The strange thing about summer is it flies. When you don’t measure the hours in a day by deadlines and the drive home from work, time becomes fluid and dissipates. I appreciate that I haven’t spent the last two months on a computer, pounding my head against a desk in some windowless cube. For a moment I was among the unemployed, waking when I wanted, hiking when I wanted–car permitting. It was mostly bliss, with some frustrations and money problems woven into the middle. Can’t complain.
These photos are from the flume hike with my sister, a last hurrah in our beloved foothills before I hopped on a plane to the East Coast (more on that later). If you’re in the Oakhurst/South Gate area of Yosemite, check it out. It’s almost always quiet and empty.
Brown’s Ditch (aka The Flume)
- Length: ~3 miles round trip
- Time: 2 hours + time for swimming at the top
- Difficulty: easy
- Trail: take rd. 274 along the north side of bass lake until you reach the intersection with central camp rd. There will be a dirt parking lot on your right side (park there) and the trailhead is on the left side of rd 274.
- Best time to go: late spring/early summer. The flume dries up mid-summer, so go early.
photos: 35 mm film + iPhone | date: sometime in july
holly and pine 