Day 8: Merced to LittleYosemite Valley

Day 8 and Jeremy was up cooking us another wonderful breakfast.  We weren't too far off the trail and were beginning to see a few backpackers here and there hiking by.  When the meal was ready I heard Jeremy proudly holler, "Who wants Banana Nut Cake?", nice and loud so that the mouths of those passing by would water.  :)  Oh yes, it was yummy.  He has perfected the art of baking in the back country.

We refreshed ourselves in the beautiful Merced River and prepared to pack on down a bit more in elevation.  This isn't the best shot, but here is a Water Ouzel dipping in the water by the rocks.  I will get back some day soon to hear the sweet little song that my master Yosemite guide (a.k.a. Just Jeff) told me about.

Poor Jonathan was loaded head to toe.  That is an awful long pack!

So much beautiful scenery to take in.  I love the sound of the rushing, falling water in some places and quiet trickle in others.

Learned lots about granite formation from Just Jeff, too.  I'm telling you, he is a master.

Bear evidence!  I guess they like to stretch and claw at a tree much like a cat would.  Other than this and a few random piles of scat, we did not see any more evidence of bears.

This tree looked to me like it was doing the splits on the granite!

We had a variety of granola/energy bars for snacks throughout each day.  The guys teased me that my Clif Chocolate Brownie bar looked like bear scat.  I guess it did, but it was still yummy.  :)

Dad has hiked through this area many, many times.  He enjoyed pointing out places he had been, rocks he remembered, places he had camped.

Just Jeff, my new found friend, what a treasure.

I love this picture of Jonathan, breaking for a well deserved rest.  Isn't there a famous picture of a cowboy or boy in a Mexican sombrero that looks posed like this?

This huge chunk of rock...what was more incredible was to look up the mountain and be able to tell exactly where it had fallen from.  Sure hope nothing got crushed!

We did have a good bit of switchbacking this day.  The trails were very rocky in places and it seemed you barely covered a few feet in elevation because of all the zigzags.  More strenuous hiking, and again some rain in the afternoon.

We finally descended into Little Yosemite Valley, a very forested area.  The drop in elevation was noticeably warmer and we were starting to see more backpackers.  Our pace was fairly slow going so as to keep everyone together, but when we knew that we were within one mile of our destined backpackers camp, a challenge was set.  Jeremy and Jonathan wanted to know just how fast I had been walking in the mornings at home in preparation for our week in the high country.  So with permission, and yes breaking our pact not to separate the group again, Jonathan and I hightailed it out of there.  I had been walking four miles an hour with thirty pounds on my back in prep.  Even after our long week, I was able to muster the strength to do it with fifty pounds and prove myself to my little brothers.  :)

We reached the backpackers camp and phoned back to Jeremy, as both he and Jonathan now had regular cell coverage.  Jeff was not long behind us, and we got to work setting up our tents.  Mom was ready to crash in ours when she arrived.  It was one of our few nights of arriving at our destination before dark.  It was nice, and admittedly somewhat foreign, to cook dinner in the daylight.   We ate up as much as we could, using portions of our meal that had not happened due to our midnight adventures.  We tried to use up as much hot chocolate, drink mixes, and other extras as possible so as not to have to carry any extra weight out on our last day.  We even had an extra canister of fuel, which at that point was extra weight.  An unnamed person "donated" that fuel to the community campfire the next morning, where surely a beautifully warm campfire was discovered later.

We stayed in a designated backpackers camp.  It is a camp where folks hike a day up from the main Yosemite Valley and then use that as a base camp from which to scale Half Dome.  It had been our original plan to stay here two nights and do Half Dome, but as you know, plans changed.  It was strange to be around other people again, although it was still a very primitive camp.  It did have latrines, which was kind of a treat.  Why does that sound odd?  :)

I did not want to go to bed this night, knowing it was our last night together.  We discussed plans for the next day, how we would work out getting everyone to their proper places, to the airport, to hotels, etc.  It hurt too much to talk about, I was not ready for our trip to end.  We had experienced so much together in  just a few short days.  We came from five different places, one of us not knowing the others well at all, and bonded in a beautiful way forever.  So hard to finally call it a night.  So. very. hard.