For the long 4th of July weekend, Our friend Arnaud and we went to Yosemite for a 2-night camping stay at Rancheria falls. I did this trip some years back but it was the first time for Arnaud and Alicia.

After taking a detour, a.k.a. getting lost, on the way, we started hiking after lunch. The hike is only around 7 miles from the car but with heavy packs, it is always harder than it seems. Gladly, the mountain casted its shadow on us for most of the way and the still strong Wapama falls offered a nice stop along the way.

Once we reached the campground located by the falls, we found a great spot on the granite slab out of the forest. People that had opted to camp in the forest warned us about mosquitoes but we did not experience much of it… Except for Alicia that got a lot of bites!

On the second day, we decided to hike to a local summit called Comté Point. Along the way, the vegetation was green and lush, and the butterflies plentiful. I don’t think I have ever seen that many at the same time. The hike involved going off track for half the distance but with the summit in sight, it was easy to keep on target on the way in. The view from the summit was nice but not as good as we expected and everybody was a bit disappointed.

The way back turned out to be a lot more challenging as we did not have a good target. We ended up drifting on the wrong side of the mountain, lost, and a bit confused at to where to go next even after climbing back up to the edge and trying to adjust our path. Not really sure about where to go, we decided on a likely direction and started walking… to hit the trail 5 minutes later :).

Once back at camp, we enjoyed some showers, enjoyed the falls, and devoured the great Salmon pasta that Arnaud prepared before enjoying the best night sky and stars I have seen in a long while.

The trip back to the dam on Monday morning was a lot easier since it is mostly downhill.

It was Alicia’s first backpacking experience and she did very well even though she did not have all the right gear. Her backpack was not adapted and we need to get her some good hiking boots. Also, I under-estimated the food we would need and without Arnaud’s contribution, we would have been very short.