"Thanks so much for helping me out last night and letting me set up here. I really appreciate it. I was honestly a little worried about getting hypothermia and I knew I needed to get set up"
"Oh, it's not a problem. When we saw you we were a little worried too, so that's why we had you stay.
I woke up that morning feeling a thousand times better than when I got to camp last night. I was warm and dry and a little hungry. The inside of my tent was all wet, and it finally dawns on me that my tent isn't leaking, it was just holding a lot of condensation so when the rain hit the tent, it was bouncing the condensation off and that's what I was feeling. Well, that's a relief then. I'm glad my tent isn't actually leaking!
The lady and her husband who helped me last night were already starting on their coffee and breakfast. I stood there for a moment and stretched out my sore body. My legs were still a little stiff from hiking Mt. San Jacinto last weekend. I thanked them for taking me in last night. We introduced ourselves and started talking about hiking the trail. As it turned out, her name was Kim (The second Kim I have met in two days), and I am friends with her on Facebook! I was so excited to see another Lady of the JMT! Of course I had to get a picture with her!
We continued on, passing Cathedral Lakes. You can just barely see it in this picture. The trail was rerouted from last year, so it didn't go as close to the lake this year as it did last. And due to the weather and how early it was (It was only about 10:00), we didn't stop.
It was nearly time to get the resupply packages, so we headed back over to the post office. The worker brought out a cart with everyone's resupply on it. It was a pretty neat experience to see everyone (Mostly JMT and PCT hikers) huddled together, waiting to get their goodies. Mine is the box on the bottom far left. Dan's was the orange bucket. I am pretty sure he had Superman tape on it. He was proud of the tape, as it made the bucket easier for the guy to find.
The lady and her husband who helped me last night were already starting on their coffee and breakfast. I stood there for a moment and stretched out my sore body. My legs were still a little stiff from hiking Mt. San Jacinto last weekend. I thanked them for taking me in last night. We introduced ourselves and started talking about hiking the trail. As it turned out, her name was Kim (The second Kim I have met in two days), and I am friends with her on Facebook! I was so excited to see another Lady of the JMT! Of course I had to get a picture with her!
I excused myself and walked over to the restroom. This was another established back country camp that had composting toilets available for hiker use. On my way I happened to run into Dan. He was surprised that I remembered his name. We began to talk and I explained to him why I was there instead of Cathedral Lakes. Jarrod came over to join us. I asked if they saw Don and Val come through last night, and but they hadn't. Bummer. After a moment of conversation, we decided to hike together for the day. We all agreed to be ready in about 30 minutes.
I went back over to finish packing my stuff up. It was all still wet, including my pants. I left my wool leggings on that I usually sleep in and just threw my shorts on overtop. My long sleeve shirt was still wet too, but my short sleeve shirt had dried enough to wear. One thing was certain. It was cold today!
Dan, Jarrod and I headed out. We talked and talked and talked. What great conversations we had. We talked about everything and anything. Mostly about what we were currently doing with our lives, what great adventures we had already experienced and ones we wanted to do in the future. It seemed as if no time had passed at all. We just walked and talked.
At one point we were climbing pretty good. I remember thinking to myself that I sure was glad that I didn't try to do this section yesterday in the rain. Turns out we had to get up Cathedral Pass, which I had totally forgotten about. As we reached the top, it actually started to snow on us! It was really that cold! We stood up at the top for a very short while (I didn't even take any pictures), and then started down towards Cathedral Lakes.
When we could see Cathedral Peak, we stopped to take a few pictures:
Dan, Jarrod and I headed out. We talked and talked and talked. What great conversations we had. We talked about everything and anything. Mostly about what we were currently doing with our lives, what great adventures we had already experienced and ones we wanted to do in the future. It seemed as if no time had passed at all. We just walked and talked.
At one point we were climbing pretty good. I remember thinking to myself that I sure was glad that I didn't try to do this section yesterday in the rain. Turns out we had to get up Cathedral Pass, which I had totally forgotten about. As we reached the top, it actually started to snow on us! It was really that cold! We stood up at the top for a very short while (I didn't even take any pictures), and then started down towards Cathedral Lakes.
When we could see Cathedral Peak, we stopped to take a few pictures:
Jarrod is on the left. Dan is on the right.
We continued on, passing Cathedral Lakes. You can just barely see it in this picture. The trail was rerouted from last year, so it didn't go as close to the lake this year as it did last. And due to the weather and how early it was (It was only about 10:00), we didn't stop.
Not stopping... that must have been our theme for the day. We hiked 10.5 miles to Tuolumne Meadows General Store without stopping at all. I think we were all hungry for a cheeseburger!
Last year when I hiked this portion of the JMT I walked out to the main road and caught the shuttle that took me to the general store. This year, we stayed on the trail and went to the campground. I remembered where the backpackers' camp was, but none of this area looked familiar. We kept walking until I finally stopped a worker to ask where it was. he pointed us in the right direction. I was ALMOST right as to remembering where it was we needed to go. Once we got to the campground we ran into Val and Don again. Dan and Jarrod picked out a good spot and set up camp while I talked with Val and Don and explained what happened the night before. When Dan and Jarrod were ready, we headed down to the TM Grill. We were HUNGRY! I ordered a burger and fries, and it did not disappoint. We sat outside with the rest of the hungry hikers to enjoy our feast.
When our bellies were full, we went to the post office to get our resupplies. Due to the enormous number of hikers coming through this year (Thank you Wild), we had to wait about 2 hours until we could pick up our packages. This was fine with us because we wanted to walk over to the new gear shop anyway. Dan didn't have a rain coat, which was a bit of a mistake in this weather, so he found a North Face one at the gear shop. It's funny that it's North Face because Jarrod actually works at a North Face store. Dan was pretty excited about his new coat, but he didn't remember me taking this picture of him!
It was nearly time to get the resupply packages, so we headed back over to the post office. The worker brought out a cart with everyone's resupply on it. It was a pretty neat experience to see everyone (Mostly JMT and PCT hikers) huddled together, waiting to get their goodies. Mine is the box on the bottom far left. Dan's was the orange bucket. I am pretty sure he had Superman tape on it. He was proud of the tape, as it made the bucket easier for the guy to find.
Jarrod and Dan retired to their tents upon receipt of their buckets and I hangout at the store waiting for Sara to arrive. She should be here any moment. I sent her a few text messages and tried calling a few times, but couldn't get through. Time has passed and she's a little later than I had expected by now. I'm starting to get a little worried that we missed each other in passing when I was in the gear shop or eating. Finally, after some time, she shows up. I was so insanely excited to see her!!! I ran over right away, gave her a hug and took a picture. My next leg of my JMT journey is about to begin!
We got in her car and went straight to the permit office. It was so late in the day that I was certain there would be no permits left for us to get with a start date of tomorrow, but we just had to check. The rangers there were really nice. Though they had no permits for tomorrow, they were very optimistic that we'd be able to get them for Sunday if we came early enough. And early enough, according to them, was 8:00am. Really? That seems super late to me. Sara and I decide that 6:00am was more likely a good time to show up.
Next, we went to the campground. I was really hoping that there was an available spot for us in the car camping campground. I wasn't sure if I could stay two nights in a row at the backpacker's campground and I knew we were going to need to stay there tomorrow night for sure. Thankfully, we snagged the very last available campsite! YAY! We went over right away and set up our tents. I realized I was missing two stakes and knew right away that I had left them up at Jarrod and Dan's campsite when I was up there. I had thought to set up my tent to dry, but then decided not to because I wasn't wanting to walk back up there. It ended up that I had to walk back up there anyway in order to get my stakes. Sara went with me and we visited for a small while before heading back to our campsite.
Once back at the site I laid out all of my wet clothes in her car so that they could dry. This excited me very much! It started to rain again, so we jumped in the back of her car (She has a Nissan Xterra and had the seats laid down) and went through all of her gear. This would be her first big hike like this, so she wanted to make sure she had everything she needed. There were only a couple things I noticed that she needed, and we could get those at the gear shop tomorrow. Very good!
Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day. We were going to get up really early and head to the permit office to get our permits. Then we would head down to the Valley so Sara could see El Capitan, Half Dome, Tunnel View, Etc.
The thought of this, coupled with the day I had just had made me extremely tired. It was time for bed. Another adventure waited for me tomorrow. And from here on out I'd have Sara with me!
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