Lyell Canyon was gorgeous…big meadows with tall grass and a slow flowing stream with one tempting swimming hole after the next. We kept hiking till about 4:30 when Becky started to fade and began to stumble on rocks and roots and such…and I was more than happy to call it a day too.
As we set up camp a large group of guided hikers walked back and forth on the trail…they were part of a horse-packing trip and the guides, horses, and all the overnight gear were nowhere to be found. Fortunately about an hour before dark, the hiking guide found some evidence of where the pack-train had left the trail and the group headed to find their camp…I was glad we didn’t have to start donating food and fuel to a big group that had lost their way.
We got in a quick dip in Lyell Creek before the sun dipped below the ridgeline and cooled things off. The one drawback to using running shoes on such a dry trail is that ones feet are filthy at the end of the day from all the dust getting through the light mesh fabric.
Becky started to look at the schedule and maps (an exercise on her part that would become a near-obsessive nightly ritual :) ) and suggested that we try to up the daily mileage so that we get to our food resupply a half-day earlier, but that would mean we’d be doing at least one 20+ mile day and I hoped that she would reconsider as I was not eager to start putting in big-mileage days unless necessary.
Tomorrow would be our first big pass, Donahue Pass, then we’d leave Yosemite and head for camp in the Ritter/Banner area.
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| Cathedral Peak, nearing in on Tuolumne Meadows |
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| way up Lyell Canyon, looking back towards Tuolumne |
Wait a second... burgers on the trail?
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