It was quite surreal waking up in Yosemite Valley this morning. Had one not looked up for a while, it was easy to forget where they were. We got up and moving a little before eight to get an early shuttle to our hiker bus that brings us back out of the valley to the gas station we stayed the other night.

Once on the bus, we drove out of the park and got to see El Capitan once again. It’s such a magnificent view and the scale of it seems impossible. Getting a hitch from the gas station to the trail head proved a bit more difficult. We waited a bit as Spoons and Rummage were able to get a hitch with two Dutch individuals in an RV and they only had two seats. Mackenzie and I finally got a ride from two individuals from Hawaii visiting the park and doing some hikes outside of Yosemite Valley. All in, it took us about three and a half hours. We also had to walk a bit from a different trailhead to get back to the PCT but finally.

At the junction, we stopped at the Sierra Club and Soda Springs. Soda Springs is a natural carbonated spring… sparking water on tap from Mother Earth. We then checked out the Sierra Club, a place where John Muir and others met to showcase the Sierra and protect the land. A wonderfully built structure.

We then hiked to a waterfall to ‘shower’ and continued on our hike. Eventually, we came upon these incredible meadows with massive granite boulders. It was such an amazing scene and one of my favorite sections of the hike so far. That brought us to dinner where we ate by a running river and had some beers that we packed out. It was getting late so we pushed on quickly after dinner and made it to our campsite all set up around 9:45. Ready for sleep yet we’re all feeling great.

Happy Trails…