Nee's Journeys

September 14 & 15, 2008 - Yosemite - Ten Lakes There is nothing much better than taking a Fall backpacking trip. The weather is generally good and the crowds are home. About 6 years ago I took a trip to the Ten Lakes basin and I always wanted to go back. I am also thinking about leading a trip there in the next year or so so I thought it would be a good idea to go and scout it out. There are a number of lakes in the basin (10..ha ha) but I didn't really have a final destination in mind except that I wanted to try and visit something other than the 2 biggest lakes. We headed out around 11- after a breakfast of waffles and coffee outside the park. The parking lot at the trailhead did not have many cars which was great. The weather was very nice and we packed up and headed out and up...and up and up and up. This is one thing I do remember about this trail it's pretty much uphill. I would consider it a moderate hike...about 8 miles and 2000 feet uphill. I was also trying to br

August 8 - 10, 2008 - Yosemite - Young Lakes 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 su