Valley Autumn Oddball Odyssey once again - Indian Canyon

With the rivers of flaming aspens snaking ever further down the mountainsides and icy mornings in the high country, it was the season to turn to Yosemite Valley, where T-shirt weather still reigned. What to do there? Some online digging revealed a few scant references to Indian Canyon, which leads from the back of Yosemite Village to the valley rim some 3000 feet above, to the east of Yosemite Falls. It had once been the route that the Native Americans used to get to Tuolumne Meadows from the Valley, and in the 1860s, sported a toll route for horses and mules that switchbacked to its way to the top. But recent reports were nonexistent. It sounded like a perfect challenge for a Valley Autumn Oddball Odyssey.

Aspens at Convict Lake

Indian Canyon

Al and I set off at the crack of nine after cooking breakfast at the Church Bowl picnic area where the entertainment had been a helicopter med-evac in the meadow behind Yosemite Village. We hoped it was not a bad omen! The lower reaches of the canyon were unremarkable, but after a time, we spotted a thick telecommunications cable and what appeared to be a hint of trail. This turned out to be the phone cable from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows, and the trail was for accessing the cable. When the canyon deepened, a series of ladders and cables lead up the cliff faces. This turned out to be the easy part. 

First ladder with handy cable

Coming up the second ladder

Further up, the trail petered out. From time to time, it looked like someone had gone before us. Or perhaps it was something? Copious piles of bear scat and several very large pawprints with claw marks pointed to the latter possibility. 

Just one of the many piles of bear scat we saw.

As the angle steepened, we scrambled up talus along the stream. For a while, it was quite pleasant. 

Pleasant scrambling

Canyon walls narrowing in

But then we hit the willows. There was no option but to bushwhack up third class terrain which was definitely not white-collar hiking! There may or may not have been some decidedly blue-collar language....

Al headed for some jungle warfare

Alistair suddenly let out a yelp. "What's the matter?". He turned to me, and pulled a couple of inches of sharp stick out of his nose. There were a couple of drops of blood. Then he pulled out a second only slightly smaller piece. There was a torrent of blood. I quickly handed him my trusty bandanna to staunch the flow. It soon became obvious that whatever damage the stick has inflicted up his poor schnoz was not about to quickly clot, so we fastened on the bandanna under the injury using the strap of his sunhat and kept going. 

Improvised first aid with a bandanna and sunhat strap. Good thing Al's wearing a red shirt with all that blood!

At times, we managed to escape the brush by scrabbling up steep and loose dirt slopes. Also definitely not white-collar hiking. It was difficult to know which option was better. Progress through the forest was slowed by the many dead trees that had fallen down in recent times. The effects of drought and the bark beetle infestation were stark. 

A few years back, this sort of terrain would have been easy to get through but now it's a maze of downed trees.

Alistair was constantly consulting his phone to report on progress, which was often painfully slow. "20% of the way" was not hugely encouraging when I was already feeling tired. The climb took considerably longer than the 3 hours we anticipated, and by the time we reached the lip of the canyon, it was about 1:30 PM. We were covered in dirt (and Alistair's case, blood), scratched up, and had hair and even underwear full of debris. Fortunately, there was a delightful lunch spot next to the stream where we could clean up and refill water. 

Lunch spot

Somewhat refreshed, and looking slightly less frightful, we cut cross country to intercept the trail from North Dome which seemed like a veritable superhighway after the canyon. I kept asking Al if he would prefer to detour across the downed trees or through the manzanita scrub. Strangely, he wasn't keen. 

Made it to the superhighway!

The trail headed over another hill and wound down along the rim to Yosemite Point. It had been years since we'd been up there, and the view did not disappoint. A climber lounged at the top of Lost Arrow Spire in the sun. We wondered whether he was about to set up the classic Tyrolean traverse back to the rim. Far below lay Yosemite Village and our car. The route was the Yosemite Falls trail which wound in endless switchbacks between immense granite walls. 

Half Dome and Glacier Point on the opposite side of the Valley

Looking west down the Valley

Climber on Lost Arrow Spire with switchbacks of the Yosemite Falls trail behind.

I had stupidly neglected to pack my hiking poles, so I took the descent approach of knocking back a handful of ibuprofen and skipping down as fast as possible to minimize the pain. A few hours later, after slogging down relentless switchbacks of sand-covered rocks, an ill-advised detour in search of a misremembered climbing route descent trail, and an utterly malicious mid-descent climb, we were all of a couple of final zigzags from the valley floor in the late afternoon with trembling legs and aching knees, some serious take-no-shit expressions on our faces. As a group of young people passed us on the way up, perhaps 5 minutes into their hike, we heard a lass exclaim plaintively, "I didn't know there would be so much up!"

Nooooo - not more uphill!!

Al descends one of approximately 10,000 rocky switchbacks. Ouch.

Looking back up at where we had come from - Yosemite Point top right. Only a trickle of water in Yosemite Falls.

Al and I were still chortling over a most excellent post-adventure nosh-up of pizza and beer at the Deck in Curry Village. Was a poke in the nose with a sharp stick better or worse than one in the eye? we wondered. Yosemite had delivered yet again.

A view of our route from the walk back to the car. Indian Canyon is the gully on the right, Yosemite Point is centre, and Yosemite Falls trail goes down the big diagonal ledges on the left. According to Strava, the total distance was 12 miles with over 6000ft elevation gain (which seems high but my legs are in agreement!)

Yesss!!!!