Love and Thanks

Of the millions of thoughts racing through my skull on my drive down, I thought the most about how much I love you guys. All of you. Throughout the last couple of years, I feel I've been coming into my own, and now I'm finally stepping out. It's been a lot of hard lessons, heart-wrenching and physically demanding, but, I'm in the light at the end of the tunnel.

Yosemite. It's just the beginning.

I'm coming to a lot of realizations here, about the park (slackerville), myself (it takes me time to acclimatize), my work situation (hostessing or housecleaning?) and the people all around me (where are the climbers? Here's the boulders. And here, and here...).

As I wended my way along the 25-mph highway into the park, I stopped, I lollygagged, I ate lunch, I was scared. I camped out at the Upper Pines Campground, by myself, in my tent, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I rode my bike around the valley, admired the trees, the people, the granite spires, the RVs. And I wondered where I would sleep the next night.

Ah, focus on the present.

Presently, my calves are tingling from the 8.4 mile hike I did this morning up to Yosemite Point, slightly higher than Yosemite Falls, and a better view. Get this, I was alone up there.

That's never happened to me in a National Park. Alone at a viewpoint?

The solitude was pretty cool, but I'll admit I didn't feel alone - constant sounds of birds, the roar of Yosemite falls that sounds like a jet taking off, squirrel chatter...it was nuts.

Ha! I mean, it wasn't quiet.

I felt comfortable up there, after two sections of slippery granite switchbacks, and the view from the top, well, it was cool. I miss the desert, specifically, the red rock desert I've come to know and love. Everything is Green here, or blue, and I grew up in green. I want red!

Until then, I will take what experiences I may here. So far it's included poaching a sleeping spot by the river (my best night's sleep yet since I'm not afraid of bears eating me), bouldering at 4-mile in the blazing sun, hiking Yose Falls before the crowds arrive (I rode my bike to the trailhead and got there before the earliest bus), experiencing the din of Yosemite Institute, a glorified outdoor school for high school kids. Or maybe middle schoolers, they certainly ran around and screamed a lot. I got a go-cart tour of Curry Village from Brian, the guys I also went bouldering with, and had my picture taken in front of Yosemite Falls by an Asian woman who cut off my legs. In the picture.

There is much, much more to come. However, internet time is limited. And so is my brainpower, it seems.