Tuolumne Meadows Vacation
Days 1-5
Getting to Yosemite
We left scenic Hillsboro late in the afternoon. This was not just
the first time we were going to Tuolumne Meadows for an extended period
of time - we were also putting our new tow vehicle to the test. Named
BeRT (Big Red Truck), it is a 1999 Ford
F250 light duty truck. We found that, with its 5.4 Liter V8, and
a towing capacity of about 4 1/2 tons, getting our 2500 pound trailer up
and down the mountains of Oregon and California was not a problem.
In addition to being the first time we had put our new truck to the test,
it was also the first time we had lived in our TrailManor
2619 travel trailer for an extended period of time. As you'll
discover reading through the journal, we had a number of interesting problems.
As I was saying, we left Hillsboro in the early afternoon.
By nightfall, we had arrived at our stop for the night - Valley
of the Rogue State Park. A long park along the bank of the Rogue
River between Grants Pass and Medford, its a nice place to stay.
The next morning, we drove to the day use area and walked down to the river.
We then drove all the way to Berkeley, California. We visited my
Grandparents, Herb and Mary Ellen, and stayed
the next day (thursday) in Berkeley as well. The people seem to be
fairly, er, eclectic. It's very interesting to see how the town has
tried to restrict car use by putting barricades across the roads every
few blocks, so that it is necessary to drive a very circuitous route to
get anywhere. Unfortunately, we did not go to UC Berkeley - I would
have liked to have seen the home of the mighty SETI@HOME
project.
Friday morning, we headed out of Berkeley, heading for Yosemite.
We drove from Oakland to Livermore. On the way, the freeway passes
through a windy area where hundreds of massive wind generators have been
erected. Unlike windmills of old, which were used to pump water or
grind grain, these windmills are attached to electric generators.
Erected during the oil crisis of the '70s, the power from these wind turbines
is now slightly more expensive than that derived from petroleum-based power
generation facilities. This means that the turbines tend not
to be fixed when something goes wrong with them. As a result, many
of the turbines spin no more.
We got to the town of Livermore. According to the AAA CampBook, there
was a State Park in the town where there was a dump station.
What's the dump station for? Well, that's not something they like
to tell you about when you buy an RV. Since all the water from the
toilet, sink, shower, etc. goes into a large tank, RVers have to
stop and a dump station every once a while to empty the tank. Since
we were driving a relatively long way, I figured it would be good to dump
the full tank (20 gallons, which is about 170 pounds of water) to save
a little fuel.
Unfortunately, it didn't really work out that way. What the AAA CampBook
didn't mention was that the State Park was 20 miles on the other side of
the town. It was really a nice drive - we had to climb over a high
ridge before we could drop down to the park, which surrounded a reservoir.
At the ridge, dozens of raptors we hovering in the thermals.
As if the fact that it would be an hour round trip out of way to dump the
tanks wasn't enough, we were charged $6 to get into the park, just to use
the dump station. Whatever small amount of gas we would had saved
from dumping the tanks, we more than made up for it by wasting gallons
of gas getting us there and back. Live and learn....
Friday afternoon, we got to the meadows. As we drove along the Tioga
Road, I saw mom sitting in the campground, keeping an eye out for us.
Trish was skeptical that I had spotted her at that range, but it was indeed
the case that I had seen her. She met us at the ranger booth at the
entrance to the campground. She hopped in, and we drove toward out
site. At Tuolumne, you can't reserve a site, but my parents asked
the rangers to give us a site near them.
As we drove, I was shocked. There was another TrailManor in the campground.
A '90s 2720, to be exact. It's the same as our 2619, except it has
a queen instead of a double bed. Unfortunately, they left before
we could talk to them, but was neat to see out first fellow TrailManor-er.
We got to our site and set up the RV. We had my parents over for
dinner Friday night. It was really nice - with an RV, you can be
in the middle of nowhere, yet have hot showers and delicious meals.
My parents wanted to rent an RV, but weren't able to find one for a reasonable
price.
On Saturday, we stayed near our site, getting used to the altitude.
At that height, the oxygen density is about half that at sea level.
If you try to exert yourself right away, headaches and nausea can result.
As night fell, Dad double-checked our wilderness permits and realized that
our backpack permit was for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Our first
hike at Tuolumne would be a three day backpack to Young Lakes.