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Correct. It was the annual Facelift event to clean the park. This area can be popular with climbers and in fact I found some old strapping, webbing and some micro trash.
@@TechMadic Was a great time!! Conditions were hot but manageable with timing. A friend of mine and I trail ran the loop counter-clockwise too. We started at 5:30 finished at 10:30 - took 3 hours of breaks to stay together. Saw 4 other trail runners doing single day!! Last 5 miles near mist falls was so brutal to go down those steps after 35 miles.
Congratulations!! That is amazing. Those stairs are the worst. They are never ending and such an odd and awkward height. Great work! We’d love to do it again.
My dad and I hiked it 25 to 30 years ago, he was around 80, he had used the road when it was THE way into the valley. Lots of scrambling over rocks, but fun and lots of good memories!!!
I am gonna do the white rim in April. I read there are no food lockers at the campgrounds, are there some trees so hang the food from bears and dangerous animals? Or how does it work there?
From our understanding, it’s more of an issue in Needles vs Canyonlands. NPS only recommends tightly sealed bags, not cooking near your tent and less fragrant foods. We had no issue with bears, only a rodent…. If you want to be extra safe and still stay lightweight and Ursack is approved for use in Canyonlands (but not Needles).
Found this on Reddit. “Several years ago I did it in a '19 Ram 3500 single rear wheel crew cab long box (I know, crazy but that's all I have, need it for work). The hardscrabble end was tight along the cliffs on corners. Murphy's ridge in the middle was intimidating but not actually that hard. Otherwise totally fine. We scraped underneath here and there but nothing bad, no rock stacking or messing around. The long wheelbase made for a lot of backing up and some center clearance issues but really nothing bad. Truck was completely stock, open diffs and junk AT tires they come with. We started at Shafers switchbacks and did almost the entire thing in a day.”
Shirley Sargent told me that this was a shortcut used by James McCauley's kids to get back from school in the valley in the 1880's. The four-mile trail was too long for them. At that time the school was close to today's Yosemite Village. McCauley ran the Lodge at Glacier Point and is the originator of the original "Fire Falls".
The bottom part was such a messy network of use trails! Tricky to determine what the original was, but for stairs here and there, but trivial to find one's way. A few Class 2+ spots that aren't for everybody, which will hopefully help it continue to hide in plain sight! A real saving grace of the Valley for those who can't stand the tourist crowds, but have to be down there for whatever reason. 4 of 5 falls in view! Left rear post of the railing was fully loose. It should really be treated as a historic artifact and not leaned on!
The overgrowth makes it super nasty up there this year. The whole upper gorge is a creek as well, which is sometimes easier to follow than trying to find the old trail. Way worse than you show here. Worst part is all the loose rock under the plants that can shift or hit someone below you if not solo. The Ledge (bottom half) is slick and loose in spots but mostly just an abstract risk of rockfall at any time. Glad to have done it, but never again! Curiosity satisfied!
Thank you for your opinion and we wish that were true. We only have 475 subscribers and this video has 19k views. No one is paying us or would pay us with these stats. We just really like the tent and like talking about gear. We bought it from their website and paid full price like any other consumer. Keep the views and subscriptions coming and hopefully one day we can get free stuff and let you know we’re getting free stuff.
Did this trail about the same time as you (although with full pack and camera equipment in 3 days, clockwise). I forgot which way was the "easiest" and guessed clockwise, and I am so glad I did. I ran into a couple trail runners and based on what they had on them I guessed they were day running it too. Good job.
We’d love to do it again. The river crossing will probably be impossible most of the year this year from the snow melt. That’s another good point about clockwise. Easier to turn back if you can’t get across the river. Congrats!
One of thee best valley scrambles. I learned about the ledge trail on a senior high school trip to Yosemite by a Yosemite institute dude named Gar in 1987. I had the old brooks chariots with the sticky icky Goodyear 500 soles.
Nice! Great video, thanks for sharing your experience! I'm planning to do this in 2023, my first international trail running/multi-day event. Any pointers you're willing to provide would be appreciated.
You’re going to love it! We both feel it’s the best adventure we’ve ever done. The entire trip is truly breathtaking. Bring poles. Be prepared for all weather. It changes quickly. Stop often and enjoy! I think we stopped at 2-3 refuges or towns everyday along the way for a coffee or treat.
I was on the hunt for cons of owning one of these, and this one guy made a huge deal about how long it takes to break down. "oh you may be able to set up in 5 minutes, but it'll take you 3-5x as long to break it down, which is a huge pain" You just did it in 2 1/2 minutes. Setup took like 2 minutes. I cannot imagine spending 5 minutes on setting up and breaking down camp could possibly be an issue haha. Thanks for the video, I saw what I needed to see :)
Hi. You guys are a such good natured couple. I have so many questions! Can you add some description of your trip, like your gear, how much water you brought, if/how you trained, etc. If you have tips on what to do or what not to, please share. I'm super inspired. Thank you!
That is so nice of you to say! We like each other a lot. For gear, we pack in layers vs days and basically did what we would do for a two day backpacking trip. We brought a lot of water. I think we only filled up once at the river. Water was key. We did not bring enough warm gear and had not expected snow. Rookie mistake. Always pack for all the weather. We training, we are ultra runners so we run 5 days a week, lift once a week, and ride once a week.
@@TechMadic Thank you again for this video. We managed to pull it off last week but three days, too nights (April 10-12). Now that we've done it, I have twice as much respect for you guys. I fell over several times on the sandy stretches and we had NO wind. Our struggle with the weather was the opposite; We were riding the the exact three days that a 79-82 degree heat wave hit Canyonlands :D. By the way, for anyone researching this trip, there is easy access to the Green River at Potato Bottom A for water refill. Bring alum to help with the sediments. Good fun!
@@TechMadic Yes, I'm sure the views are the same on the 4-mile trail. But you did the old one. That is amazing and an accomplishment that you will never forget. It's akin to going up those Half Dome cables, which I did as a young teenager in 1977. NOBODY did the cables in 1977. I owned that rock back in the day. But today? Today it's like a super highway. Ruins the moment. The experience. The solitude. I would much rather take the route that you took just for that kind of solitude. But then, at my age now (61), I'd probably be dead.
If you have any accident up there, it will be hard to justify to rescue crews what you were doing up there, hence the warning signs (2). If you are comfortable with potential deadly rockfalls, climbing over granite boulders with no visible trail, and sloping loose scree/dirt that you could easily lose control on, then I still wouldn't recommend it. That being said, the ledge itself is surprisingly wide all the way up.
Thank you for your good comments. Technically I was volunteering for the Facelift cleanup (signed all my waivers and was at my own risk) so some justification. I also carry mountain rescue insurance and separate heli rescue insurance. For me as an intermediate hiker and ultra runner, this was at the edge of my comfort level. For an intermediate climber, it’s laughable that I was scared. If I did it over (no desire) I’d have a helmet and a partner anchored and a rope for the sketchy scree sections. Again, probably laughable for climbers.
@@TechMadic My comments weren't directed at you specifically, but more for someone contemplating the climb. Our experience level sounds similar. If did it again I would have a partner, a helmet and some protection. I did have a 2-way Garmin device. I wanted to just find the base of the trail, which turned into seeing how far up I could go comfortably. There are a couple of spots that I needed to hold onto roots and branches to get up. Without those available I would have stopped there.
My dad made us climb that thing when I was a kid- all the way around to half dome and then down through the falls. THANK YOU for confirming the hellish trail it was.
Wow! Great video! While I wish you could have shared more video of your route and your experience, I’m pretty sure you had your hands full with that one! Congratulations and glad you made it up safely!
Ha ha. Maybe! He is great. I believe he knew I could handle it and was looking for adventure. He said he got some flack for this video. I don’t want to get him in trouble. He had an amazing knowledge of Yosemite and climbing.
Did this trail last Thursday because the road to Glacier Point will be closed until 2023 and really wanted to go there without having to do Four Mile Trail. Wow is all I can really say, it's a very unique way to experience the park and understand why you weren't able to film most of the hike. I'm very fascinated with off map trails at Yosemite, I've done Sierra Point and hope to do Fern Ledge soon.
Cool! Was the water flowing in the creek on the upper half? We’ve done about 80% of fern ledge. It wasn’t that bad actually. A few sketchy areas of loose gravel that is about 2 feet wide where you could plummet down into the valley but they are very short. Keep us updated!
One of my favorite videos on White Rim Trail that I've seen while doing research on it. It's nice to see people that aren't experts tackling a trail. RU-vid is full of people with crazy builds and years of experience, so it's nice to get a more grounded perspective from normal folks.
We are so happy to read this! Thank you for watching and commenting. WRT was wonderful and we’ve since been back and did it as a bike-packing trip. We hope you go and enjoy yourself.
