SOMETIMES COLUMN TOPICS ARE HARD TO DREDGE UP. Other times they are dropped in my lap. This week is a lap dropper. I’m assigning my students a fall essay this week as one of the Common Core mandates. As I don’t like to assign essays and projects I haven’t also done myself, I feel compelled to write my own Common Core essay using the same prompt.

Their essay needs to be around 500 words and my columns are usually closer to 900 words, so I get to write this explanatory introduction as well. The prompt asks students to describe a natural setting that is special to them using sensory language to show the setting rather than simply tell readers about it. Students are to emphasize the blemishes as well as the benefits of visiting their favorite place.

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I’VE NEVER HIKED TO THE TEN LAKES REGION OF YOSEMITE BY MYSELF. It’s too beautiful to see alone. I only wish I could take everyone up there. Quiet, fresh air, clean water, warm sunshine, the scent of redwood and cedar, the crunch of untrodden forest floor — these are the delights waiting for anyone who journeys up to Ten Lakes.

The lakes sit at 8,000 feet in an elevated basin that is walled in on three sides by towering mountains and protected in the north by a 3,300-foot drop into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River. Some lakes are a stone’s throw from each other, others spill into streams that tumble through the forests into lower lakes. For many years my camping parties consisted of students by the dozen. Once tents were up, kids were allowed to fan out and explore in any direction. The steep walls of the basin formed a protective playground. No one got lost. “Bring back firewood!”

Getting to Ten Lakes is no easy feat for the feet. The trailhead begins on Tioga Pass Road at 7,000 feet, then turns upward through a series of arduous switchbacks for six miles to 9,600 feet at the western ridge. Just as we begin to curse the switchbacks, they end near the top and we have to climb straight up the final stretch of mountain side, wishing for switchbacks. At the ridge the view is 360 degrees and our exhaustion is complete. The blisters are fully formed on our heels and toes, our backs, hips, and shoulders are aching from the pack straps. Our lungs are tired and our lips chapped — but we’re not there yet. We have two miles to go. After traversing the ridge, we must drop 1,000 feet along more switchbacks to the lake basin.

It’s not until our packs are dropped, our bear ropes are hung in the trees and our canteens are refilled that the joy of being there washes over us. We made it. This is an accomplishment that money can’t buy. Advanced university degrees don’t help. Community service hours don’t make it any easier. An A+ is as hard as a B-. Only self-determination, tremendous effort and inner strength will get you here. The sense of satisfaction that comes from sitting lakeside on a sandy granite boulder overlooking the distant ridge and listening to the splash of abundant trout as they break the surface of the water with hundreds of overlapping concentric ripples is well earned, and so deeply felt that the pain of the climb magically adds to the pleasure.

The fishing is so good and reliable that hikers can lighten their packs by leaving most of their food back at the grocery store. A good supply of oil, salt, pepper, lemon, corn meal, and a few spices will suffice for an all-trout diet. Bring a few eggs, a couple freeze-dried side dishes, noodles and fruit and you can have a delectable fish fry around the campfire every day, if you can build a campfire. Fish are easier to find than firewood, so be ready for that.

Over the years campers have burned every stick on the ground for a mile around. Gathering firewood can be an all-day chore. The basin is limited. I have had to climb down into a ravine that spills into the canyon gorge and tie a rope around a log and hoist it up. It was a great, dry limb and lasted the weekend.

My students learned to never stop gathering firewood. Always be on the lookout. We’ve learned to start gathering firewood outside the basin, a mile from camp on the way in. First we’d find two long sticks for a stretcher. Two boys would carry the stretcher sticks between them while they walked. The rest of us would scrounge the woods along the trail for smaller pieces and stack them cross ways until we had a pile. We were never short of firewood, not even once.

Ten Lakes is one of my favorite natural settings because it is difficult to get to and hard to survive in comfortably unless I plan properly. The bears come every time. The deer come. The blue jays come. The nights get cold. Wood is scarce. The trail is long and steep. The planning, the climbing and the sweating are what makes the swimming, the sunbathing and the star-gazing so sweet.

Steve Gibbs teaches at Benicia High School and has written a column for The Herald since 1985.

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