Vogelsang Trail Junction to CS955.2 (936 to 955.2)
Daily miles: 19.2
Didn’t even get out of my sleeping bag until 9 this morning. I just feel drained and don’t want to move, but the sun is baking my tent so I decide to get up and have coffee and a muffin. By the time I’m hiking it’s going on 10, which is my latest on trail start so far. I coast through the end of Lyell Canyon and see more and more day hikers out since I’m close to Tuolumne Meadows, which is a major area in Yosemite. Day hikers don’t like looking at me or talking to me, so I kind of give up the whole stop and chat thing quickly. I must smell bad or look weird. Tuolumne Meadows is even crazier than I remember it: thru-hikers everywhere, both JMT and PCT, tourists, cars and buses everywhere. I have two packages waiting for me so I grab them and sort through everything. This food will have to last me until Echo Lake in 150 miles. I think it’s the longest food carry yet for me. In the store I buy two apples, nice and cold, and munch on them in the shade. Everyone else is mowing down burgers, but I want fruit for lunch.
Yosemite is still so pretty. All smooth rock and domes and granite fields and big old trees.
Huge Tuolumne River crashes along and makes a waterfall in the woods, which I enjoy all by myself. No more JMT hikers this far north because their trail doesn’t take them up here. Just a few section and day hikers and us crazy PCTers trying to get to Canada before the snow flies.
I walk into a glorious hidden meadow and it’s such a nice surprise. A nation of mosquitos live here though, so I have to hurry through. I hike late into the evening, 7:15, and get to a nice spot to see the sun go down. I eat mac and cheese and vegetables on a big slope of granite and watch the storm clouds to the east break apart and disperse with the setting sun. I feel better today, maybe my malaise will leave me soon.
tcmauer 