Life of Wry

Fully settled, into the routine. Jim’s feeling nauseous and didn’t sleep that well (elevation + age, we think), Peter was a bit cold (temps were down in the low 30s!), I slept okay and woke singing Queen’s We Are the Champions of the World. So.. yeah… happy and rarin’ to go. We are finding that we have 2 bars of connectivity — enough for Wordle, Connections and Spelling Bee. We can reach people, we can post to FB, we can stay up on email. Game changer. Connectivity is better than in Lodge.. maybe it’s the hill?

We got to breakfast by 8:00… not hurried, nobody to keep a schedule with.. damn, this is going to be great!

Ate with Rick and Ann, the ones from last night. Had a good breakfast. No self-serve continentals anymore. But fine.

Returned to cabin and, honest to god, it took about 30 minutes to suit up..and that’s because this old person with the wonky knees has a whole bunch of strategies (advised by Shanette the PT). So.. there was Kinesio Tape, knee stabilizing braces, sticks, and — because my boots are not my friends — all manner of foot and toe-protective cushioning. Also a bandaid over one nail-less bed, prophylactic ibus, preventative moleskin on two other potentially troublesome spots.. you get the idea. These wide-toe-box Altra boots are on their second (and last) season. Like the two sets of boots before them, they are not working for my feet. One has to really love hiking to mess with all this.

Mobilized by 10:15 or so. Decided on the Lyell Fork (I was really lobbying hard for this.. wanting a long flat hike to acclimatize, remembering past years’ first hikes… and wanting to start smartly). It was a great choice. First view of the river is always so breathtaking.. even in a very low water year.

We took a three-fie:

We hiked along the Lyell fork for about two miles, then cut up through a large meadow to the main trail (the John Muir Trail).

Trail’s mostly flat.. a mellow river grade.

We went another couple miles and had lunch at the 4.5 mile point. It was so, so pretty. Ate on that rock on the left.

Earlier in the year, there would have been a lot of mosquitoes. We were so late this year, we missed those (great) and most of the wildflowers (unfortunate). We did have very mild temps though — 60s-70s during the day.. (fantastic).

It was low water… so Rafferty Creek was totally dry:

This was the return view of Lyell Canyon…

We heard thunder, but saw no rain.

Got back to cabin, Peter continued on to the store to get a toothbrush and a deck of cards. When he returned, we sat at the fire pit and played another pub quiz. Showered, then dinner.

Toulumne Meadows was hosting the big contributors to the Yosemite Conservancy (we give sporadically, but not at the high roller level). They were having receptions and ate from a different menu. This night, we were lucky to get a table in the dining room (most had to find dinner in Lee Vining or at the grill down at the store), but sat by ourselves off to the side. We later learned there were some amazing stories among these Conservancy members. I’m glad there are people who give so much to Yosemite.

After dinner, Peter killed me in gin rummy. It was a remarkable run!

And to bed by 8:45!