DAY 3: Columbia Finger to Burgers...I mean, Tuolemne Meadow Lodge

I woke up at 6:26am to what I thought was Maddie hitting me on the head with her pillow. I had been in the midst of a terrible dream in which I was being sold into slavery.  As it turns out, the thought of being sold into slavery is so terrifying that I lashed out in my sleep, striking Maddie's arm. Needless to say, she was less than pleased, as apparently I had only imagined being struck on the head. It was an odd start to a morning.

But all was well as the three of us packed up. It was great having a campsite all to ourselves, as compared to the bustling one the night before.  While on his way to do his business in the morning, Liam hilariously quoted the movie Up, yelling out "so mr. Frederickson, do I dig the hole before or after?"  It gave us a good laugh.

What else gave the other two a good laugh, you ask? How about the fact that only two days into our hike and I'm already sick of my trail breakfast oatmeal. To put this epic meal planning fiasco in perspective, I need to give a little background. For well over a year now, I have been eating oatmeal virtually every single day. My recipe has evolved slowly, me tinkering with ingredients to cram as much healthy stuff into breakfast as possible. For the last 8 months I have had it down to a science.  I treat my morning oatmeal assembly with much the same ritualistic reverence as many do with their coffee or tea brewing.  This sounds ridiculous, and sure it's an acquired taste, but it's what I look forward to eating and doing most in the mornings.  First I sauté some turmeric and bring maca root powder and my grains to a boil with some water (these include: amaranth, millet, rolled oats, steel cut oats, teff, wild rice, lentils, quinoa, chia seeds, and buckwheat groats).  Once at a boil I turn off the stove and wait for the morning, at which point I mix in a scoop of protein powder, cocoa powder, coconut oil, cinnamon, ginger, and a greens powder that I really like. Mix in some fresh fruit and almond milk and I'm good to go. For my trail version, however, to speed up the process I first cooked the grains and dehydrated them in large batches to facilitate quick rehydrating.  Now with that level of neuroticism, I am certainly inviting the jokes. But what's worse is that the greens and browns and yellow (turmeric) make the meal look unmistakably like runny horse dung. Apparently I was blessed with the gift of not eating with my eyes. So with everyone disgusted by my morning routine of the last year, they find it hilarious that I would be sick of it after two days. I don't know if it's the altitude or if some sort of mold took hold in the dehydrating process, but all I know is that I'm going to have to find a way to choke this stuff down or replace it, because I was dumb enough to pack it for all 24 days of my trip. Way to go, me. Winning. 

So with the horse poo for breakfast jokes out of the way, we headed up and around Columbia Finger (Jeff if you're reading this, let's get the pull my Columbia Finger jokes over with), and over slight Cathedral Pass, down into Cathedral Meadow. It was one of several stunning moments today.

A panorama of our morning hike

Lots of shots of the Cathedral range today

Maddie at our first meadow today

Same spot as above, different angle

Cathedral Peak

Our stated objectives for the day were as follows: to get to Tuolemne Meadows to surprise Anne, and to swim in a lake before thunderstorms took over the afternoon.  We decided our best bet was to take a one mile round trip detour to Cathedral Lake. We made our way down to come upon some of the best views so far.  There by the shore we cooked ramen (to make up for last night's no-cook dinner) and Liam had the brilliant idea to add jerky to his. Amazing.  With bellies full, Liam and I decided to follow through on our goal and submerge ourselves.  Although the water was shallow and our entry suspended a good deal of muddy sediment in the water, we waded in and dunked our heads under. 45 seconds was about as long as we needed as a huge cumulus cloud had just blocked our beloved sunshine, and thus, our warmth. Laying on the smooth granite felt wonderful.  Before wrapping up, I towel changed with my pack towel, which I apologize for being ridiculously undersized to comfortably accommodate such a feat.

Cathedral Lake!

Definitely the most impressive towel change I've pulled off

Ominous clouds brewing while we cook ramen

Maddie and me at Cathedral Lake

Liam and me

After Maddie helped us navigate back to the trail, we headed off toward Tuolemne Meadows, some 6 miles and 1000 feet down.  We saw many more day hikers coming up to Cathedral Lakes from Tuolemne. 

Not very scenic, nothing to see here, people, move along

Looking up at some granite.  A big. Wall. Of granite.

Almost to Tuolemne

What is this black thing with yellow lines down the center called again?!

Finally at Tuolemne!

Coolest kid around—really going to miss him for the rest of the trip!!

Once strolling through Tuolemne, that sense of seclusion sort of faded away. It was incredibly beautiful and majestic, but not quite as pleasantly isolated as up in the more remote sections of trail. Maddie wanted to walk the shorter road route to the lodge where we would meet Anne, but Liam and I insisted we walk the true JMT route there. I feel like the encroaching signs of civilization, at least for me, made the last couple miles slightly deflating. The upside to those last few miles, though, was that I began dreaming once again of a burger. And a burger I did have.

Tuolemne, so pretty

This time, JMT, next time, perhaps PCT!

Apparently, we timed our arrival flawlessly, as we strolled into the parking lot just as Anne was unloading her car. Crazy coincidence!  

SURPRISE!

It was at the lodge that we met a very nice, close family friend of theirs named Tricia, who had been doing some hiking with Anne. We all planned to have dinner together and share a tent cabin. Tonight was all about creature comforts, people. We're talkin' showers, real toilet facilities (not the facilitrees we're used to), fresh food, and wait for it....wait just a little bit longer...a BED. Now I know for a lot of intrepid thru-hiking folks out there, three days up from the valley doesn't warrant this much excitement over these delights, but we don't care--we happily savored every moment.  

For dinner we had the very delicacy that had haunted our dreams: a burger. For me, that would be a bbq bacon burger. Not surprisingly, what almost overshadowed the burger was the side salad with balsamic vinaigrette. I said it earlier you guys: FRESH PRODUCE = NIRVANA. Thank you so much Anne and Tricia for dinner, letting us stay with you, and for being the best company we could ask for during our respite at Tuolemne.

Aren't you green with envy? Heh see what I did there?

The absolute comfiest of comfort foods: the BBQ Bacon Burger

With culinary fantasies fulfilled, we decided to listen to Ranger Dave give a talk about the High Sierra Camp tours that he leads.  According to him, it's the best kept secret of the park. I remember my friend John telling me about this, and after hearing the details, Liam and I are itching for the opportunity to one day take this trip. Essentially there are a handful of high sierra camps which include fresh cooking, a bed, and a guided loop tour over the course of 6 days.  So that means seeing all the incredible stuff we've seen, but with the weight of a day pack and delicious cooked meals. I haven't even gotten to the best part, which is that Ranger Dave is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. I have noticed a trend with park rangers, and that is that they freakin' love their jobs. And if loving your job were a contest, I'm fairly sure ranger Dave would be grand champion of the world. If you get a chance, check out this cool opportunity (and request Dave).  As a naturalist, he also answered my query as to how spider webs span across the trail over head between two trees. Apparently it's not that unlike how I picture Spider-man doing it in my head: they just let out some webbing and let the wind catch it, and wherever it snags, they're able to build from--it's called "ballooning."  Cool fact of the day for y'all.

Ranger Dave giving a campfire talk about the park's history and the High Sierra Camps

After the talk we headed back to the cabin and I hopped in bed and here I am blogging for you guys, whoever you are. I checked my blog stats and it said I had 127 page views...I'm just hoping only about 100 of them are my parents refreshing this page every couple minutes.  Oh well, I hope it's at least a decent bathroom read (yes we all know you use your phones on the pot).  So as it's quite late and I'm quite tired, I wish you all a pleasant...whatever day of the week it is right now! 

Ba da ba ba baaaa...I'm lovin' her