Day 1 - 7/14/03

We took a bus from Mammoth Lakes to Yosemite Valley. Then we picked-up our wilderness permit and bought some sandwiches. We took the free valley shuttle to stop 16, “Happy Isles”. The John Muir Trail starts there. The trail was crowded. We pulled off immediately to have lunch. Neither Evan nor myself could eat more than half of our sandwiches. I think I was too excieted. I had been planning this trip for an entire year and was eager to finally be done planning and get on the trail.

We hiked up the “Mist” trail (along with 1,000 other people). The trail is very steep going up to Vernal (Photo right), then Nevada Falls (Photo below).

Despite trying to get in shape for this trip, I was in poor physical condition, the trail was steep, and I laboured hard under a pack that seemed woefully heavy. The weather seemed opressivley hot. I was dissapointed that despite trying diligently to lower my pack weight to below thirty pounds, my pack was close to forty.

We stopped in Little Yosemite Valley and rested along the Merced river. Here Evan tries his luck after seeing a large trout. Most people seemed to be camping in Little Yosemite valley, but we pressed on, despite our tiredness and the late afternoon hour. Campsites in the Little Yoesemite valley were sucky - they were all right next to each other in an area that has been scraped of vegetation down to bare soil.

We camped one-half mile after the trail to Half-Dome. We were near a small stream, well off the trail and out of site. Closer to the trail was a more heavily used campsite where we found a bear-ravaged food bag. We also saw lots of bear shit around. We carried two bear resistant food containers.

Evan slept in a tent. I slept under the stars. In the middle of the night I awoke to a blazing-bright Mars This summer Mars was closer to the earth than it has been in 50,000 years.

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