(click on any photo to enlarge)Well, the day is finally here. We have all been looking forward to this day for months. The day when we begin our Tahoe- Yosemite thru-hike. The journey will take us about 185 miles from Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite National Park to the shores of Lake Tahoe at Meek's Bay. I am sooooo excited for this trip because Tammy will be going too. Easty, Christi and I have hiked together the past few summers and this year Tammy is going to join us. This will be her first long distance hike and I am so glad to be able to share the experience with her. Now we will all have stories to share. Saturday morning we got a ride south over Tioga Pass to Tuolomne Meadows where we dropped dropped off with our packs and a long trail in front of us. As our ride drove away, Tammy turned to me and said "Well I guess its real now." No turning back. Just our two legs to get us back home. We got our Wilderness Permits and found a campsite in the backpackers camp. We won't start walking until tomorrow so that means that we have a day to wander around Tuolomne. After we got our tents set up and all of our food safely locked in the bear lockers (Yosemite bears are notoriously smart and crafty) we headed off to go do some exploring.
After checking out Lembert Dome and the Tuolomne River we went to the store for some veggie burgers, fries and a cold drink, our last non-dehydrated meal for a while. Man, was it tasty. Filled with anticipation about the next ten days, we headed back to camp for a good nights rest. Our sleep was abruptly interrupted around 1 AM with campers banging pots and yelling "BEAR!!!". It seems that some yahoo left some of their food out instead of putting it in the bear box as instructed and the bear saw this as a good opportunity for some easy foraging. For the most part, black bears have no interest in humans, just their food. Having no door on the front of our tent I was able to watch as the bear walked five feet in front of our tent. She was a beautiful, chocolate brown color with a cinnamon back. She could have cared less about me. I giggled to myself, feeling grateful for the opportunity to see her and fell back to sleep with dreams of the trail filling my head.
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