Tuolumne Mdws.

6/27-
Day 78 - Until we reached the Vermillion Valley Resort today, Weathercarrot and Aquaman were the only 1995 AT hikers that Krumholz and I had seen. Upon our arrival, we first saw Swansong (she was the caretaker at the Blackburn center just south of Harper's Ferry in 1995 - She made the Vikings pancakes for breakfast.) Next we saw Ack2 who the Vikings met in the 100 mile wilderness in Maine. He summited Katahdin on the same day as us. They are both thru-hiking this year. Then, to top it off, the cook at the resort turns out to be Special K, a 1995 AT thru-hiker who also summited Katahdin on October 1st, the same day as the Vikings. What are the chances? - Squirrelfight.

"Good ole rock. Nothing beats rock." - Bart Simpson "

Someone told me there's a girl out there with love in her eyes and KFC in her hair" Joker's Wild

6/28-
Day 79 - Willie left us yesterday for a two week eggplant parmesan sandwich presidential campaign tour of Maine. The rest of the Vegetables spent the night at the Vermillion Valley Resort where the first beer and the first night's stay is free for thru-hikers. - Squirrelfight

6/29-
Day 80 - The vegetables have gone side-tripping again. This time taking an alternative route to a hot spring. With all of our side trips we occasionally walk around PCT miles. Until this point we have only missed 11.5 PCT miles This 19.4 mile route skips a whopping 18.9 miles of the PCT. The illusion of purity is over. - Squirrelfight

Day 80 - We have been out twice as long as Noah, 80 days and 80 nights. Squirrelfight, Krummy and I are currently soaking in the Iva Bell hot spring. Krummy is spouting off unsubstantiated information that the other spring is a bit cooler. He may be right, but to no one's surprise, none of us is running off to check. So here we will sit and bake in this little drop of heaven. So now that we are High Sierra pro's, our new joke is, "that is so day 27." - Maria

Day 80 - The hot spring tour continues! I can't imagine a nicer way to sit out the day's storm in this beautiful, hot pool. Looks like we've got the place to ourselves tonight. - Krumholz

6/30-
Day 81 - Wow, for the first time since Mt. Whitney we have a rainfree day. It looks like the storm pattern may have ceased for a bit. Today is also notable because this is the first true horde of folks I've seen since Kennedy Meadows. We have arrived at Red's Meadows Resort to find throngs of dayhikers, weekenders, RVers, family vacationers, backpackers, and horseback riders. What a scene! I'm overwhelmed. - Krumholz

7/1-
Day 82 - We are into Summer now. There are a lot more people on the trails there days, especially on a holiday weekend. I do like the trails to myself but I haven't been bothered too much by the families, boy scout troops, etc. The only thing that really bothers me are these idiot New York Yankees fans. This guy in a Yankees cap came up to us today and WOKE US UP, all three of us, to see if we had an extra camera battery! Not a snake bite kit, not an emergency flotation device, not a spoon, a camera battery! He obviously didn't realize how much we value our sleep. Pickle and Krumholz are still playing with his hat. - Squirrelfight.

7/2-
Day 83 - It's dawn and I'm at 11,056 ft. Donahue Pass where I camped last night with Pickle and Squirrelfight. We are well above treeline and ringed by snowy peaks including famous Banner and Ritter Mountains and Mt. Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite. Donahue Pass is actually the boundary of Yosemite National Park and today we will descend along the canyon of the Lyell to Tuolumne Meadows for a resupply. - Krumholz

Day 83 - Camped at our first pass last night. 11,056' Donahue Pass is our entrance to Yosemite. There's nothing like a national park on 4th of July weekend. - Squirrelfight.

Vocabulary - Krum's Law - at a certain point, the number of calories you expend scraping a pot will exceed the number of calories that can be scraped from the pot.

Day 83 - Today was D-day, the "get back to Oakland so I can get to Maine" day. I woke up at dawn at Iva Bell Hot Springs, with 12 mostly uphill miles between me and the nearest road. Hiking like a maniac, I managed to make Red's Meadow by 11:15, something of a personal record. Now the hitchhike... Hitchhiking, sometimes for hundreds of miles, is an inevitable part of these long hiking trips, a roll of the dice which is sometimes easy and enjoyable, sometimes extremely frustrating, and always unpredictable. From Red's meadow, I had to head east, all the way down into Owens Valley, then cross the Sierra again at Tuolumne Meadows, about 40 miles north. I got quick rides from a vacationer and his daughter, a Christian fireman intent on showing me the ways of the lord, and a young guy about to start a week hike on the PCT. Heading over Tioga Pass, we drove through a hail and lightning storm more intense than anything I have encountered yet in the mountains. We had to pull under a tree, lest the marble-sized stones break the windshield. I would guess that 6 inches of hail must have fallen in 20 minutes. It took forever to hitch out of Tuolumne, since they had closed the highway over the pass, but in the end I caught a ride from a friendly "rainbow family" couple who took me to Garcia's Taqueria in the town of Sonora, where I ate until my guts nearly burst. I finished the day at a rainbow family encampment just outside of town, where everyone looked like thru-hikers (bearded and emaciated), although no one had heard of the PCT. The next day, my friend Dave Clark picked me up and we drove to Oakland without incident. - Staggerin Willy

This week's ask Squirrelfight-
Tom Kennebunkport from Maine writes:
Dear Squirrelfight,
you keep mentioning places like Mt. Bayden Powell and John Muir Pass. Who are these places named after and how do you get something named after you?

Dear Tom, Lord Bayden Powell was the founder of the Boy Scouts of America. The longest BSA trail in the US is the Silver Moccasin trail, and Mt. Bayden Powell is the highest point on that trail. There is a big plaque at the summit in honor of the late great Lord. I am not sure who John Muir is. If you would like a mountain or pass (or bridge or park) named after you, you should probably talk to Staggerin' Willie. He plans on making a lot of name changes as soon as he becomes president. Coincidentally, he is in Maine right now eating an eggplant parmesan sandwich at a sub shop near you.

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