Last week we spent the week at
Camp Mather. It is a family camp owned by the City of San Francisco and operated by the city's recreation and parks department. Like many things in San Francisco, it is oversubscribed and so spaces are allotted by lottery. It offers all the traditional things you may see at a summer camp--swimming, archery, canoeing, capture the flag--but in the sublime setting of the Sierras, right on the border of Yosemite National Park. We got (relatively) lucky and got our second choice week. About one hundred families are there at a time, and the place is a scene of happy chaos. Imagine the summer camp of your youth, except now you can drink a glass of wine with dinner and buy all the chocolate bars you want at the camp store. Oh, and, you also have to watch a toddler. Gotcha!
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| Welcome! |
Because of all the rain and snow over this past winter, the area, which was badly affected by the Rim Fire in 2013, had a mantle of new green growth and the creeks and waterfalls were full-to-bursting. Being early June it was still a skosh early in the season, and the nights were chilly but the days were mostly glorious. We had a basic cabin in which all four of us slept (Montse came too!). Here we can see our little male model on the porch of our luxurious abode.
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| Wut? |
For those of us who enjoy rolling around in dirt like chinchillas, Camp Mather provided ample opportunities. To the extent that it was safe, we let him run wild. He became a feral toddler loose in the woods, returning only for meals and at bedtime.
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| and we're off! |
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| Oliver Twist goes to camp |
One of the more amazing things about the camp is that the food is actually quite good. As an adult, being able to go somewhere someone else plans, cooks and serves you three meals a day is truly a treat. They would even pack you a lunch to take with you if you were going hiking. Certain individuals also enjoyed the food a lot. Wessy has always been a reasonably good eater, but at Camp Mather he turned into a chipmunk crossed with Takeru Kobayashi. He stuffed his face with all kinds of food off his and then would unashamedly snatch chubby fistfuls of food off of other's plates.
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| Breakfast |
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| Yum! |
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| Super yum |
At night, after showering off the thick layer of dirt accumulated over the course of the day, we would snuggle in the cabin and read stories. Much like when we went tent camping, Wessy's enthusiasm for all of us (even Montse) sleeping in the same room with him led to some difficulty settling at night. He would sit in his pack and play perusing his books, talking to himself or Cal and periodically calling out MAMA, DADA or MINNAH MINNAH to try and see if anyone would come to his aid.
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| Cabin Lyfe 4eva |
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| Wessy el Curioso |
By far the best thing about the camp, however, is its proximity to Yosemite. Technically it is only eight miles from Yosemite, as you can access the Hetch Hetchy area of Yosemite from Camp Mather quite easily. You can even jog to the Ranger Station at Hetch Hetchy from camp pretty easily, which I did during a few glorious early morning or late afternoon jogs. Yosemite Valley is further but still quite accessible.
Anyway, on Monday, we went hiking at Hetch Hetchy. Hetch Hetchy is a dammed up valley-turned-reservoir that provides drinking water to the City of San Francisco. In a marvel of engineering and long-lost civic will, the dam and its accompanying piping apparatus carries water all the way to our doorsteps using only gravity. It is literally Sierra snowmelt, and is very high quality municipal water.
John Muir was vehemently opposed to the building of the dam, but some argue that had it not been dammed up, Hetch Hetchy Valley would have become the (admittedly stunning) shitshow traffic jam that Yosemite Valley is now. Though the valley has been lost, the surrounding area makes for lovely hiking and is way, way, way less crowded than Yosemite Valley.
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| The whole dam family |
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| Pretty dam big |
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| pretty dam cute |
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| dam that's a lot of water |
Our quarry for the day was Wapama Falls, which can be reached along a relatively flat trail that skirts the reservoir. Wessy, who is beagle-like in his focus while hiking, had to be carried in the Ergo. As you can see, he wasn't too sad about it.
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| whee! |
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| headed to the falls |
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| so green |
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| water water everywhere |
As it turned out, there was sooo much water coming off the falls that some of the foot bridges leading to the falls were overflowing with water and due to not wanting to permanently alienate Montse, we weren't able to make the final push to the actual Wapama falls. No matter, it was still a great time.
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| Mr Happy |
As we were walking, Wessy kept saying HIKING! HIKING! He would bob up and down approvingly and then repeat HIKING! He is a big fan of HIKING!
The next day, we left Wessy and Montse to play by the lake and went to see a sequoia grove and Carlon Falls (which had a scary-amazing amount of water flowing over it). Wednesday was the big day that we chose to brave the crowds and go into Yosemite Valley. It's about 30 miles from Camp Mather, but over some narrow winding roads, so it takes about an hour. The drive in was amazing--we left the burned out territory of the Rim Fire and entered the surreal beauty of the Valley.
We had originally planned to hike the Mist Trail, but were dissuaded at the trailhead when a parks volunteer told us that a guide had died a few days ago after being swept off a slippery trail into the river. For emphasis, she added that they probably wouldn't even find the body until September. We chose the John Muir trail instead. The crowd was thick and the trail paved up until Vernal Falls, after which things thinned out considerably. We hiked up to Nevada Falls, which was raging and terrifying but of course, stunning. The scale of Yosemite is hard to get over.
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| Peering over the edge of Vernal Falls |
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| Wut? |
For the way down, we transferred Wessy to Daddy's back, where he was very pleased to be.
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| HIKING! |
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| HIKING! |
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| HIKING! |
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| even moar hiking |
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| cuddle bug |
Wessy got a little cranky towards the end of the hike, but Montse offered him a cookie and all was well again.
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| all smiles now |
Back amongst the hoi polloi in Yosemite Valley, Wessy located a bulldozer, which despite the amazing scenery we had just experienced was perhaps his favorite part of the hike.
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| woooooow |
All in all, it was a very busy day for a little guy and he fell deep asleep in the car on the way home:
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| busy day at the office |
To conclude, here are a few more scenes from camp. Wessy found a little friend who hooked him up with all manner of plastic construction toys. He even said one of his more complex sentences to date when describing to me how he got to play with his friend's toys: "DAS BENS EXCAVATAH!"
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| DAS BEN'S EXCAVATAH! |
I'd be remiss if I did not mention another one of Wessy's favorite camp activities, which was playing around in the little utility vehicles around camp. This led to him learning many new words, including volante (steering wheels), palancas (gears) and trenecito (little utility vehicle). We just had to make sure he didn't drive away in them.
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| look ma i'm driving |
I'll conclude with a few photos of feral Wessy in his element. They say to be careful about leaving food around in the Sierras, as bears will go to great lengths to get to it. Well, I bet they never told you about the little pamper bears that roam Camp Mather. They have only recently learned to climb onto chairs and tables and they are not afraid to abuse that power.
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| watch out |
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| no seriously, watch out |
En fin, our week at Camp Mather was wonderful. Being together in the outdoors without internet or phone service and enjoying the simple things in life like hot coffee (that someone else makes) in the morning and a cozy cabin at night was good for the soul. As usual, the Sierras did not disappoint. We are already plotting how to get back next year.
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