June 30, 2008 Pacific Crest Trail

Destination: Toulumne Meadows
Miles: 16

Adrian:
There must have been fire smoke to the east because the sunrise was quite surreal this morning. Like smog, fire smoke is good for brilliant sunrises and sets.

The hike up to Donahue Pass, the border of Yosemite National Park, went slower than expected but the scenery was great. This pass was almost completely rock covered with small pockets of snow. It has the reputation of being the easiest pass to get lost on, but we had no troubles. We summited the 11,200-foot pass around 9:30 a.m., 2.5 hours after we started.

The rest of the hike into Toulumne Meadows was nice tread and pretty flat. It followed the Lyell Canyon and creek and therefore afforded us water all day.

While finding our campsite we saw our first bear! It was medium/small-sized and cinnamon in color. Too bad our first of the trip was in a national park campground and not the wilderness. I yelled at him but he didn't really care.

Near the campground is a store and grill where we ate and resupplied for the trip into Yosemite Valley. Tomorrow we hike the John Muir Trail toward Half Dome and summit it the day after. After that we'll finish thru-hiking the JMT into the Valley.

Ciao...

Kirsten:
I'm not going to call my husband a nerd.

Ok, yes I am. Not that there's anything wrong with being nerdy. Nerds are knowledgeable, and more importantly, always looking to learn more.

Now that we've established Adrian's nerdiness, it shouldn't be surprising to learn he listening to one of those fireside ranger talks. And it wasn't one of those casual hey-I'm- passing-by-let's-see-what-this-ranger-is-talking-about moments. He's been talking about the 8 p.m. ranger talk since yesterday. I'm sure he researched the schedule during his climbing trip here the other day.

The name of tonight's talk, you ask? Well, "the spirit of adventure" of course. Last night the fireside chat was "The fittest of the furry: marmots and pikas."

Apparently, the ranger kicked off the talk with a sing-a-long. After two songs - one on bears, the other about "how I love Toulomne and I'm happy to be here - the female ranger talked about bears, made a public service announcement on proper food storage and finally told stories about John Muir, Royal Robbins and climber Lynn Hill.

I am proud of Adrian's nerdiness. He even asked a bear question during the discussion part. That's my boy!

It's fun to tease him a bit every time he goes to one of these ranger talks. Oh yes, he's been to many.
This doesn't mean I want him to stop. When you think about it, how great is it to be married to someone who is still interested in learning regardless of how nerdy he may appear? While many of us sit around worrying about what we look like or wonder if someone will think they're weird etc., Adrian's off singing songs and laughing by a fire. He just might be on to something.