we Yak Trax

And it was cold! As usual, it was before dawn when we loaded up the car yesterday morning. We drove east under pink clouded skies. Our destination? Tioga Pass in Yosemite. Normally by this time of year the pass has been long closed. But without any major snow there's been no need to close the pass. Instead, people are making the most of it - even iceskating on Tenaya Lake. So, we made the most of it too!

Making the most of it we scouted out the frozen lakes along 120. And then we had the bright idea to don our YakTrax. Putting on the YakTrax was a good idea... the 3.5 mile hike straight up at 9,000 feet not as great of an idea. We made it to Lower Cathedral Lake and the wind was gusting and cold!

When we got to the frozen lake we stripped down and quickly got into our thermals. Good thing we brought them on the hike. It was bitterly cold! It didn't help that we were there at sunset. That did mean we got hike back for 2 hours in the dark. Good thing we had the GPS to find our path back. No repeats of a previous trip to Yosemite {see lesson #2}.

While we were hiking up and sucking air, waiting for the sunset, and hiking down in the dark the question we kept asking was, "Is it worth it?!" Now home and warm we'd say the answer is yes.

We finished up the quick little trip with a sunrise stop at Tenaya Lake. Then a few hours later we were home. Quick, cold, fun little adventure.