Sunny spells

The day dawned gloomy, but in the reinforced (and not over-populated) tents we were dry and happy.  Even the gentle pitter-patter that started as we got dressed couldn't deter us.  When it got heavier Hannah still whipped out the pancake mix and started frying up.  When we began to look like drowned rats our friendly neighbours with an RV invited us to cook and eat under their awning.  Americans are so nice!

Shortly afterwards we were packing up again, the tents possibly wetter than on the morning before.  But it didn't matter - we had done two nights where most mere (sensible) mortals would have given up, and most not even bother to start with.

We checked out and found a public bear locker to stores our food in.  Ha!  We had tempted bears with burgers, steaks, jellybeans at the top of waterfalls...why bother?  Then we took off for a last, gentle walk up to Mirror Lake, so called for obvious reasons.  Today it resembled a very wet and wavy mirror that didn't reflect much.  We toddled by, along a river and up through the forest.

Our tactic for the day was to avoid the heaviest cloudbursts under whatever shelter we could find, and so some pleasant minutes were spent in the entrance to a toilet block waiting for the latest deluge to pass.  Further away from civilisation we squeezed ourselves under a footbridge, and enjoyed some more cheese sandwiches.  After the spectacular falls of the day before it was a little bit of an anticlimax.  Back at the car we stripped off our waterproofs and decided to take in some viewpoints as we drove back to Berkeley.

But what's this?  On our way out of the park we hit a traffic jam with a ranger waving frantically for people to keep moving.  Suddenly Hannah exploded in the back of the car: "There's a bear, there it is!"  She was right.

A huge brown bear was sauntering along, parallel to the road, without a care for the tourists that were running about trying to take its photo.  Amir managed to find the last road-side parking spot and we jumped out ready to join the hungry mob.  It quickly became clear that the ranger's job was to protect the bear from the stupid people who decided they wanted to run right up to it.  Thankfully things calmed down and we all snapped away from the roadside.

Wow!  We'd seen a bear!!  As its large furry behind wobbled off into the bushes and undergrowth we got back in the car happy that we had experienced everything Yosemite has to offer.  Apart from the Half Dome hike and a mountain lion, but you've always got to keep something for next time.

View from our tent on Sunday morning.

Amir is once again the first up, and the tea maker.

Ex-boy scout in action.

Chef Hannah struggles with propane technology.

Yay, new friends!  They'd come prepared (i.e. without tents).

Happy again, under shelter.

A short stack with pork links and scrambled egg.  This is the life.

A shadow (even rarer than a bear)!  The sun came out for 15 seconds, but the rain didn't stop even then.

More waiting for rain to go away.

Video proof!

English summer scene.

A bit of the un-mirrory Mirror Lake.

Taking refuge where we can find it.

Ah, that's better.  Now that we're leaving the showers have calmed down.

There she is!  Yes, it's a bear, just to the right of that tree.  It's true!

Where's it gone?  Chasing our quarry through the park (with a million other people).

It stopped to gnaw on a tree trunk, just for the tourists.

A rather nice viewpoint, on the way home.

Amir demonstrates the correct distance to be from a waterfall.

Tired, smelly, happy.

How else do you celebrate seeing a bear?  Yes, those burgers are animal style.

Back home, and now for everyone's favourite bit of any holiday...

Brighter later

By Saturday morning we knew that the game was up.  Amir had drawn the short straw of the leaky door spot, and at 6am his sleeping bag was so soaked that he'd decided to get up and make a cup of tea.  The rest of us followed, stepping timidly from the warm tent into the still pouring rain.

What to do?  We were definitely going back to Berkeley, but we'd come this far and knew that we would cope with a day of being wet if a hot shower and home beckoned.  We could hold our heads high for roughing it out as long as we did, including cooking pretty tasty burgers in a storm that would have drowned small children and the elderly.  We packed up our tents and loaded everything into the car, ready to speed back to civilisation after a hike.

By 9am we were in the visitors' centre, and the nice ranger suggested that we wander up the Mist Trail ("you're wet already," she pointed out, showing the ranger's legendary observational skills).  This was a nice medium climb to a couple of waterfalls, so around 10am we were at the trail head with ample cheese sandwiches and some cereal bars.  Off we went!

The walk was stunning.  Huge cascades of water fell over the granite cliffs and we scrambled our way up the mountain on rocks alternately wet with rain and waterfall spray.  We enjoyed lunch under dripping trees half-way up, and a celebratory packet of Jelly Belly beans at the top.

A strange thing happened on the way down.  Firstly the rain stopped, in what turned out to be the only few hours it managed to the whole weekend.  Secondly whispers began to circulate.  Did we really want to go home?  Could we stay another night?  When a call to a nearby motel revealed $150 (before tax) for a double room those damp tents started to look even more inviting.

Haas should commission a study on how a group of people can make a decision in the morning and then, after being subjected to the same conditions for another 12 hours, completely reverse it.  I pondered this as Amir and I re-set our two tents while Hannah and Dana put everything - sleeping bags, walking boots, everything - through the tumble dryers at a laundry that serves a much more expensive campground than ours.  Hannah even managed to blag a free shower ("which group are you with?" she was asked.  "Um...we haven't booked in yet," she replied, was handed a towel and in she went!)

With the leaky tent reinforced by a newly-bought groundsheet, and air mattresses inflated (it wasn't real camping), Amir got the fire going and took on steak cooking duties as the heavens opened again, just to remind us how nice it was when they didn't.  What did it matter?  We were here for another wet night in the supreme luxury of two-to-a-tent.  We celebrated by going to look for bears in the dark (none spotted, surprisingly) and cooking some fire top popcorn.

Boker tov!  Everything looks better after a cup of tea.

Now you see them...the camp site with no tents on Saturday morning.

Hannah whips up a British classic - bacon sarnies with red sauce.  Good for any occasion, especially one involving rain.

One skinny latte to go.

Someone cleverer than us who decided not to show up.  But he'd booked a pitch with a swimming pool!

Hannah gives Amir a guided tour of Yosemite Valley:

"Behind that cloud is Half-Dome, through that fog is El Capitan..."

Really?

Yosemite is full of promise.

It's amazing the feeling of personal achievement you get after walking up a trail for three minutes.

Hannah and Dana ascend.

Look!  It's a waterfall!

Wet but happy.  And this is before we hit the mist.

Whoa.

Wildlife!  And this wasn't even the fiercest thing we saw today...

...look carefully, he really is there!  It's a bobcat, or a lynx in proper English.  Some guys just in front of us spotted him.

Whoever has shares in yellow ponchos will be weathering the current financial storm nicely.

Ta-daa (again).  Re-camped, and no rain!

A cow died to make us happy.

Steak Master Amir at work.

The Popcorn Mistress Hannah takes over.

For the entire weekend we ate only natural foods that we scavenged from the forest around us.

Clouding over

We weaved our way East, away from the safe haven of Berkeley and into the wilds of central California.  The clouds built as we drove until misty rain became constant and then heavy.  Our laden silver car climbed up roads carved into the granite landscape until (after four hours and one stop at In'n'Out burger) we reached the park.

Yosemite is a deep scoop taken out of the surrounding rock, with sheer mountain faces rising around its long flat valley.  There's much more to it than that, about 1,150 square miles more, but this is where most of the visitors stay.  Some of the roads through the higher passes are still closed due to snow, but the main precipitation we got to enjoy on Friday night was rain.

Wow.  If someone on the camping pitch next to ours had started building a boat and ushering animals in two-by-two I'd have been there, pushing the aardvarks out of the way to get on first.  But undetterred we found our spot next to the river (flood hazard?) and started to raise canvas covers against the deluge.  Everything went smoothly, even carrying Dana and Amir's tent to their car so that their air mattress could be inflated easily (alright, we had one too), and soon camp Davies-Pelleg was established.  Rather than sitting in the wet we decided to go and see some local sites.

One of the advantages of the Biblical rainfall was what it did to the waterfalls.  There are several large ones that you can see from the valley, and today they were putting on their best show.  I'm not sure what happens when a waterfall bursts its banks, but rivers shot out from precipices at around a billion gallons a second (probably) and plummetted hundreds of feet before smashing themselves into vapour on the rocks below.  Thousands of mini-falls trickled down rock faces, all conspiring to turn the park into a large swimming pool with us at the bottom.

Tonight we chose Bridal Veil for a visit, a normally sedate fall with a gentle stroll to its viewpoint.  Unfortunately the stroll had turned into a wade, and standing at the bottom meant breathing more water than air.  Suitably impressed, happy, and soaking wet, we realised that our situation was not quite as comfortable as planned (the revelation came to me when water started soaking up through the bottom of my boots) and made our way to Yosemite lodge, possibly the only few dry square feet for miles around.

There, with a hot cup of cocoa, steaming clothes, and several trips to the hand dryers in the bathrooms (strangely missing from the toilets on our campsite), we held a weather summit.  How long can a downfall like this last?  What does "20% showers in the morning" mean might happen in the other 80%?  Is it comfortable for four people to sleep in a car?

Slightly less moist we returned to our campsite, where even heavier rain made it quickly clear that at least one of our tents was not up to the challenge of repelling so many raindrops.  Not wishing to make decisions on empty stomachs we lit a fire and started to cook.

It's amazing what some burgers in damp buns and a bottle of wine will do for the human spirit, and shortly after darkness fell Dana, Hannah, Amir, and I found ourselves huddled together in one tent, lying on a selection of deflated air mattresses, sleeper mats, blankets...basically anything that might put a barrier between us and the rising water table.  There we lay, singing songs to keep spirits high (well, one of us did), before the lights went off and we dreamt of dry warmth while the thunderous patter of the rain drowned out everything else.

My view from my seat in the back of the car.  We were packed full...

Welcome to Yosemite!

There's quite a lot of water about.

This is more like it.  If the clouds part, it's beautiful.

Pitch #60, ready and waiting for naive campers.

Discussions ensue before the contents-under-pressure of the car boot is released.

Ta-daa!  You might notice that everyone else either didn't show up or brought an RV.

Sound advice.

The short walk to Bridal Veil Falls.

OK, there it is, can we go home now?

After a couple of hours in the park we knew we wouldn't need to shower that evening.

Hannah and Amir create fire!

Mmmm.

Two's company, three's a crowd, and with four it gets really interesting.

Yo!

It's a big weekend.  We're going with Dana, Amir, and the Singers to Yosemite.

Everything was going to plan until Amir told us that instead of the three tent booking that we thought he'd made, it was actually a one tent booking.  So...it might be nine of us under a single canvas roof.  At least it will be warm.

The food is bought, the car is packed, Amir is receiving a hair cut, Hannah has just finished her school work for the weekend.  I'm hoping that they have wi-fi in the park (how do the bears communicate with each other?) but you might have to wait until Monday to hear whether we were kicked out by an angry ranger.

Oh, and it's just started raining for the first time in two months.

Wait, we forgot to put in the duvet.

An adventure before the adventure - I use a drive-in ATM machine for the first time!

Dana with shopping list and essential Starbucks cappuccino, having just picked up a pack of fire-top popcorn.

Hmmm.  Keep up-to-date with how damp we are here!