Backpacking Yosemite — Lake Eleanor to Kibbie Lake
This post is part of the “Backpacking Yosemite” Series. If you haven’t done so yet, please start reading the overview post:
So It Began…
This was the first hike on our backpacking trip through Yosemite. Well, actually, this is not even Yosemite yet. The start of our trail is the middle of Forest Route 1N14, which leads straight to Lake Eleanor. The trail head is thus part of the Stanislaus National Forest. However, we’d enter the Yosemite wilderness during the hike, so all wilderness regulations applied.
We were coming from San Francisco, so we stopped at the Groveland Ranger District Office to get our wilderness permit. We also needed a bear canister, which we rented at the Big Oak Flat Information Station ($5 per week, details here). Because of that detour, we were also charged the Yosemite park entrance fee ($35 per car for 7 days, details here), but that was alright because we wanted to enter the park on the next day anyway.
A Bumpy Ride
We had a rental car for our trip. It was perfectly fine, but not the right choice for this area. It turned out to be only accessible via gravel roads, partially in quite bad conditions. We would have been better off with some kind of SUV and felt very sorry for our city car.
However, we eventually made it to the trail head. No one else was there. We began moving all our food into a bearproof foot locker. Locking away your food is required by federal law and not doing so will result in a fine of up to $5,000.
After filling up our backpacks, we started hiking towards Lake Eleanor, a reservoir that was formed as part of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir system, constructed to supply water and power to San Francisco.
Through Burned Land
The trail begins by winding up through some very dry terrain. As you can tell, the recent wildfires left some marks on the landscape. Most of the trees we saw during that part of the hike were burned.
The trail was in a bad condition, too. On our way towards the Cherry Lake, we found ourselves climbing over many fallen trees that blocked the trail.
Nothing that would hold us up from our goal, though! Leaving Cherry Lake to our left side, we continued on the barely visible trail and lost it. We had to use GPS to locate us and did a steep uphill climb to get back to the trail.
Walking along the Cherry Creek trail, we got rewarded with a nice view over the Cherry Lake. Not without some more uphill sections, though.
Getting There
After reaching the peak, we continued north-east towards the Kibbie Lake. The landscape changed quickly, showing more rocks and less signs of wildfires.
Just a few minutes later we reached the south of Kibbie Lake. In search of the perfect campsite, we walked through the Kibbie Creek to get to the west of the lake.
The cold crossing turned out to be worth it, we found a very nice place for the night. It had a soft-ish ground, was close to the lake and wind protected.
As the sun was already setting, we’ve setup our tents and ate some snacks for dinner. This being our first trip, we were quite exhausted but also totally amazed by the views along the way. It got dark quickly and the night sky presented itself in all its glory. We were surprised how bright the moonlight actually was. It created so hard shadows that you could confuse it with the sun.
A Cold Night
We went to bed after a little bit of stargazing and tried to get some rest before tomorrows hike back to Lake Eleanor. That worked out alright for me, but not for Marvin and Robert. Turned out that they underestimated how cold it would be at night. Although they put on all their clothes (they even had thermal underwear), they were freezing in their sleeping bags. My sleeping bag had a minimum comfort temperature of -5°C (23°F), Marvins 15°C (59°F) and Roberts didn’t even say.
After warming up a little, we started our hike. It was a joy walking back, as it was almost only downhill. Also the early sunlight lid the landscape in a very beautiful way.
Back To Lake Eleanor
The Kibbie Ridge trail also featured stunning views. We saw some deer in the more blooming sections.
Soon enough the landscape turned into the dead and burned one that we started at and we reached our car at the trail head.
As expected, no one stole our food out of the locker. We rewarded ourselves with a large portion of Chili before driving towards Yosemite Valley. But that’s part of another story:
Thanks for reading along. If you want some additional details about this trail, check this out. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or suggestions.
