Agnew to Tuolumne...( And points beyond )
By : Tom Schemenauer

Explorers, Trail blazers, Pioneers, Innkeepers, Artists, Conservationists. The story of these and other early Yosemite settlers can be found by crossing the historic covered bridge in Wawona and taking a walk through time. It is a story of the creation of one of AmericaĖs first national parks. ItĖs a story filled with hopes and dreams, struggles and conflict as our nation grappled with the concept of the preservation of wilderness.
These thoughts raced through my mind as we entered the forest service office on Sunday. We already had a wilderness permit reserved for a 60 plus miles trip out of South Lake, near Bishop, California. It would be one that would take us to the rock hut atop Muir Pass, and one I visited five years earlier with my youngest son David on our walk across the entire John Muir Trail (220 miles in 12 days). However, our plans had changed and we decided to visit our most favorite spot in the entire world (next to the secret fishing spot on the San Joaquin River), Thousand Island Lake.
Therefore, our plan now was for the women to accompany us to Thousand Island for four nights, and then hike out. The men would hike on over Donohue Pass into Yosemite and on to Roosevelt Lake in search of the behemoth, "Moby Dick" size rainbow trout that inhabit its waters.
The visitor's center was packed with people. Since there are quotas for each trailhead for each day, there were what seemed like a dozen of us all clamoring for permits to our favorite places to visit. If you do not secure the proper permit and go anyway, you will be subject to major fines if stopped by a ranger. When we were issued a permit, there were only six people left for the high trail to Thousand Island, and we had five in our party. We just squeaked by!
Of course, the ranger warned us about the bear problem in the wilderness, largely due to the fact that most campgrounds now have bear proof dumpsters. In Yosemite, bear boxes (metal containers to put your food in) have been installed in all of the campgrounds and trailheads (bears have been known to break car windows for small scraps of food) making it increasingly hard for bears to terrorize your stash of food. Since they have to consume enormous amounts of food every day just to survive, food brought in their back yards by backpackers and campers are an easy prey for dinner. So we decided to take two bear cans, a hard plastic container that is about 18" long and about 8" wide that can only be open with a penny or a knife. The idea here is that a bear can't smell the food nor can he or she pick it up and haul it off because they are round and they are easily hidden in rocks or brush. It is law that you use proper food storage in Yosemite National Park and hang the balance of your food in a tree. There are a number of methods for food hanging (between two trees / counter balance method...these will be described in more detail later),but these bears have figured out just about every way to snatch up your stash, no matter what way you use. You must NEVER leave food in your tent or just sitting out in your camp. You would think that having a dog along would make a bear think twice about coming into your camp; but no such luck with the black bear population in the Eastern Sierra, Nevada, and Yosemite National Park.
My wife Gina, my friend Tim and his wife Mary and their son Jake and I spent the rest of the day Sunday going through our food menu and proceeded to cover the floor of my entire garage with all kinds of backpacking gadgets. And the debate begins as to which brand of backpacking food is best, what's for lunch, dinner, etc, The very best way I have found to sort out your food is to put an entire days meals in a large zip lock bag. This organizes all the food and is a very easy way to handle the food. This is an efficient method when there are just two of you going. However, we have five people and one dog, so the planning stage goes to a different level. Lacy, our yellow Lab, has her own backpack. Actually, it is a saddle bag. We let her carry her supply of dog bones and food. Her food has to be put into trash bags though, because as a "water dog" she spends as much time in the water as out, especially with so many lakes and streams. We figure she walks/runs AT LEAST 3 miles to every one of ours chasing critters and investigating every nook and cranny on the trail! She is a true mountain dog and loves the wilderness, I think even more than we do!