#421 Boondock near Carlon Falls Trail Yosemite 06/10/2022

Before you look at this post realize that it's a long one. There was so much to see do and experience. I tried to share only the highlights but it's hard to do anything concerning Yosemite quickly. John Muir told of a lady who came up to him and said I only have a few hours to see Yosemite what should I do? He said do you see that large rock down by the river? She said yes. He said go down there and sit on that rock hold your head down and cry because only allowed yourself a few hours to experience Yosemite. We spent 3 weeks here and felt we needed so much more time.

Bert our cat enjoying our boondock

As our time ended at Toro Canyon, I wondered what might be a good thing to do for the summer. We had decided to take the summer off leaving in June and returning to Santa Barbara in October. I told the ranger Alex that we would like to return to hosting in his territory because he's a great guy and there are some beautiful parks near Santa Barbara. He couldn’t reserve a spot for us because things change too much but we become good working partners and I think you'll try to put me somewhere. The only parks that will fit a rig my size are Toro Canyon and Lookout. The latter is an oceanfront park

We thought it would be nice to just wander up towards Washington State and revisit the Olympic National Park area. It's very beautiful there. I looked at the map and it turns out that Yosemite was about five or six hours off to the northeast of where we were and generally on the way. I thought wow we really enjoyed Yosemite so let’s go back for a few weeks. Our first visit five years ago ish was more like a day trip. We stayed in a town called Coarsegold at an Escapee Park. You do the best you can but it wasn't enough but better than nothing. There were some waterfalls but it was early fall and there was very little water flowing so not as impressive as early spring when the snow is melting.

A year later we revisited and stayed in Mariposa for a few nights then a place called El Portal for three nights. One night at a ranger talk we asked the ranger if they knew anywhere we could do some dispersed camping. She suggested Evergreen road. We ended up staying there for seven nights on 60 gallons of water which is my bragging rights thus far for water conservation considering it was three of us. We had to take showers elsewhere. As we left Mariposa I wanted to find this site again on Evergreen road. This time I hoped we could find a spot to park close enough to the river to drink the water. This way I wouldn't have to worry about running out of water this time. Because of this and other boondocks to come, I had created a UV disinfecting setup and was eager to use it.

Friday morning we got ready to head towards Yosemite. I noticed a sign that said if you take this road out of Mariposa nothing over 25 feet long should pass. I became a little nervous as neither road was on my truck driver's atlas which means you might not want to take that route in a big rig. I remembered having gone from El Portal to Yosemite but that was many years ago. I knew it was possible as I don't remember any bad memories about it. I went to a visitor center and asked and they said Hwy120 would be a problem and 49 would be not great but okay. Looking back I should have just gone to Modesto on the truck route and it might have taken an extra 45 minutes but at least it was meant for big rigs. Once you're on Hwy 49 you're committed and although it was completely possible and wide enough and okay you really felt like you're on a roller coaster with severe switchbacks and such crazy zigzagging. We were pretty scared the whole way and this went on for an hour but we managed and we said we would not go this way again but it wasn't like you were going to die it was just scary. Let's call this route possible with a big rig but not advisable.

We arrived at Evergreen road and found that my memory had tricked me. It was a nice enough place to park the rig though very unlevel but more like 3,000 feet away from the creek. That fantasy died as I got there and took a look it was about half a mile from the river I don't know why I remembered it being so close unless it was just selective memory.

This was a little bit of a letdown because I had planned to drink creek water the whole time we were Boondocking at Yosemite. I made several attempts to get the rig level but it was very difficult and the hydraulic rams were so far extended they tend to leak back when they're in that position. We would be leveling for over an hour it was a kind of miserable experience. I tried to back up the rig over a ditch and the kayak in the rear was touching the ground. I tried to just plow through some dirt and it didn't do anything favors to the rig. A metal piece that the kayak is supported by came loose and now I have to fix that so at some point. After one night I thought let's just go up the road and back to the site we had five years ago.

We moved up the way and we wanted to back in for enough to be away from the traffic because it was a busy road. There was a cat path of a logging road that would have offered us a buffer. I tried backing up into that meadow but there was a boulder on one side and I began to have a vision of if I continue some expensive damage is about to happen so I had to let it go.

Maybe it was because it was a weekend but it was a little too busy for me. I'd say there were one to five cars every five minutes and they would be buzzing back and forth. At first, Bert was scared of the cars and then he saw a mouse across the street and wanted to cross the road. If we're going to keep him alive, we need to be elsewhere and it wasn't very serene with all that traffic.

I looked at Google Maps at Evergreen road and wanted to see if there was a place where it intersected with any water and to pleasure, it did so I made a point on a map and drove to it. It was in the national forest which means we can boondock there. We saw an RV backed up to a creek and so I stopped and spoke to the guy a little bit. Do you mind if I ask is there creek water in behind you? He said yes there is. It's a little babbling brook and so I said were you planning on staying here for a few weeks? He said no we're actually leaving today. I began to be pretty happy about this and intended to make this my spot. Now I could use water from the creek and utilize my brand new system created using UV light to disinfect water from creeks and river sources.

This is the busiest season for Yosemite and it made us a little upset but they're controlling the amount of cars that are going in. You either have a reservation to enter or you have to go before 6 am or after 4 pm and this was kind of a bummer so we had to accept it and that's the way we'll have to visit Yosemite.

This is the tenth of June and the first reservation that you can get is mid-July to enter the park.

I worked on the truck toolboxes a little bit after being turned away from the park. We learned you can catch a bus outside the gate and glide right through and that's what we did the next day. We reserved a bus ticket to get on at Crane flat but that bus stop is inside the park. The park ranger said I'm sorry for the confusion but we can't let you in because your reservation is with the bus company, not us. We would succeed the next time by catching the bus at a resort a few miles from our boondock.

Here is a copy of the bus service we used.

Stop

120-1

120-3

120-5

Sonora/Jamestown

Black Oak Hotel Resort

300

6:40am

7:40am

8:40am

Sonora Best Western

301

7:00am

8:00am

9:00am

Heritage Inn, Downtown Sonora

303

7:15am

8:15am

9:15am

Rocca Park / Jamestown Main St.

305

7:25am

8:25am

9:25am

Groveland/Buck Meadows

Mary Laveroni Park / Old Yosemite Road

307

8:06am

9:06am

10:06am

Yosemite Pines RV Park / Old Yosemite Road

309

8:16am

9:16am

10:16am

Buck Meadows

Buck Meadows Restaurant on HWY 120

311

8:30am

9:30am

10:30am

Yosemite Lakes/Rush Creek/Big Oak Flat

Yosemite Lakes Campgrounds at Yosemite Lakes Drive

313

8:47am

9:47am

10:47am

Rush Creek Lodge

211

8:57am

9:57am

10:57am

Big Oak Flat Park Entrance Gate

315

9:10am

10:10am

11:10am

Crane Flat

Crane Flat Gas Station

225

9:20am

10:20am

11:20am

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley Visitors Center

432

9:55am

10:55am

11:55am

Stop

120-2

120-4

120-6

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley Visitors Center

432

4:00pm

4:30pm

5:35pm

Crane Flat

Crane Flat Gas Station

225

4:35pm

5:05pm

6:10 pm

Yosemite Lakes/Rush Creek/Big Oak Flat

Big Oak Flat Park Entrance Gate

315

4:49pm

5:19pm

6:24pm

Rush Creek Lodge

211

4:54pm

5:24pm

6:29pm

Yosemite Lakes Campgrounds at Yosemite Lakes Drive

313

5:04pm

5:34pm

6:39pm

Buck Meadows

Buck Meadows Restaurant on HWY 120

311

5:19pm

5:49pm

6:54pm

Groveland/Buck Meadows

Yosemite Pines RV Park / Old Yosemite Road

309

5:31pm

6:01pm

7:06pm

We stayed at our original Boondock for day two.

Our second night was level but a lot of traffic was going back and forth and with afraid Bert was gonna go out in the road and traffic is not very serene. We were able to pick up some internet at the top of the intersection of Evergreen Road and Highway 120. I looked online at maps to see if Evergreen Road came anywhere near a creek or a river and to my surprise it did.

Down about a mile past where we were parked there was a forest road I shall not name. We took a left, went on down, and found a guy in a camper and asked is there water in behind you? He said yeah. I said I don't want to be a bother but do you mind if I take a look and he said sure. I looked and there was a babbling little brook. I knew that if I could find a way to camp nearby I would have all the water I needed with my new UV light disinfection system

The guy in the camper was nice he had a little family, a young man who was a little skittish of me asking all these questions. I asked if he was going to camp for a while and he said, actually we are leaving today. I told him I would check by either the evening or the next day because I wanted to get the spot in case it got gone. He said you have a nice time. I went back to our site up on the hill where the traffic was heavy and I was glowing because this was the most perfect RV site that has ever been. It was near Yosemite, it was free, being a part of the national forest system, it was legal, it had solar, privacy, and there was no traffic. There was really no one else around and it had water, clean water. Wow, I was just loving it. I started doing a few things to the truck because there are some toolboxes that I have been mounting for a year. I would do one and then quit for three months and do a second one and quit for three months so I decided if I could I would finish it up. I did. It never rains in California but it started raining a little bit so I finished up by parking the truck under the awning. it was really kind of nice to be in the rain.

After I finished I asked India if it wouldn't be okay to just move on down there tonight because I didn't want anybody to get it. She said that'd be okay but she was already in her evening robe so I told her just to stay in her robe inside the camper and I wouldn't ask her to do anything because it was getting on half past six and it gets dark about eight-thirty. We got everything slid in, packed up and we went down the road. It was such an easy site to ease into. I don't know if it's the best place I've ever seen but this is the best boondock site I've ever had. It has a lot of privacy almost no one's ever here. It's a thousand feet from any road or traffic it's beautiful because I'm in the forest near Yosemite with a babbling brook behind me. It's gorgeous and the creek also provides me with drinking water. Water I can use to take a hot bath. Bert's insanely happy because he just chills somewhere all the time.

This is one place where we had no rules for him. We were making him stay in at night and last night we let the door stay open so he could go out and explore. I don't like it because that's when you get eaten by coyotes.

Three or four days after we had landed here the ranger truck came by. It was two young ladies that were very kind and they just introduced themselves. I told them everything was wonderful and they asked me if I would like to get a burn permit. I said I'm really not burning anything but they kind of hinted that it would be the right thing to do. I said yes, please and they signed me up and I have a burn permit now which makes me in every possible way legal. They reminded me I could stay here for only 21 days and this was music to me. It was such a beautiful place.

We were going up to Groveland because there was a Zoom meeting that we wanted to attend back in Santa Barbara. I found myself behind two or three cars that were going like 47 in a 55 zone and I kind of got tired of it. I kept on waiting to waiting and hoping then I saw a passing zone and I hit the gas and went around everybody. Usually, when I'm doing this I tend to go pretty fast and then get back in the right lane before meeting somebody coming head-on. To do this I was going about 80. As I got past the last car I noticed it was a highway patrol. The lights came on and I slowed down and pulled over because there was no doubt he wanted me.

I tried to tell him that I had no good excuse and I messed up and I knew it and knew it. This honesty on my part might not have gotten me out of the ticket but he reduced it to a 69 in a 55. I hope to get online and maybe do traffic school to reduce it down to a bad tail light or something. For this, I get the big Dummy award.

Vernal Falls

After settling in for a bit we wanted to take our first trip down to Yosemite. We got on a city bus at a place just outside the entry gate. I learned this is the only way in without a reservation and we rode into the park with no problems at all.

I remembered a hike called Vernal Falls Foot Bridge. I remember it being pretty tough at least a mile up and a mile back but it was a very steep incline. With our walking sticks in a backpack, India and I began the trek it and was a bit much. We got there it was beautiful. You also get to see the river to your right the whole way up.

We took several pictures of how pretty it was and a little It was just kind of gorgeous. After a little while, I carefully went down to the river and filled my water bottle.

Danger

It's coming from a snow melt where there are no humans anywhere so the water's pretty dang pure. We got on down the hill and we found ourselves at a flat area not so far from the shuttle stop. It was easy access to the river so India and I went down and took her shoes off and put our feet in the river. From where I was sitting on a rock I saw what looked like the round part of half dome. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure it was and took a nice picture of that so pretty.

PIC

We went on down towards the food area and three out of four restaurants were closed for whatever reason. I guess we were there on the wrong day or wrong time a day so we went to the only game in town which was called Degman's Kitchen. We got some sandwiches and I got a chili and a side of fresh mozzarella and tomato basil mix. And tasted good but it was like $40 for two sandwiches and a drink. They were the only option so we tried not to complain as it was tasty enough. Overpriced meals are just part of the national park experience. We might have thought we were going to do other things but by the time we got through eating it was about time to get on the bus so we did that and headed on back and it turned into a pretty full day. The hike took a lot out of us as we've been out of our routine for about a week and a half and this one was a really steep going up and down. The next day I felt sore all over from the waist down and tell you what it usually doesn't hit me that hard.

Mariposa Grove big trees

We took a day or two off to just hang around the RV and mess around and do this and that and then we chose to do the really early day. You can only enter the park before 6 or after 4 in your personal car or get a reservation and they're sold out until July. We set an alarm clock for 4:30 and we left the house at 5:30 passing through the gate about 10 till 6. We could relax all we wanted to now if we chose. We went by the Crane Flat gas station just to see what that was like but they were closed but the gas pumps are open all the time.

We started our drive towards Mariposa Grove. It's about ½ hour to the park from our RV then another hour to Mariposa Grove. We've been to Yosemite twice in the past six years and both times Mariposa Grove was closed for reconstruction renovation. I might put the video here.

We brought a nice picnic lunch with sandwiches and chips and just everything you could think of. This required a pretty big backpack so we were fully prepared for our picnic.

We landed at the visitor center looked all about and took a little nap. After that, we started up the way to get to the shuttle. It took us to where the hike started to visit the trees. It was about a three-mile loop and in the very middle of it was something called the grizzly tree.

PIC

it was almost 3,000 years old and about 450 feet high. It was just an amazing creature so we sat on a bench and just kind of gawked at it the whole time we ate. There were lots of gorgeous sequoias and there had been some wildfires so that's never any fun to see. It's a necessary thing that nature does. When nature does this it's just something you accept. When it's caused by arson or stupid people that's when it's really awful. We had the most wonderful lunch. I went up and read the plaque below the grizzly tree. It's where Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir had camped. It felt good to be in their footsteps. We're headed on back and now we were just a little bit tired and sore so we took another little cat nap in the truck. We headed back and I thought one as long as we were in the park let's at least pass by the valley and visit. PIC We parked over by a little chapel and then walked across a boardwalk that crosses the meadow. We were going to eat the second wave of our lunch /dinner because we didn't eat all the food I had brought. I told India I would like to find a park bench that looks at something scenic so we walked for a while looking for that. We walked until we got on the path that was the lower Yosemite Falls hike. We didn't want to go that far in because we had already done plenty of hiking today. We finally found a bench that had a little sunshine on it and a nice view of the river. Some people who were using the bench shared the log with us and eventually moved on. It was a pretty little place where you could watch the water coming off of the falls heading towards the Mered River. With that, we went back across the way and headed home, and you know this was a really long day. PIC

I felt pretty sore after this one too the next day. My left leg started kind of hurting but I didn't know exactly why, but it sure did kind of hurt. After a day or two went by I said well we just gonna give it the hair of the dog and maybe another hike will make it go away entirely.

This hike was called the Mirror Lake hike. I had taken two Alieve that morning and then I eventually took two more at 3 pm. I didn't feel too bad during the day but the hike was a strenuous trail up and down and the scenery is pretty. Years ago I had seen it back when the water was raging. The water volume this time was more of a trickle. It was nice but not that nice. Maybe call it the mirror mud puddle hike.

PIC

Apparently, this is the hike that killed me because that night and the next day I began to be in severe pain in the left leg from my hip all the way down to my knee. It was an excruciating kind that I've never had. I did the normal sort of remedy of a couple of Advil or Alieve but nothing I did made it better. I was in agony all that day and then dosed myself heavily that night but woke up at 3 a.m. just dying. I eventually ran a hot bath which meant dragging my stuff all the way down to the river in the middle of the night, but I did it anyway. I ran a hot bath and sat down and got relief as long as I was underwater. You can't stay underwater forever. I took three Tylenol at 3 am three more Tylenol at about five a.m. and then began to think maybe aspirin but help but all I had was baby aspirin so I took 10 of those. Next, I took three Alieve. All of this only made the pain go from a ten to a nine. At 8 am ish, I decided I was going to the doctor.

I mentioned we were a bit out in the woods so it takes 40 minutes to get to the closest town where there might be an urgent care. When I got to the top of the hill where there was a cell signal I found that there is one and only one so I sure hope they like me. I arrived and told them about my leg and they shuffled some papers around and said we can work you in at 11 am. It was about 9:30 and I just realized that all you can say is yes because they are the only facility.

Whenever I was looking for the clinic I saw a chiropractor sign so while I was waiting for it to be 11 I thought I would check in and see if they could do anything for me. They didn't have much available but he said he could make it work during his lunch if I could come back at noon. I said okay and proceeded to just diddle about until 11. The Chiro suggested that if I could put heat on my back for 15 minutes at a time that was help with the pain. Our truck has heated seats so that's how I applied heat to my spine and leg. In the same parking lot and saw a sign that said meat market and deli So I went over to see what they might have for breakfast. They had every kind of me and sliced lunch meat and they made sandwiches to order so there was just a lot of available. I bought something and it was tasty. Finally, it was about 11:00 so I drove around to where the clinic was. I went in and they said you know I'm really sorry I didn't get your phone number but we can't help you. I didn't know why and they didn't give me a reason. I assumed they were short-handed and were trying to help and they just couldn't fit me in. I was a little baffled. She said I think the problem you're having is going to require more than what we have here and there's a facility in Sonoma. I will give you the address for that and they can help you. You may need X-rays or something. Somehow I would have assumed they'd have an X-ray machine but maybe not.

Next, I had no choice so I went back to diddling and using my heated seat in the truck and waited for noon to arrive for the Chiropractor appointment. I went in and he had his people email me an intake form. I filled it out so on arrival we started talking about what my issue was and within a short amount of time determined that it sounded like a disc and a nerve rubbing together causing the sciatic nerve pain. He did some massage and some adjustments and said I hope that'll help but we're gonna do more in 2 days. Come back on Friday and I said okay. Now I get to drive 45 minutes further to Sonoma to the clinic that will see me.

There is the usual check-in and boring wait so about 45 minutes later I am seen and I was hoping for some kind of pain medicine, but I was trying to avoid the oxy and opioids. The devil on my shoulder would have been okay if they had given me some oxy but I have to avoid that kind of thinking.

They repeated what the Chiro said about it being a sciatic nerve and they gave me some high-powered Aleve a couple of Tylenol and a shot in the hip that should kill the pain or at least that's what they said. I didn’t notice any instant relief. They prescribed some muscle relaxers that I should take near bedtime but not while driving. They made it clear they were not prescribing any oxy or pain pills. They repeated if that’s what you want you'll have to go to the emergency room. I thought I was at the clinic to avoid the costly ER. I guess the OXY addicts have kind of worn out their patience.

I asked them to call it to the CVS nearby because I had an hour and I half drive yet till home. I left the RV a little after 8 a.m. I guessed India would have expected me back around 11:00 and now it's about 4 pm. I've still got things to do and I can't call her as there's no signal there. I just had to hope she would just think positive thoughts. I went to an Italian place and got some to-go dinner in case you know she hadn't cooked anything for herself. I could bring some dinner for she and me. I also went by tractor supply and filled up our propane tank while CVS did my prescription.

I headed back and an hour and a half later I said hi honey I'm home, but she had already cooked something as it was now after six. I told her I brought dinner but I've been fantasizing about tasting it for the whole way home so I wouldn't mind eating some of that and a little bit of what you cooked and we called it a day.

I was told now I needed to take it easy and not hike anymore for a while. I need to let this disk heal or shrink and it sucks because I'm at Yosemite to go on long hikes, long strenuous hikes. I haven't seen the big trees at Toulame or Merced Grove. I have been to Toulame before but when someone tells you you shouldn't be hiking anymore and you're at Yosemite it's just a real drag because that's while I'm here. I figured we wouldn’t stay much longer.

I was better because of the muscle relaxers and all but I'm telling you the pain is still pretty bad. The next day I tried to just rest and I was behind on sleep and such. I had tried to push through if put my mind to it but gave in and slept off and on all day until two in the afternoon. That's a big nap.

With the water situation that I discovered here at the site, I've been able to take hot baths which relieves the pain. While I’m underwater things are great so I'm very grateful for the water source.

I'm writing this on Friday morning and I'll be going to see the chiropractor again it would be nice if there was something that he could adjust to make it better. As far as I know, I just need to take it easy and I don’t have to deal with this long-term like getting a back surgery someday. Maybe they need to put a spacer in there to keep the vertebrae from getting too close together.

We were preparing to leave the area of our cool boondock. We were there for about three weeks and were thrilled to have unlimited water as I was filtering and sterilizing the creek water. One thing that stood out as funny was a rock formation that I saw riding down the road one afternoon.

It was a really big boulder but it had a tree kind of growing out of the middle of it they had merged together. I created a story in my mind of how the tree and the rock would be from two different worlds. It would be kind of like an interracial marriage. I made a video that I can put here that narrated how the tree would explain to the mother or father that they had met someone who was not a tree. How they were in love and it was meant to be. I thought it was very entertaining.

On another day I was just sort of hanging out and just out of the blue there was a mother skunk and about seven little babies single file crossing the road and they had kind of disappeared into the forest before I could get my camera ready.

I don't think of hardly ever seen a live skunk and it was cool to see a family of them.

When we were at Yosemite several years back we walked the Tuolumne Meadows big trees. It's a pretty steep hike with a lot of switchbacks so I knew as I was just barely healing and able to walk I couldn't do it but we walked down that path a little ways just reminiscing without going too far into it.

At the same turnout called Tuolumne Meadows picnic area, you can go up that road and if you drive for like 2 or 3 hours you'll get to Tioga Pass. We went up the road a little bit just to kind of see what it was like this time as compared to a few years ago. The water was flowing at a certain crossing that we remembered but not nearly as much water this time as it was much later in the season.

Well, that would be our visit to Yosemite and we will head out to our next adventure.