancy on Thursday afternoon and we tried to get a campsite at Tuolumne Meadows but we were out of luck...not surprising for August. So we found a campsite outside of the east entrance. There are a couple of good things about this..first off the drive down into Mono Lake is really beautiful and it also meant a chance to go to Whoa Nellie Deli. Nancy and Suzanne had not been there before so we absolutely needed to make a dinner pit stop. I had ahi sashimi and then helped eat the 5 person piece of chocolate cake that Suzanne had bought...well we did need to carbo load.
We were up bright and early Friday morning and it was a bit chilly but nothing that a little Peet's coffee brewed in my french press couldn't take care of. We met a part of the group at the permit office in TM and the rest of the group had already snagged parking spaces at the trailhead for Glen Aulin. After getting all of the commisary gear split up we were ready to head out and it was shaping up to be a beautiful Sierra day. We headed out and after a couple of miles we actually ran into another Sierra Club group. Two gals were leading a National outing through the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. The leaders were from the bay area and their participants were from all over the country...we gave them the 411 that there were It's It's at the store at TM and beer.
Everyone was ready to go the next morning and the weather was looking great again. The plan today was to first hike up to Upper Young Lake and then over to Roosevelt Lake. There is a use

We headed back to our camp via what we believed would be a more direct route. Basically down through the a valley and then back up. Anne and I had some concerns about what the foliage would be like when we got down into the valley but when we descended it was actually pretty open. Navigating was pretty easy the key was to try and find Ragged Peak every once in awhile and head's towards it. Anne also had a new GPS that she was trying out so that was helpful as well. At some point the boys forged their own path and the girls went their own way. We all got back and the trip back took about 1/2 the time of getting there definitely a note to self if I ever do that trip again.
When we got back it wasn't too late so a bunch of us walked around the lake and we ended spending some time talking to a trail crew. When we headed back to camp Suzanne was pretty sure we past a love shack for a couple of trail crew members. We started hot water fairly quickly after the evening walk and I brewed up some of my beloved T&T. Also note to self I need another stove...that fricking Dragonfly is killing me even after a few maintenance it's still not operating well and it's really bulky (sorry personal rant). We watched the sunset again and then headed off to our tents which of course meant TV iPod watching for me.
The next day we yet again had beautiful weather and I was really looking forward to this section. On your way out you get really amazing view south into Tuolumne Meadows and I was hoping we would again on this trip. Thankfully the weather was great and the views as spectacular as I remember them. Unfortunately there weren't many wildflowers because of the time of the year. When I was here before it was July so we had some good flowers. It was about noon when we got off the trail and the group voted to head to the TM grill. I passed on a burger but of course I soaked down a couple of beers. After post-backpacking food we all got in our cars and headed home. Well Nancy, Suzanne and I stopped in Groveland for some ice cream :) Another really great trip...I'm a big fan of this area and highly recommend it for someone who wants to do a short trip in Yosemite without huge crowds.

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