Playtime!: Sequoia: Little Baldy Hike

I was up early and ready to go hiking! Dad and I were going to hike to summit of Little Baldy and then back to the campground. We had Mom drive us to the trail head and then we could walk back! Little Baldy is a large rock outcropping at the top of a mountain, similar to Moro Rock and the domes around Yosemite.

We set out about 9:30 AM and the trail was deserted! We saw no one! :-) There were wild flowers everywhere and the sun was out! Took a ton of pictures going up! We could see what we thought was Big Baldy – although it was very hazy with smoke from a nearby prescribed burn.

The trail continued up the mountain in long switchbacks so the view didn’t change much, but you could see more and more of the mountain and the mountains around it.

When we were almost there the trail leveled off and meandered through a meadow – it was a little like the meadow at the top of Hogback Mountain in Shenandoah, grasses and flowers with trees! These trees weren’t the sequoia trees, but rather some other kind of evergreen. The area had burned – there were a lot of charred trees and downed wood.

The trail went along the ridge until the final uphill push which was very steep, but pretty short and finally we were there! It was a huge slab of granite and we walked way out on it. The views weren’t the greatest – there was a lot of haze/clouds/fog, but you could make out most of it! At the actual summit there was a US Geological Survey Benchmark! I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those when I’m out hiking before so that was cool! Right next to the benchmark someone had built a rock carin and then written “Little Baldy” on the top rock in what looked like Sharpie!

Almost as soon as we arrived at the summit the clouds started moving in and very quickly the entire mountain was ensconced in thick fog! No more views at all! It was also windy and generally not very pleasant to we started back and found a rock in the meadow to eat lunch on.

After lunch we headed back down! The fog was rolling in between the trees like it does on the coast and there were no more views of the mountains! The trip down is always my least favorite part – walking downhill hurts! Luckily this went fast and soon we were back at the road where we’d begun.

We still had about 1.2 miles to walk. There’s a trail that connects the Little Baldy trail to the campground and this morning we asked the ranger about it and he said “Oh, you don’t want to do that. It’s REALLY long.” When we told him we were just walking the connector trail back, he said that’d be ok, but was discouraging us from starting in the campground and hiking all the way. As we walked this connector trail I saw why. It wasn’t particularly interesting and it seemed to go one forever. Part of that was because we were still walking downhill! My legs hurt so bad! Dad had noted at the top that it was about 1000 feet of elevation change between the summit and the campground and that’s huge! ugh. We should have hiked from the campground and had Mom pick us up at the Saddle. I’d much rather gain 1000 ft than lose it! Finally, after was was surely the longest mile ever, we made it back to the campground!

Now it’s time for our RVing lesson of the day. All RVs have holding tanks for fresh and waste water. There are two waste water tanks – a grey tank and a black tank. The grey water (that goes in the grey tank!) is the water that runs down the sink drains (kitchen and bath) and the shower. The black water (in the black tank) is the toilet. When the tanks get full you go to the dump station pull out your sewer hose, attach it to the opening, put the other end on the hole in the ground and open the valves. I know it sounds icky and gross and difficult, but it’s actually really easy (and not messy! I mean dump station mishaps do happen, but it’s preventable)

My RV does not have a black tank, it has a grey tank, that is emptied the same way as normal, but the toilet has it’s own special system. The toilet empties into a small holding tank that you have to remove from the RV and drag around to the dump, then take the lid off and line up the nozzle thing on the tank and lift it up and dump. It felt like a dump station mishap waiting to happen.

Anyway….why is this important tonight? Well, last night I the bathroom started smelling like a latrine (just like your toilet at home, an RV bathroom should never smell!!!) and when I looked down the hole it looked like the tank was full. Which means, it hadn’t been emptied, no way I filled it up in just 2 days! So I decided I’d empty it to see if that helped the smell.

So after we got back from our hike I went off to the dump station to tackle the toilet! It was much easier than I expected and it seems to have reduced the latrine smell! Still, when/if I buy and RV, it will have a black tank because that’s MUCH easier to deal with!

After the dump station I went to pick up Mom and Dad. The plan was we were going to drive my RV, to charge the batteries, which we were now dead again, to keep the fridge going – this electric fridge thing is a total pain, and go first to Lodgepole so I could take advantage of the public showers (I have a shower in my RV, but I prefer to use regular showers for a lot of reasons – none major, just how I like to do things) and then go to a BBQ and living history show out at one of the picnic areas.

We got to Lodgepole and I gathered my stuff, plus $3 – thinking I’d taken a lot extra! I changed my bills into quarters, found out that each shower costs $3, then waited for a shower to open up. The bathroom was full of steam from hot showers and I was looking forward to enjoying every second of my $3 shower. When I got my shower stall I got all ready before I put the money in, however when the last quarter went in the shower didn’t start. I tried EVERYTHING to get it to start, nothing. grrrrrr…. I put my clothes on, gathered my stuff and went to ask for help in the store. The gal came out and fixed it (she opened up the money part and put one of the quarters back in) and the shower came right on! I quickly got all ready, not wanting to waste a second of my $3 shower. When I got in though, I discovered that it was cold. Ice cold. I turned both handles every way I could and it wouldn’t get warm. I tried just dunking my head anyway – I did not want to get dressed again w/o having taken a shower, but it was too cold. Finally I just shut it off, put my clothes on and stormed out. I went back to my RV and showered there (yes, in the parking lot at Lodgepole Visitor Center) where I had plenty of hot water (even though I’d just turned on the hot water heater!) I decided not to wait because the bathroom is also the shower stall and the drain is in one corner – my campsite isn’t level and if I shower here the water will collect in the opposite corner and not drain. I needed to shower at Lodgepol so the water could slosh around as I drove back and drain out, which it did. I’m thinking maybe tomorrow I’ll drive back over to the Lodgepole Visitor Center parking lot and offer hot showers for $3.50! ;-)

The BBQ and living history thing was nice! It was an all-you-can-eat buffet and a guy gave a talk about mule trains in the Sierra while we ate! When I opened my utensil pack (this was a picnic BBQ!) the utensils were really nice….solid, not flimsy! I said “WOW, these are nice plastic spoons” and the guy said “They aren’t plastic, they are plants! It’s made from corn!” Cool! Yes, I swiped the ones we’d used (double recycle!).

When we got back I took my Kindle over to Mom and Dad’s MH to discuss plans for tomorrow and Friday. When I got there and opened my Kindle, the screen had lines through it and when I turned it on the lines didn’t go away and there were blank spots! You couldn’t read it! Everything else seemed to be working but the screen was totally busted. I have NO idea what happened. It had been sitting on the “couch”/seat in the RV all day – I’d picked it up to read it while I waited for Mom and Dad to pick me up before the hike, but it had been on the seat ever since. I’ve only had it for 2 months so Amazon should stand by it (they better!), but I have no way of contacting them right now! I’m pretty pissed off about this, but it can be fixed, hopefully soon (and it’s a reminder that I need to look into a SquareTrade warranty for it!) It is kinda funny that I’m pissed off because my book stopped working. Score 1 more for paper books – very rarely does your paper book spontaneously become unreadable without obvious cause. And if the book does get damaged most times you can fix it. Only something catastrophic can take out 40+ paper books in one swipe, but hardware failure on your Kindle can wipe out everything in seconds!

Tomorrow the plan is to drive into Kings Canyon and check that out. We have to go back near the entrance station where I had cell phone service on Monday when I came in so hopefully tomorrow AM I’ll have service again and I can call Amazon see what they can do for me. Worst case I guess is there’s a Best Buy in Fresno, I can just buy a new Kindle.