Wednesday morning we broke camp, packed everything and got ready to hit the River Trail that would take us to the day's final destination, Garnet Lake. I was looking forward to the day that was until I put on my pack, I must have short term memory when it comes to the weight of a pack...it felt like 60 lbs. although it was probably closer to 40 or 45 which is still way too heavy. There was no way I was going to sacrifice my Tevas or camp chair in the name of weight..this of course was reevaluated at a later point in the trip.

Day 1 we hiked about 6 miles, I wanted to keep it a relatively easy in order to acclimate to the altitude and to ensure that we could move the next day, of course there were a few challenges presented to us. The trail was pretty good, although I think it is pretty new and it is also a pack trail so we had to put our poo avoidance skills to the test. Unfortunately I had a sore tummy, probably due to elevation, but we continued on. We ran into very few people, however we did run into a group that was fascinated by Shawn's GPS toy, it was pretty funny. Finally we ran into the junction to Garnet Lake, the sign indicated that it was west of our current position. We went several feet ahead and ran right into a river...a decent fjord at that. To date I had only crossed small creeks and streams but here we were day one getting knee deep in frigid waters. Okay well we crossed the river but where the heck was the trail? It was nowhere to be found...Hmm how many hikers does it take to find a well marked trail? Obviously more than two but no fear we had a GPS and maps. We winged it and headed straight up the hill in a westward direction and somehow managed to run into the trail...nothing like a little cross-country adventure on your first day. I figured that the rest of the day would be pretty straight forward. Yeah who was I kidding....those thoughts vanished when I saw the boulders that we had to scramble over...don't get me wrong I love to scramble and I have had frequent occasion to do so....without a pack! Well when we finally got up and over the rocks we were rewarded with a great view of Garnet Lake. We finally found a campsite and settled in for the evening. Garnet was great, really pretty and hardly any people. We didn't see a lot of campsites although we may have not have gone far enough but my legs said that we had. I also chose Garnet as our camp destination because I didn't want stay at Thousand Island Lake which is infamous for nightime visitors of the big, brown furry type.

Day 2 was going to be another easy day....I was trying to prolong the walk to Donohue Pass since I knew it would be a tough one. The final destination was Waugh Lake although it wasn't set in stone since I wanted to avoid backtracking. We finally set out I think around 11:00, surely no one was going to accuse of being early risers. Along the way we ran into two small, pretty lakes - Ruby and Emerald. We were now on the John Muir and Pacific Crest Trail which are very popular trails and we started to run into a lot more people. The beginning to the middle of July is the most popular time to set out on the 216 mile long JMT and we met a number of people who were hiking from Yosemite Valley and were making their way to Mt. Whitney...I hope to do this trip one day. It usually takes between three and six weeks to complete the trail and about six months to do the Pacific Crest Trail. When we finally got to Thousand it was beautiful with Banner Peak in the background. Thousand Island is famous because Ansel Adams took a number of pictures here in fact he spent a lot of time in Ansel Adams Wilderness (hence the name), I could see why. People suddenly appeared from nowhere...not just backpackers, but a lot of day hikers, horse riders, day fishers, etc. After snacking on cheese, gorp and pitas we hit the trail again. We finally reached the junction for Waugh Lake and decided instead of hiking to the lake to just camp at the Rush Creek junction which was a popular backpacker stop. We used a previously used campsite that was in a beautiful forest covered location right by a stream and little lake. Our one gripe was that there was trash all over the place I was pretty surprised, I can't understand why people would dump stuff in the backcountry. Shawn decide to brave the icy waters and take a bath I wanted to avoid hypothermia and jumped in and out...I figured that the layer of dirt wasn't that thick yet. Later in the evening we took a little a walk and ran into a guy who had hiked from Tuolumne Meadows that day, it was almost 8:30 and he still wanted to hike a bit further. That guy had walked about 20 miles with a killer ascent, we had walked about 6 miles...boy was I feeling like a wimp.

Day 3 was going to be a big one, we were going to have get over Donohue Pass, elev. 11,050, followed by a 2000 ft. descent within 2 miles...yikes. There was really no goal for this day but to make it up and over in one piece, the destination was negotiable. We set out early this day trying to beat the heat...uh yeah whatever. So we started our hike and we hiked up and up and up....and up...are we there yet? It was actually pretty cool...we ran into very few people and it was just rock and blue sky. Well we finally reached the top and stopped for a much needed break. Shawn got into an altercation with a marmot...which he insists is the same as a groundhog....I was upset with the skirmish and the groundhog name calling. We were finally ready for part deux of the day, the descent, yep it was steep and a pain in the butt for my knee but no fear ma I had the ultra-sport brace on. While we were pumping water we ran into a family that was out for a few days...the lady was really fascinated with Shawn's GPS, well she was actually intrigued by his hankerchief that had a map of Yosemite on it, go figure. We ran into a group of about 11 people, actually they passed us, they were grooving...and Shawn dubbed them the centipede. We also ran into a family with two boys, 8 and 13, who going all the way to Whitney I was impressed and the wife had the same knee surgery I was going to have and wished me luck with mine. Well somewhere along the line I slightly twisted my ankle, another thing if you don't know me well, is that I am very injury prone...anyway with some tape and an ace bandage I was back on the trail. We finally made it to the Lyell Fork junction,our original plan had been to take a left here and head towards Vogelsang. However after much discussion we had decided to make camp at Lyell Fork and to alter our plans and do a shorter, one way trip to the Valley. I was not looking forward to camping at the Fork since I had read many stories about the bears in these parts since a number of people camped in the Canyon and at the junction. We had no nightime visitors however and packed up for the day's destination - Tuolume Meadows.

Day 4 was a short hike day...Shawn was salivating at thought of the Tuolumne Meadows grill and cardiac arrest burgers...he was on a mission. We ran into the Centipede again and we engaged into a healthy competition to see who would get to the "real food" first. I was pretty sure we were going to lose (we did). We also met an older woman who was out for a five day trip, she was a teacher at Kamehameha (for those of you who don't know it's a well known school in Hawaii) who was celebrating her breast cancer survival...I was very impressed and we wished her luck. Well finally we reached Mecca also known as Tuolumne Meadows and we ran smack into hoards of tourists...who were undoubtedly offended by our "essence". After burgers and beer we headed to the campground, I was happy to find out that they had a backpackers campground there. A lot of the people there were JMT thru hikers headed south. We went to the store and stocked up on supplies for the next few days as we were unsure how many days we were going to take to get to the valley...bye bye resupply box (I had an emotional attachment to the thing).

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Almost there only 30 miles...30?

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Will they make it?