Saturday, July 12th,
Hurry up and wait seems to be the common theme of my journey so far. But as Dr. Keller said so many years ago, "to be early is to be in time to be on time is to be late!" Being so close to a dream finally becoming a reality I slept fitfully. Tossing and turning I awake at 4:30 a.m. and could not fall back to sleep, so I watched a little T.V. before finally getting up and starting my day. I had the biggest smile on my face as I put on my hiking clothes for the first time. This is for real! It is really going to happen! I walked a short distance into “downtown” Lee Vining and caught the 7:20 YART’s bus into Yosemite National Park, for the second time in my life.
A short ride brought me into Tuolumne Meadows, where I went to the backcountry ranger station. I was hoping to be able to get my permit changed so that I could hit the trail today, rather than waiting for tomorrow. Talking to the ranger said he doubted it; in fact the park was busier than he had ever seen it. I will check again with the rangers in TheValley later today, just in case. Worst case is I spend the day in The Valley. From the store and post office at Tuolumne Meadows. I mailed my travel bag and extra clothes to the Dow Villa in Lonepine. Michael the postmaster was awesome, very friendly and extremely helpful. I guess it is hard to go “postal” with Yosemite as your work place.
Yosemite Fucking Valley!!! I am finally here! As we rode from Tuolumne to The Valley I was struck by how different this place is from Rocky Mountain National Park. The mountains stand out more here. Granite white mountains and cliffs stand in stark contrast to the green of the forest. The conifers here are much taller wider than the Lodgepole pines Colorado. Their bark appears to be much thicker as well; designed to withstand forest fires I would guess. At times I found myself reaching out, just to touch them; to feel their grandeur. The bus ride down to the valley was awe inspiring. There is nothing quite as inspiring as pulling into the Valley and instantly being dwarfed by the towering walls.
I stopped in The Valley backcountry office and picked up my permit for tomorrow. No luck getting out of The Valley today or changing my destination for tomorrow. This leaves me with a relatively short hike to Illoute tomorrow; an easy day to break me into the trail.Afterwards I headed over to the deli for lunch where I ran into Don and Karen again. While eating I had my pack on the ground beside me. In under 30 seconds a squirrel had made its way to my left hip belt pocket and chewed a dime sized hole in it, in an attempt to get to the trail mix inside. Not even on the trail yet and I had my first negative animal experience. Damn squirrels! Hope this is not a sign of things to come.
After lunch I bid Don and Karen goodbye, as they were heading out on the trail today. I caught the bus to the backcountry campground and set up camp for the night, before heading out to see El Cap. I wanted to stop at Camp IV, but decided to bypass it in favor of El Cap meadow. El Cap Is magnificent! My words fail to express its awesomeness. It was great to lie in the middle of a meadow and just stare up at it. Talk about feeling small! Lying on my back, staring up at those granite walls I relaxed and dreamed of days to come.
This evening I went to movie about Ron Kauk, one of my climbing heroes. He was actually there to introduce the movie and take questions. As I walked in the theater I saw him sitting there and went up and introduce myself to him. I told him he had been a real inspiration me when I was climbing. He seemed to appreciate that. I even got to take a selfie with him. What a thrill!
I made it back to camp, just as dark set in. No need to leave early tomorrow, except to beat the heat, as I think I'm going less than 5 miles tomorrow. I am sharing a site tonight with Fiona from the Facebook JMT group. It was funny as we talked we discovered that we had both read each other's blog as we prepared for our own journeys.
