A few weeks ago, some OutdoorGearLab team gathered in Yosemite. Our goal: climb Half Dome in a team of six. The weather was bad so we looked at El Cap. Weather was bad there, too. Time to hike!

I remembered the Old Indian Creek Trail: an abandoned NPS trail and before that a trail used by Indians and herders. Some history of the trail here. I did the first part of this trail when writing Yosemite Valley Free Climbs and doing the approach for Arrowhead Spire and Arrowhead Arete. I remember it as a well-built trail that periodically vanished.

We asked a ranger and a few store employees about the trail and everyone said the same thing: yeah, I've been up there… a little ways… and then turned around. The only beta we had was "when you get to the fourth class, go right."

We started up and within 25 minutes were at the junction of where the Arrowhead Arete/Spire climbers trail cuts left. A few minutes later we were at the base of the fourth class and a trail fork. We went left. Why in spite of being warned not to? Because the trail left just looked so much more traveled than the trail that went right. The fourth class turned out to be real fourth class. There was even a rap sling about 80 feet up around a tree. Not a good sign. As far as I know, the NPS has never built a trail that might require a rappel.

Of course we were were off route. Or rather, on route had we been doing the alternate Arrowhead Spire descent (not mentioned in SuperTopo Yosemite free climbs). A rock buzzed Randy's head and we knew we had to get back right. Five minutes later we were back on the old path.

For the next few hours, we stayed about 80% on route. It's very apparent why few hike this trail: its well-built and obvious in sections and then completely disappears for hundreds of yards. High adventure factor.
The trail does not take an intuitive line and its super easy to get lost. You feel like you should be hiking towards the middle of the canyon, but the trail hugs up and left and goes over many cliff bands. I have read reports that you can just hike the middle of the canyon but this appears to involve lots of boulder hoping and some mandatory 3rd/4th class.

Three hours of rain, fog and (mostly on-route) hiking led to the final traverse back to the middle of the canyon and Indian Creek. This last seciton is quite overgrown and involves "on route bushwhacking." The trail is obvious at this point, but so is the dense brush covering it!

We topped out and headed back to the Yosemite Falls Trail. If the Tioga Road had been open, we would have hiked up to that and found a shuttle back to the valley (and saved the knees from 3000 feet of granite stair pounding).



The stats by MotionX

I had heard a tourist earlier on the shuttle bus mention the "tight rope walker." I thought, "She is so confused. What she means is someone doing the Tyrolean traverse on Lost Arrow Spire". But in fact she was right: there was a tight rope a.k.a. a slack line right in front of the Falls. The fog, rain and exposure made for an eeriliy awesome scene.




Advice for future groups:
 be a confident 4th class climber, you may be scrambling
 if you don't know what 4th class is, don't try this trail
 if you see rap slings you are off route, maybe
 start VERY early and alllow lots of time to get lost
 wear pants for the overgrown "on-route bushwhaching" up high