YOSEMITE TRIP

Dinner is always nice by moonlight, and pesto always tastes better after a twelve mile hike. As for atmosphere, it is tough to beat a glacial lake in the high sierra surrounded by twelve thousand foot peaks.

There really isn't much you can say about a trip like this. The only way to appreciate the stunning beauty of the Yosemite back country is to go and see it for yourself. Emily and I set out from the backpackers at Tolumne meadows and followed the John Muir trail up Lyell canyon. The sand in the creek bed was flecked with gold, and we wished we had brought a pan.
Emily and I camped at Ireland lake the first night. We had spent more money than we meant to on food for the trip, but we sure ate well, and there is no one I would rather have shared s meal by moonlight at 11.000 feet with(image 2).

Our second day we hiked cross country to Vogelsang lake (image 3), through Vogelsang pass, and camped near the creek on the other side. The skylines were spectacular, but the hike was a bit rougher than we had thought it would be. This was my own fault, as I had only casualy looked at the contour lines on our trail map before we set out. The contour lines showed some hills, and I simply told Emily "there will be a little uphill, but mostly down".

What I had failed to notice was that the contour lines were in fact 200 feet apart. Hours later, when we were taking a rest break on the top of the 12,000 mountain rage we had climbed over (image 4), I made a mental note to study maps more carefully in the future. Throughout the climb , Emily trucked along with infailable grace and good humor. I was duly impressed, but vowed not to put her or myself in such a situation again if I could avoid it.

We had a restful night and the next day Emily decided to take a shower, so I decided to go climb up on the rocks above our campsite to soak up some sun. While I was up there, a coyote ran through the campsite, unseen by anyone but me. It came up onto the rocks, stopped and looked at me. Now everyone knows that when a coyote stops and looks at you like that, you are supposed to follow it. I did. It ran over the rocks and up the mountain, stopping periodicaly to see if I was still following along. What happend on that adventure, and what transpired after, is a story for another time.

Anyway, after I returned to camp we hiked up past Merced lake and camped near clouds rest. On the way there, we got hit by a thunderstorm. It was kind of scary, as we were at high altitude, at times on exposed rock awash with torrents of runnoff. Still, we pushed on and were rewarded with a stunning view of a double rainbow. And once the sun came out, everything was sparkling. When the raindrops caught the light the forest turned into a surreal place, and the sun warmed us, and the world felt brand new.

The next day was to be our last on the trail. We reached the base of half dome around three in the afternoon, hid our packs, and headed for the summit. It was a steep climb, but without packs we felt weightless. However, when we reached the last section of the climb, a steep sheer rock wall with cables attached to anchors pounded into the rock, Emily decided she had had enough climbing . She waited patiently while I topped out. It was a sight to behold, but I knew we had to finish our hike before sunset, becuase the last miles of the the trail were steep and treacherous.

We passed little Yosemite and headed tward Nevada falls. We hit the falls but it was already sunset so we had no choice but to keep on going. Descending the cliffs in the dark would have been very difficult. Passing vernal falls(image 5), we remembered the time we had spent there on a previous visit. But now, in the dusk, we kept trucking, silently, then singing. Down down down we went. At last, in the dark, we hit pavement and civilisation.

MAKING APPLE CIDER

Tom and I decided to make cider from the apples growing on my dads tree.

Since we had never made cider before. Tom and I began by trying to build a cider press from parts laying around in the tool shed. We decided to use a screw vice to create pressure to crush the apples. We made a metal plunger out of some scrap metal to push down. Dad found us an old brass shell casing from a giant tank shell to use as a bucket. We cleaned it thoughly. As we were bolting the pieces to a stout oak board, Jeff appeared freshly risen from his mid day nap.

He asked us why we were building a cider press instead of borrowing one from our uncle who lives down the road.

We stopped working on our press shortly after.

While we were waiting for my cousin to bring the cider press over, I went online to read up on the cider making process. I found out you don't even need a press to make small batches. Go figure.

So here it is:

HOW TO MAKE A SMALL BATCH OF SWEET CIDER

1. Collect the apples. We made sweet (aka. unfermented) cider. To make sweet cider you can use any type of sweet apple. If you want to make fermented (aka. hard) cider, it is traditional to use a combination of sweet apples, sharp or sour apples, and fragrant apples.

2. Clean the apples. We filled a giant metal bowl with a mild bleach solution. Then we tossed the apples in. Tom scrubbed them down and threw out any rotten ones. If you wouldn't eat it, discard it.

3. Turn the apples to mush. Once they were clean, I cored the apples and cut them into quarters. Then they went into the blender. Then we blended them to a pulp.

4. Squeeze out the cider. We poured the apple pulp into a clean pillow case. Then we squeezed the pillow case till all the cider came out into a pitcher.

5. Drink the cider. If you make a small batch, at this stage you are done. Cider is safe to drink raw as long as you make it with clean hands and equipment. However, if you plan to store the cider it is best either to pasturise it or freeze it. Or you always have the option of fermenting it... Thats the old fashioned way to make it keep all winter.

But fermenting will be a project for another day. we'll keep you posted.

Digger and T-bone

Hi! After a two year break I have decided that it is time to start posting again! I envision this blog serving as a place for two things. 1. A place to post up to date info from trips, adventures, etc, so friends can keep up with whats going on (which is the reason this thing was started in the first place). 2. A record of different skills and projects. I envision this blog as developing into a series of short how to articles on various outdoor skills.

It all starts now.