Yosemite

Day 1: EL PORTAL
We found a ride by posting on Craig's list from San Francisco up to a tiny town called El Portal, which was just a mile from the park's border, so the night before entering the park, K. and I found ourselves setting up camp for the first time on the lawn of the guy that gave us the ride out! In the morning, he told us about a little watering hole and waterfall that was a short hike up from his place, so we spent a lazy morning skinny dipping in the freezing water flowing down from the melting snow capped mountains. Once we were nice and rested, we got a ride out of El Portal, and into the park from a lady working bear patrol (more on bears later). Camp 4, the only walk-in campground in the park was full, but we were lucky enough to learn about a back-packer's campground, where we stayed for the night. The rest of the day was spent wandering around the park, surrounded by HUGE MOUNTAINS and waterfalls (more on this later too)!



Day 2: GETTING ACQUAINTED
We got up at 7am, and hurried, took down the camp and made our way out to Camp 4 once more, getting there at... 9:15am! (it takes us a LONG time to get ready in the morning...) Out of the 60 people waiting to get into the camp, 54 got in... and we, well, didn't. So we decided to try our luck wilderness camping. We got our permits for the following day, set up our tent in the back-packer's campground once more (same spot as the previous night), and then went on a "warm-up" hike, up the Vernal falls. The walk up was amazing, we got completely soaked from the mist coming off the falls, and got to see rainbows too! The hike was a bit more than a warm-up, and by the end we were quite happy to have supper and get an early night's sleep.

Day 3: BIG HIKE DAY
Leaving everything behind, except the strict necessary, we set off to hike up the highest falls in North America!! (we learned this fact as we were in the bus going to the falls...) It was a 5h journey, 90% of it was in the (HOT) sun, and I drank 2L+ of water... but we made it up! Once off the beaten track, we were in the wild, looking for footsteps in snowbanks, trying to find a campsite... and the first one we saw was home for the night! The evening was quiet, the campfire was challenging since the wood was a bit wet, and we truly felt like we were "lost in the wild". Thankfully, nothing happened, and our bear-proof food canister was left alone during the night!







Day 4: BEARS!
Waking up on the top of the mountain with an ice-covered tent in California was not part of the "plan", but it did happen to us! The hike down the mountain was a lot easier, taking only 3h, but it seemed to be harder on the knees and ankles. We also got to go see the falls before starting the hike down, and since it was early morning, we were alone up there, which made the whole experience feel slightly surreal! Then, once we got back to the back-packer's campground once more, we thought we were done, no more adventures for the day... but no... a black bear decided to walk up to our table and run off with K's back pack!!! Luckily, my shreks called over the only two other people on the campground, who threw rocks at the bear, and were able to get the pack back! Then, about 10 minutes later, the bear came back, looking in the garabe bins near our site! Again, the two other guys ran up yelling and throwing things to get the bear to leave us alone. After our scare, we decided to go and get ice cream (surprise, surprise), and when we came back, we realized that the bear had returned during our trip and had ripped holes in the other guys' tent, and had run into our tent a few times, since our poles were all bent out of shape! Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well that night, and I am positive that I heard growling during the night... in the morning, I slept through yet another bear encounter. It was time for us to leave Yosemite!

Day 5: DEPARTURE AND SEQUOIAS
We caught our first ride of the day out of the park, and to Tuolumne Grove, to see some giant Sequoias, the world's heaviest tree! When I get home, I'll try to include a few pictures of these trees, to give you an idea of how huge they are! At the entrance, the age of the trees was put into perspective for us: they were around since before the Colessum was built in Rome!! Incredible! A few more rides later, we ended up in a very un-interesting town called Merced, and so we decided to catch a train out, and back to San Francisco. It's great to be back in a city, in the same hostel as last time, clean and safe!

Onwards and upwards from now on! NORTHBOUND!