when you get there, you know

there are a lot of things people say, "when it happens, you'll know." and i have always questioned it until this past weekend. i made my first trip to yosemite since moving to california 2.5 years ago! it was an exciting adventure. a girl from work (a climber, actually) announced at work friday that some of her climbing buddies had gotten a group site for camping fri and sat night, would she be interested? and of course cause it was a group site, lots of room for friends, etc. no one else in the lab could clear their schedule, and though i had lots of stuff to do AND other plans in the bay area, i decided this was possibly a once in a lifetime and i had to go. blew off the dirty laundry, cancelled the plans to play pinball and pacman friday night and have a glorious homemade breakfast saturday morning...all so i could make this journey, this mecca to this place everyone talks about.

we ended up in tuolumne meadows which is above the valley for those of you who don't know. the valley is where EVERYONE goes, so the meadows were a bit less crowded. after the 5 hour drive from davis to yosemite friday night, we were pretty exhausted and just set up camp and went to sleep. it was supposed to be FREEZING at night but i wasn't super cold, and fell asleep with my sleeping bag half unzipped. then 1/2 way through the night my back got cold. i woke up and the zipper was stuck and i was in this mummy bag (not mine) so it was challenging to move around. eventually i got it working and tucked myself in.

saturday we had some breakfast and coffee with the others in the group and then made our way over to dog lake and lembert dome. the view of the dome on the way over was awesome. i haven't seen that kind of open face rock before. it was around the time we started hiking that i realized the altitude. i'm not a super hiker or anything but i do hike regularly for work. i realized quickly that i couldn't talk and hike at the same time otherwise i wouldn't be able to breathe! we walked slowly as my friend was having similar difficulty (at 10,000ft, who can blame us?) it gave us a chance to chat.

dog lake was crawling with mosquitoes. so we didn't stay there long. we followed the trail to lembert dome and then proceeded to scramble up part of it until we reached the summit! there was a rock on top of the summit, so we stood/sat on that, considering it to be the "true" summit. we had a great view! maybe one of these days i'll get some photos on here. took both 35mm film photos and digital pictures. when i download them i will post a few.

after that we hiked leisurely back down, went back to camp, got more snacks, and headed to tenaya lake, which was beautiful with views of domes all around. after some funny bathroom incidents - these people couldn't understand that i was in the bathroom so they kept trying to open the door. then they tried to open my friends door but hers didn't lock so they walked in on her changing. she said "there's no lock" and he just opened the door more and stood there - after that we went to the beach which had mostly been taken over by the lake's volume. i wasn't really that sweaty at this point so i just sat on the beach enjoying the view while my friend went in very slowly. the weather was great.

of course i got my shoulders sunburned! ouch!

on the way back from tenaya to our camp, we stopped at this place called "the knobs" which is small rocks (but bigger than pebbles!) that you can practice climbing moves on (only a climber would know this, i guess). so we went and played on these rocks. i didn't display any keen climbing moves but i was able to get up onto some of the rocks just pulling myself up and then jumping around from rock to rock. it was fun. then we went over to soda springs where we saw the water bubbling out of the ground (neato!) and we read all these informational signs that talked about the settlers coming out west, as well as subnivean cultures of animals that live in the layer of air under the snow in the winter. watch out for the shrews!

sun was setting now and the meadow was very beautiful. more photos. then we headed back to camp again to make some dinner and hang with the other people. some had gone climbing, others just went for walks with their kids, which by the way, the kids were adorable. we sat around the campfire talking until we were fully exhausted, then went to sleep. this time i figured out the sleeping bag before i fell asleep.

up early the next day (sunday) for another set of adventures! we went over to gaylor lakes which has a great view at the summit before you get there, and then the lakes themselves were pretty amazing - the first one you come to looks like it drops off the edge of the earth at the far end. the first one also had mobs and mobs of mosquitoes which led us to quicken our pace and head for the second lake. we set up for lunch on a rock in the middle of some snow at 11,000+ft or something like that.

we hiked back over the gaylor lakes ridge and back down the car, where we proceeded to drive to mono lake! another first. we went in the visitor center for a little while, looked at the exhibits, photos, watched the movie, missed the gift shop (it closed) but then went down to the water to explore! we saw the flies that inhabit the edge of the lake and eat algae not people, although there were some people that came down to see the lake who were skeptical about the flies so i ran through the swarming flies just to show them they didn't bite, but that they all fly up when you run at them (just like a seagull trying to catch them in his beak, i ran at them with my mouth open but didn't catch any). cool. tried to take a mini movie of it on my digital camera, we'll see if it worked.

after that we stopped and had ice cream. gas prices in lee vining (the town) were over $3!!! again, another photo op. then we drove back into the park. took some photos of the meadows. then we headed to olmstead point where we got some cool lookouts and my friend said it was the second prettiest place she had ever gone to the bathroom (she climbed below the rocks and went while looking over at half dome) it was great just being there with her. then she found a place where we could make echoes so we did that for awhile, just yelling stuff and then singing.

eventually we decided it was time to start heading home. we left around 745pm and got into san francisco (after passing tons of cars on CA 120, only to stop and get some food and find all of them back in front of us again!) around 12am.

IT WAS A FABULOUS WEEKEND (aside from the sunburn) and i am so thankful i went. because i got there. and i knew. quite possibly for the first time in my life.

ps. anyone want to put some aloe on my shoulders?