Yoo HooTuolomo; Yee Hee Tuolumne! - Part 1

Had too much fun in Tuolumne a few weekends back.  So I'm gonna split this post in 2.  Spent the weekend up in Tuolumne with a crew.  Hoeft got a group site, which was awesome... I'd love to get this site again every year...

So the Hoefts, Zurbins, Dufours, Smiths, and Metres all piled into Tuolumne for a fun, adventure-filled weekend.  

My favorite 5 min road side stop en route.  Last time I was here, I rode my bike here.  

This turned out to be a great stop... as we ate dinner here... and we caught a huge grasshopper... who was on the ceiling of the van.

I promptly unscrewed the lid where Strawberry was, put it over the grasshopper and shook it around until he fell in...

This was from an earlier grasshopper Laura caught, upstairs.  We all got in after dark on Fri, so we just quickly set up the camp, put the boys down and after a few beers went to bed.  

SAT - started the day off with a quick run with Alexis.

Saw this guy on the first 2 min of our run... 

Ended up at this beautiful cabin...

Alexis, testing the "soda springs"

And we were back in time for brekky!

After breakfast, we got the kids warmed up (boy it was cold)... and we decided to start hiking from camp.

The hike required 2 river crossings... (my idea)... 

fortunately, everyone had fun crossing the river.  

At the puppy dome falls... went for a quick dip.  Wasn't warm...

There we met our favorite ranger! Ranger Eric... who told us he does the campfire stories later that day.

Group shot with the rangers!

Silly shot... 

After fording two rivers, the kids were ready for some food... 

We split up at the log, and we went on to Lembert Dome with the Dufours.

Camille with the Sierras behind... 

Nikko... being cute

Summit shot!  Soooo windy up top!

But I still got one smile out of Kai

PeakLens is a wee bit off...

Kai & Nikko didn't really need any help on the way down... unlike Mama...

And back down... and out of the wind!

And the Hoefts and Smiths showed up!

Love these trees growing out of the rocks... 

Cartoon mode

Testing out the 20x zoom on my Sony

Hi Nikko...

We went directly across 120, back to Puppy dome to set up some easy TRs for the kids.  

The scene... 

We also hopped on Puppy Crack (a 5.6?) a popular beginner trad route on the dome.  Kai sending his first crack climb.  

Thomas

We also scrambled to the top to get a view of Lembert dome

Kai, back at camp, playing with Tim's musical instruments...

Here's what our hike looked like.  Pretty good!  Almost 7 miles! 

Meanwhile, Hoeft the master forager found some edibles...

mmmm

after a quick dinner we took the kids to the Campfire talk

Where Ranger Eric did a great job telling stories and keeping everyone entertained.
JAGUAR!

One of the more amazing stunts pulled off inside Yosemite NP.  "Pulled off" as in got arrested an hour later... but they did it without dying.

HALF DOME! (1977) from Randy Forbes on Vimeo.