Written 7/14/14
Posted 7/22/14
Right now we're laying in a rain coated tent for the second time. Fortunately, the rain started tonight just moments after we arrived at our campsite so we were able to stay completely dry. We've been hearing the sounds of thunder for most of our hike today as the storm seemed to chase us. We thought that we were going to avoid adverse weather but it caught us in the end.
Today we finally got back on the PCT after our five day hiatus; the last three of which were zero days. Our time in Yosemite Valley was very relaxing. On Friday, the day after we got down from Half Dome, we rested our weary bodies and took the day easy. We spent most of it being tourists; perusing the visitor's center museum and village art gallery and of course stuffed ourselves silly. Our fine dining experience included an 8-pack feast of ballpark franks roasted on sticks, adorned with stolen condiments.
The next morning Mike's dad payed us a visit and delivered us more goodies. Subway sandwiches, a cooler full of fresh fruit, and a schmorgasborg of desserts. He stuck around for the rest of the afternoon and we did a little day-hiking, mostly to waterfalls that were not flowing due to the draught. It was so great to see a familiar face and catch up with the outside world! Thanks for all the awesome food, Tom and Diane!
Since the Tuolumne post office was closed for the weekend and we couldn't get our resupply box till Monday, we decided to stick around the Valley for the World Cup finals. We found a hotel bar that was playing the game. When we showed up a half hour before the bar opened to ensure a decent seat, we found a line of Argentinians eagerly awaiting admittance. The cool thing about being in a National Park for something like the World Cup finals is that there are such a collection of ethnicities present. We got to watch the game with fans from both representative countries in a packed bar which made it all the more lively and exciting. It was a great game and although we missed most of the World Cup, it was nice to have a beer and watch the final match so we felt like we were a small part of it.
We were going to catch a shuttle bus from the Valley back to Tuolumne, where our resupply box awaited. But since we had a few hours to kill before the bus arrived, we decided to try to hitch. This isn't necessarily the easiest task, since it's a 60 mile drive and the cities that most people are going to are in the opposite direction. However, within 10 minutes a pair of guys from LA pulled over and picked us up and drove us the whole way there. They were really nice but they either didn't realize how out of the way this was for them or they just didn't care. Either way, they saved us some bus fare and made our day! We got back to Tuolumne hours before the shuttle would have arrived so we set up camp and got a good night's rest.
We were really anxious to get hiking today but we had a delayed start because the Tuolumne post office didn't open till 9am!!! Despite our tardy start, we put in some fast tracks making it 18 miles to a gorgeous lake. (Side note: I just had a minor freak out because a deer was making quite a bit of ruckus only 5 feet from our tent!) Anyway, we're so excited to be back on the PCT again. We just bagged our 300th PCT mile today and today marks the start of the fifth week on the trail. We probably lost pace with all the people we had interacted with so far on the trail due to our log detour but we met a lot of new hikers today. Looking forward to getting to know these folks better as we march our way north!
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