Yosemite 2022

[Drunk Monk]

867/60 - get up early and drive to tuolumne, stage the car, catch yart to mammoth. We’ll be at a hotel for the first night so I’ll likely be able to post again but I might not to conserve power because my iPhone is my camera and I’m not packing my charger so I need to make the charge last until we come out on Friday. My phone will be off (no reception anyway) except for taking pix. 

Wish me luck. Catch ya on the other side, assuming I survive.

 

This all went according to plan except that tuolumne meadows was closed for restoration so we had to stow my car a mile away. It was nice however because that campground is usually packed with day tourists and now it was just backpackers. 

We stayed at the Mammoth Inn, which is a ski resort, and it was ridiculously expensive food ($15+ for a plate of nachos) and very surreal because it was a ghost town without snow. It reeked of disinfectant which made Stacy nauseous. 

The next morning we caught a packed shuttle for an hour ride to reds meadow. That was standing room only for everyone but Stacy who grabbed a seat quickly. Sro in full backpack on windy mountain roads in a packed bus sucks. We should’ve got off at Devils post pile because it was a mile and a half closer to our trail entrance but Reds meadow was interesting to see and it sounded better when we crossed paths with other backpackers and swapped journey tales.

The post pile was cool although I imagined it was bigger. We passed by quickly from the back 

Then we were on the JMT/PCT (John Muir trail/Pacific coast trail for you non hikers) into the most sacred lands - the Ansel Adams wilderness…