So, I’m two days behind my stupid schedule. Except it’s not that stupid anymore. I’m two days behind meeting my Dad in Tahoe. But I’m ready. My pack is around 40 pounds, but my spirits are high and I’m going to see how many of those 48 hours I can peel off. I feel like everything up to this point, all the 700 miles of desert, all the high passes, it was all to get me ready for this.

I have a resupply package at the Tuolumne Meadows post office. I checked HalfMile’s app and it said 12 miles and 2000 feel down. I thought this could mean a good deal of “cruiser trail”, but instead was 2000 feet down in the the first mile or two, and then ten miles of flat through countless mudholes down Lyell Canyon. Nonetheless, I got to the PO/Store by 11.

This put me only one day behind, but I still put my whole resupply in my pack. I think this is my heaviest pack yet. 45 pounds? Also got a bonus burger for lunch while I sorted my food. I saw Puppy there (from Mt. Laguna)! She’s taking a few weeks to hike around in the Sierra. I was back on trail by noon.

That looks like a nasty cell building. Hope it doesn’t come my way.

Very crowded, as expected. Six miles in was Glen Aulin, notorious for bears, and I could see from the trail it was crowded. I kept walking a few miles and found a sweet spot to camp with a cliff on two sides. Definitely not on a bear’s regular route and the mosquitoes aren’t bad either.