June 25th, 2021
Mile Marker: 950.9
Miles Hiked Today: 21
It always feels so good to wake up after sleeping so well. I got up before the crew and enjoyed some oatmeal and coffee with the nice clear skies. I just had the feelin it was going to be a good day.
We set out of camp around 7 am and only had 3 miles of incline to Donohue Pass and then the rest of the day was downhill and flat.
I was stoked and so was my body.
Planner and I cruised for most of the day. We passed a ton of day hikers and section hikers. It seemed very early that it was a popular trail for a lot of people. Towards the end of the day we were all becoming overwhelmed with how many people there were.
One elderly man saw us coming down the mountain and with a big smile said “You girls look like you are running down the mountain! Go girls go!” It was the cutest as he seemed like a happy grandpa. It made Planner and I feel strong and motivated.
We were in fact zooming. We all had 15 miles to get to a general store and grill called Tuolumne Meadows. This was a pretty popular spot for hikers since it was so close to trail. This was also the place to hitch down into the valley of Yosemite.
Yep! We are hiking through a little part of Yosemite National Park! How cool!
We sat debating for a while if we should head in to the valley or not and ultimately decided not to. If we had arrived early at the general store it would have been nice to hitch in and out but we arrived later in the day and the hitch was 90 minutes.
It just wasn’t good enough timing. We also caught Lightning on her way back from the valley and she claimed it was incredibly beautiful but that she was overwhelmed at first with all the people.
It’s a Friday and I wouldn’t have expected anything less. The general store was also packed and I was quite frankly…sick of seeing so many people.
It was strange how at the beginning all I craved was there to be more people to now, wanting to be back on the PCT so that there could be less people.
Instead I enjoyed a swirl ice cream cone and then went back for another and poured some root beer on it for a root beer float. I had forgotten just how good floats are.
Around 4 pm, after 3 hours of sitting at the store, we finally headed out.
I, Brown Sugar, was feeling lazy beyond lazy. We had settled on 6 miles and I felt like a sloth trying to hike. My feet just weren’t wanting to move after all the ice cream.
We spotted some deer on our way that didn’t seem to mind us staring and watching them. It reminded Planner and I when we saw a deer wagging its tail and “dancing” in a circle on the AT.
It really was a gorgeous path out that took us by some amazing waterfalls. We ended our night near what I thought was the best one and washed off and cooked near it.
The mosquitos are bad but not as bad as we have had, thank goodness!
My googlie eyes were a hit today with all the hikers. One guy this morning that had been behind us for a while caught up to us on the pass and said “My what beautiful eyes you have.” And I busted up laughing. He asked how many times I had gotten that comment and I told him never, but it may have been the best one yet.
I had another guy shout out after me once I passed that he liked my googlie eyes and then another lady as I passed her yelled out “He’s staring at me!”
It’s crazy how I have gone this long and haven’t heard any comments on them to today where it felt like nonstop.
Good ol Ozzy.
It was a long day but well worth it. It does feel a bit more relaxed now that we are allowing ourselves to get to camp a bit earlier than we had.
After the couple shots of fireball (Happy Friday?), my eyelids are heavy, heavy. 🙂
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 