Tenaya Canyon Hike TR, Sept 9- 11, 2005
RJ Secor’s guidebook says that Tenaya Canyon is considered the Bermuda Triangle of Yosemite. Along those lines, my friend Bob hiked down the canyon in the 2004 with his wife and twenty year old daughter. In Lost Canyon they ran into a family of four, kids about eleven, without gear or supplies, who had gotten lost. The dad needed to be at work the next day. Bob suggested he probably would not make it out to Olmstead by the end of the day. Maybe the smart thing was to go with Bob and family down to the valley. They choose to go to the Valley. Everyone did the rappels, including the waterfall, by passing down harnesses and Bob lowering the untrained lost sheep. They shared their food. The kids sardine'd in one of the three bags and Bob and his wife in another. Mom and Dad huddled around the fire all night. After finishing the hike the next day, the errant family caught the shuttle safely back to their car.

My wife, Wendy, and I had been talking of this hike for a while. We decided to see if my brother, Turtle, and his wife, Ava, wanted to join us. My brother has done a fair amount of backpacking over the years and he and Kurt J. rappelled off the A Building at San Rafael High back in the day. This would have been about 1976. Now I think they would be sent to Guantanamo but they only got hassled a little. Ava on the other hand had never slept on the ground before, or owned a pair of hiking boots, or for that matter carried a pack. Wendy and I have done a lot of backpacking but it never seemed to catch Ava’s attention. I mean, you sleep on the ground! But she’s smart and funny, and mentally she’s really solid. Don’t have a few too many glasses of wine at Christmas dinner and start spouting off without having your facts straight! Not that that ever happened to me. Still, I thought she would be lured in because it wasn’t just some trail slog and the trip was downhill with four adventurous rappels. Also on the plus side, she’s a professional ballroom dancer so she’s in great shape. They accepted the invitation right away. Later, I found out she had been watching the Eco-challenge. They do say TV can lead you astray.

We all went up to Cragmont Park to practice a few rappels. Wendy used her harness and the rest of us used a diaper sling, which is just some 1” webbing tied in a loop, which you put around your waist and then reach between your legs to pull a loop out of one of the strands. You clip the three loop ends together with the biner that has your rappel device on it. We did the free hanging rappel to the left of Farewell To Arms. Everyone did fine even through the bush at the top.

We got up at 6:00 in Berkeley. By the time we had made the drive to the Valley, dropped a car at Curry Village and driven to the Sunrise trailhead it was about 4:00. We strolled through the trees and slabs for a mile or so.
Eventually you drop down into a beautiful bowl lined with glacier polished rock and opening views all around.
This picture reminded me of a sixties album cover.

There are some cool big holes
We camped in a small gravel flat surrounded by slabs at the lower end of the bowl. There was a big fire ring and lots of avalanche downed wood for a fire. We had a nice three-course dinner of soup, angel hair with ground beef and Barilla tomato sauce I had dehydrated, and instant cheesecake.
The next morning it was cold. After breakfast we took down the tents and sat around the fire chatting until 10:00, when the sun filled the canyon. We hiked down through the woods to where you can start to see down valley.
The route goes up to the left over steepish slabs.
Ava had never done anything remotely like these slabs. Friction between rock and boot as you get higher and higher. I decided to stay just below her so if she went down I could grab her- like that would have worked! Of course, she ace’d it without a problem. Later she told me this was the scariest part of the trip. You end up on a ridge near a big boulder. In this picture you can see some of the acres of talus. The route goes down the slabs going off picture at the bottom right.
Here’s a picture of the one rope 165 ft. rappel we set up there.
I had been warned that this part is scary for non-climbers. There were a few rappel sling anchors around. After they rapped, I untied the rope and walked down which was interesting with a full pack.

By the time we reached the floor of Lost Canyon it was three o’clock. I was re-thinking my casual attitude after breakfast. I decided we should not risk getting caught doing the rappels in the dark. We camped on some gravel banks from a side stream near the lower end of the forest. It is cool we could not find any fire rings or beat out tent sites. This valley still has a wild pristine feel to it. We had Hot and Sour soup, shrimp Alfredo and pudding.
Dinner with two domes
Bro relaxing after dinner with a book
Now out of extra time, we got up early and got down to the first narrows just after first light.
The first rappel of the day.
After the rappel, Secor gives two choices. Either almost immediately start climbing out of the canyon on the right or go to the waterfall. We ended up at the waterfall. I rapped and then carried the lowered packs across the pool. Wendy rapped next. Then Ava. Unfortunately, she got her feet too high negotiating the boulder switch at the top and the diaper sling slipped down her legs. This tilted her more or less horizontal and put her completely in the waterfall.
She kept her cool though, and slowly rappelled down. When she was in reach I pivoted her out of the falling water. She had an amazing look on her face fear, wonder and amazement. It reminded me of the look on my kid’s faces the first hours after they were born. She looked like she could use a kiss, after which she waded off to find some sun. All of us had gotten more or less wet during the rappel. My Bro then showed us how it is done. He danced and dodged his way down, only getting a few drops below the knee.
As we waded across the pond he joked’ “Wouldn’t it be funny if I fell in”? Well, yeah. He slipped on a sloping rock and went in. Now we all needed some sun. Soon we were out of the first narrows and the sun was in full force. We found the keyhole without a problem.
Here’s my sweetie climbing through the keyhole.
Here’s a picture of Wendy contemplating the drop into the second narrows.
We hiked down to the next rappel. It looked like you should rappel straight down to a small ledge and walk across below a hole. Nope.
Here’s my Bro in the hole.
Here’s Wendy doing the correct diagonal rappel.
We soon reached the end of the narrows.
It’s about a five mile hike to Curry from there.
We were all feeling good so it didn’t take too long. I was carefully working my way through each nationality of food at the Curry Buffet when Ava remarked’ “I don’t know whether to be proud that you thought I could do this or angry that you put me through it”?
Hey, how about both?

Zander