Slacklining anyone?...

Taft Point slackline setup - 170 ft. long, 1150 ft. above the ground...

Headquarters

Today we did some major reconstruction in the Headquarters building. And by major reconstruction I mean we took out the two office walls and a door. The building is one of the older ones here at camp (70-80 yrs. old?), so we're wanting to maintain as much of the original structure as possible. It is currently being used as our Outdoor School office, and the back corner sectioned in as the "office" was small and rarely occupied. So those walls are gone now. In the process we uncovered some beautiful rustic wood beams. Yay! The floor is proving to be a revelation process as well. Currently it is covered by a thin, forest green carpet. When we tore up a section in one corner we discovered none other than avocado green, "alligator skin" vinyl tiling underneath. Not so yay. We're hoping to eventually unearth the original wood floor boards, but that may be a while. Another discovery we made was a storage area above the ceiling. It's definitely sturdy and meant to support weight, so we're thinking of turning it into a sweet loft/hang out area. Of course, this whole thing is turning out to be one of those projects where the more you get done, the more you discover you need to do. Ah well. It will make for a fun all-winter project. And besides, who knows what we'll discover next...

    

Mt. Lyell Trip

A look at our Sept. 16-18 backpacking trip from Tuolumne Meadows to Mt. Lyell and back.

Day one: Backpacking through Tuolumne Meadows.

Kristina and Derek

Hiking the 8 miles alongside Lyell creek, to our campsite. 

Lunch break!

More of Lyell creek.

Our first sighting of Mt. Lyell (under cloud cover, behind the tall pine tree towards the right).

Day two: Summit day!

Four miles of up-hill and about 4,000 feet of elevation gain.

Incredible views. 

Absolutely beautiful mountain lake.

Hiking up the side of the valley, towards the base of Mt. Lyell.

Approaching the snow-line.

Beginning the hike up Lyell glacier. 

Time for crampons.

More of Lyell glacier. 

Getting steeper...

Nearing the summit!

View off the back side of Mt. Lyell, from the summit.

Mt. Lyell summit on the left.

You can see the valley we hiked through in the upper right portion of the picture, down between the tree-covered hillsides.

On top of Yosemite - 13,114 ft... give or take one or two. ;)

Climbing back down.

Climbing down a steep, rocky ridge.

Great shot of our... um butt trail in the snow from where we ditched the ridge-line and hit the steep snowfields.

Some sweet sliding action!

Hiking down Lyell glacier. 

Group photo.

Awesome reflections in the water. 

Marmot!

Pink snow algae. 

A beautiful sunset creeping slowly out of the valley.

Day three: Hiking out. 

Nearing the trailhead!

So these two just might have taken a wrong turn on the trail out and hopped on a shuttle for the last couple hundred feet to the right parking lot...

...and maybe these others did too... ;)