Day 57 - Wednesday, June 23

Tenting at the Tuolumne Meadows Campground (mile 942.5). Walked 17.8 miles today.

Woke up about 4:30 and slowly got going. I left camp just before 7 am and Frank was only a couple of minutes behind me. Did a mile downhill past some nice streams before beginning a climb up toward Donahue Pass.

Passed Clockwork and Bougie and then passed a family with two young kids. The little girl (maybe age 6) asked me if I was doing the PCT. I said I was and asked if she was doing it. She said 'no' and I asked her if she wanted to do it some day. She replied 'no' again... The little boy told me about his puffy jacket and how it kept him warm. Their trail names were Tadpole and Pollywog.

Got to Donahue Pass (wasn't too hard of a climb) and waited for Frank to catch up. Was really windy and kind of cold.

This is the last time we'll be above 11,000 feet on the trail. Clockwork, Bougie, Heather, and Tigger caught up and I hung with them at the top briefly before they started down. Frank came by a few minutes later and we started down the pass and into Yosemite National Park.

The trail dropped steepply and crossed several lakes before going below the tree line.

Once in the woods, Frank stopped to pee and I continued walking. A few minutes later, I saw something out of the corner of my eye and stopped. It was a bear and her cub about 20-30 yards off the trail.

I watched them until they walked out of sight and then continued up the trail. Two minutes later, I ran into Clockwork, Bougie, Heather, and Tigger who were eating lunch. I sat with them until Frank showed up and told her my bear story. Her bear senses had been tingling and she thinks she might have barely seen the backside of it as she came past the area. The others pushed on as they were trying to get to the Post Office by 4 pm to get resupply packages. Frank and I continued on shortly after. From here, the trail was really flat and ran along a series of meadows along Lyell Creek

After a couple of hours, we stopped for lunch on a rock with a view of the meadow.

As we were about to leave, a ranger rolled up and did a permit check on us. This process is getting a little tiresome, as this is the fifth time we've been stopped in the last 125 miles. I understand why they do it, but it's still annoying. We walked on past more meadows and the trail changed as we approached civilization. It became wider, there were bridges over almost every water crossing, and there were people EVERYWHERE. For a while, the trail paralleled Highway 120. When we reached the rock formation called Lambert Dome, we left the PCT and headed to the General Store where we got some fruit and drinks.

We sat with Clockwork, Bougie, Heather, and Tigger and chatted with them until a little after 5 when we went over to the backpacker campground. Wandered around until we found a spot and set up our stuff. Went to get water and found Microbe and her sister two sites over. Hot Pink, Sure Foot, Rambo, Microbe, and Narrator were also here. The Borg is back! We ate dinner with them (some of them had been to the gas station in Lee Vining which has some amazing food). After dinner we hung out for a bit before turning in. We're next to a large tour group on an intro to backpacking trip and they're not exactly the quietest.