It boggles my mind to think that just this morning I woke up to see the lightly glowing silhouette of mountains and frost clinging to our tent canopy. Being in my own bed feels almost foreign to me at this point. But it's home. And home feels good.
So it got a bit chilly last night, but we stayed warm in our bags. Maddie's wet socks were stuff and crunchy with frost in the morning, as were our shoes, which made for a jolting start to the day. With my foot still a bloody mess, we felt better about cutting our trip a day short. We saw what we wanted to see, and we were ready to enjoy our final day of beautiful hiking.
Finally, an earlier start! We were out by 7:45am, and not more than half an hour into our hike, I spotted movement up ahead. I wasn't sure at first, but as its furry brown behind scampered off the trail I realized it was a bear! My first sighting whilst hiking, I was so excited! Maddie was a little less so, but agreed it was very cool. Another 15 minutes went by before I spotted another bear (perhaps, very likely the same one) wandering about adjacent to the trail. I alerted Maddie to its presence, we stopped, the bear took one look at us, and fled up the slope into the brush. Amazing.
The terrain today was pleasant, pristine really, with lakes and ponds and clear views of the surrounding peaks. We had around 9 miles to get back to the car, which we accomplished by around noon. The pace was made feasible by the easy downward grade, retracing our steps beside Rafferty Creek.
We passed more people approaching tuolumne than we had seen the entire trip, which makes sense. Running into other folks was jarring nonetheless. The speed at which we hiked did not keep us from enjoying the scenery along the way, and we bounded toward our car, grinning.
Rather than change into our clean clothes in the parking lot, we decided to drive to Tenaya Lake for a quick dip first. Every time I visit Tenaya, I feel the compulsive urge to take a picture, to capture that moment. It's like living in a postcard when you're standing on its bank. With a fraction of grime washed away, we changed and made for our next and penultimate destination: In'n'Out.
I've discussed food rewards extensively on this blog, but it bears repeating, that food never tastes better than after a backpacking trip. Never. After pigging out it was time to finally head home. We called the folks, likely the only people reading this, and told them about the trip. After getting our things into the apartment and showering, I downed a bottle of Soylent, and Maddie and I settled in to watch Brooklyn (which was great!). And that's that!
What an amazing trip! Until next time!
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