The canyon opened wider at Pate Valley, where the elevation was only 4,350 feet. The air felt noticeably thicker, and the trees were mostly oaks and incense cedar. Downstream from there the canyon curves south and then back to the west toward Hetch Hetchy Valley. If only we could follow the river down that way! But the National Park Service does not allow recreation access along the upper shores of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the City of San Francisco’s water source, so we instead made a strenuous two-day detour. Having to climb 3,500 feet to Harden Lake on the sixth day of our hike cemented my resentment toward the access restriction. Still, there were fine vistas down-canyon from a couple of points along the climb.

We left late summer behind in Pate Valley on that climb and returned abruptly to early autumn at 7,600 feet (37º53N; 7.5 miles south of the line, the farthest point south on the trip).

There were day-hikers at Harden Lake who had come from White Wolf campground, only a few miles away. Though we had 12 backcountry miles to do the next day, running into those people made it clear we had finished the most remote, wild part of our crossing.

Hetch Hetchy
As we navigated switchbacks on the trail down toward Hetch Hetchy, I glimpsed below us what struck me as a big slab of gray granite. Then my wilderness-focused brain adjusted and I realized it was the paved road to O’Shaughnessy Dam. Along this stretch of trail we also saw poison oak and knew we had truly come down from the high country.

Just after we set up our tent, not far from the dam, Spreck Rosekrans found us. He is chairman of the board of Restore Hetch Hetchy, and he also handles water issues for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). He became our new best friend when we saw he was carrying fresh food and wine!

Spreck’s organization hopes to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley, an idea that seems audacious to some people, given the water supply challenges facing this state. Yet several feasibility studies have concluded that water storage opportunities downstream make it possible to replace the water held behind the dam and almost all of the hydroelectric power from Hetch Hetchy. The organization formed back in 1999 as a split-off group from the Sierra Club, which refused to support that goal. On the day the Sierra Club reengages with this century-old battle, we all agreed, John Muir would be smiling.

“The damming of Hetch Hetchy was the event that turned the Sierra Club from an outing club to a political organization,” Spreck explained. “Congress authorized this dam in 1913; two years later they came back and passed the National Parks Act, basically ensuring that we’re going to preserve parks and not do any more Hetch Hetchys ever again. The National Park system might not exist except for what happened here at Hetch Hetchy.”

Janet: Spreck walked with us across O’Shaugnessy Dam and we looked at the exhibit panels. We found no photographs there of the valley before the reservoir. Spreck did us another major favor the next morning by driving me and our backpacks to the campground at Cherry Lake, while Dave walked the 15 miles carrying just a day pack.

The camp host was vacuuming debris off the road (shades of cartoonist Phil Frank’s Velma Melmac!). The campground was full of deer hunters. I found a site and put signs up for Dave and our son, Ryan, who was meeting us there with bicycles and supplies.