An auspicious beginning to the trip...a new annual national parks pass: the possibilities are endless!
The terrain is different from the valley, more rocks, less plants. Really gorgeous.
On Saturday we did an epic 16 mile hike. We got dropped off at the trail head to Sunrise Camp and then hiked in to the backcountry camp (5 miles, mostly uphill) and then along the JMT (cool people know that stands for the John Muir Trail)
past Cathedral Lakes and then back down to our camp site.
We ran into this guy along the trail.
Amber interrupted this poor dear's private time
She was not very happy about that
We were very impressed with our total miles hiked. This is the longest hike either of us can remember doing, and it was our first day at 9000 ft so we were definitely feeling the altitude.
The scenery on the hike was gorgeous, but it was just as beautiful at the road next to the camp site
After the hike we had a gear adventure. Someone misplaced the hose to the solar shower, leaving a hole in the bottom and no good way to deliver the water. But fortunately we had duck tape:
And Amber went to heroic and comic ends to make it possible for Dawn to take a dripping shower and get some of the pollen off. Picture Amber standing on the bumper of the van, holding up the shower bag with one hand and holding the shower curtain on the rod (running between the two back doors) with the other. In the end we both got rather wet but at least one of us was cleaner after the "shower".
There are bears in Yosemite and both nights we were woken up by people banging pots and shouting "bear". So we had to store everything that smells in the food lockers.
I kept wondering how so many people had pots to bang on at 3am. If I saw a bear at that hour it would be on my way to the toilet and I don't generally take a pot with me to the bathroom. Nonetheless, the wakeups were kind of exciting.
There was the obligatory climber slack line in our camp
And more food than I have ever seen on a camping trip: some cooked over the fire and some over the 3 camp stoves we had (we were very well prepared for a group of 9)
A moment of special pride for me was when I was able to provide a few cooking items that Joel, Mr. camping gear, didn't have: a strainer and a pot holder. There probably wasn't room in the car for these items.
We're still working out the optimal organization for the BRV. On Sunday as we were packing up we switched the direction of the futon so that it faces out when set up as a couch, and tried to better pack things up so they will be easier to find in the future.
We were all nicely packed to leave, got in the van and drove a few feet from our campsite, over a big pothole....and it stalled. And then it wouldn't start again.
We figured out how to open the hood (not as obvious as one might hope), and after some troubleshooting including an attempt to jump it, we got a bunch of people and pushed it up a small hill off the road. And then we called AAA and sat down to wait for a tow. Fortunately Danielle had given us sack lunches, and we had some cold beer still in the cooler. There are much worse places to be stranded.
There's a garage in Yosemite Valley (who knew!) and since there were no tow trucks available to get us out of the park, we agreed to a tow there. After 2 hours the tow truck arrived (it really took him that long just to drive up). He also tried to get the van started, couldn't, and so loaded it up on the truck.
And then we drove back down, another 1.5 hour tour of Yosemite in a tow truck with a very nice driver and comfy seats. This may actually be the best possible place to break down, if you're not in a hurry to go anywhere.
We got to the mechanic just 45 minutes before they close for the night, unloaded the van and pushed it up to the garage door. The mechanic agreed to look at it right away in the hopes that he could fix it and save us from being stranded in Yosemite Valley for the night. And so he turned the key....and it started. He spent about 30 minutes trying to find anything wrong with it but couldn't. A few theories include altitude issues messing up the fuel to oxygen mixture, a failing ignition, and a flooded engine.
To make up for the difficulties getting out of Tuolumne Meadows, the BRV drove very nicely all the way back to San Francisco, and we got home around 10pm.
Unfortunately the adventure of the day didn't stop there, because our bathroom at home is being remodeled and so we have no shower
and we were pretty dirty by then. At 10pm on a Sunday there weren't a lot of showering options. We went to 24 hour fitness where Amber has a membership and Dawn had to convince the guy at the desk to allow her in (they don't do day passes after 9pm). Fortunately he was sympathetic to the camping dirt sob story.
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