Yosemite (May 29, 2014)

Oh, what joy.

Much like trying to describe the reality of bike touring to someone who has not experienced bike touring, trying to describe the overwhelming beauty of the Yosemite Valley is equally difficult.  Very hard to describe the impact of the sheerness and beauty of the walls of the valley and the elegance of the waterfalls.

Since last posting, Sarah, Alex and I have climbed a great number of climbs, camped at a number of campgrounds, and experienced the many joys of touring.  But the most recent day of touring (Tuesday, I think), brought us into the Yosemite National Park.  After riding/viewing what has become the norm ... vast vistas of beautiful tree covered mountains, lush meadows, rushing rivers ... the road, taking a slight curve to the right, brings the Yosemite Valley into view ... BREATH TAKING.

Because of the great number of visitors to this area, it is always a question as to if there will be campsites available.  Sarah's brother (Bruce) and his girlfriend (Lilia) are on a two week vacation that includes backpacking in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.  They had reserved a campsite, and Sarah was gracious enough to invite me to join the group.  Bruce and Lilia left yesterday for a two-day backpack trek; Sarah and Alex left early this morning for a one day hike.  Me ... I am doing the wifi thing and getting caught up on the usual financial tasks, as well as enjoying reading up-to-date newspapers.  Ah, the life of being somewhat urbanized once again.

Viewed a couple of half-hour movies yesterday extolling the beauty, history and spirituality of Yosemite National Park.  Exited the theater feeling the mood of the movies ... a comment about the campsites ... because of the great number of people visiting, the campsites are by nature not very much nature-y.  Kind of has the feel of camping in a parking lot.

Tomorrow we head out once again, with Lake Tahoe the next city/area of note.  In between here and there awaits Tioga Pass (at nearly 10,000'), as well as a couple of other passes in the range of 8,500' to 9,000'.  I have done a quick take-off of elevation gains, San Diego to Lake Tahoe ... 55,000' or so.  Kind of amazing and very much difficult, but very satisfying. 

The rest of today I will be playing tourist, doing some clean-up and minor maintenance on the bike, and generally not going anywhere down the road.

Ah, the joy.