I laid wide awake for two hours last night from 12-2am. Then I finally was able to go back to bed but it made me wake up later than I wanted. Today we climbed Donahue pass, it was chill. Just a couple of snow crossings but not bad. I went the wrong way coming down so that's always annoying. I finally descended into Yosemite valley. The water that ran along the trail was really pretty and clear. I also feel like each day, my mosquito bites double.
Down in the valley.
Approaching t meadows. A bunch of tourists.
The rest of the way to t meadows was flat but I was so sluggish. It was really hot and my feet were hurting. I might be finally feeling the effects of my shoes being too worn in...the tread is also starting to wear away. Oops. I should've gotten new shoes earlier. Lesson learned. I passed a ton of day hikers, weekenders and JMTers. I think JMT people start from t meadows so they looked all fresh and happy and I'm just like "hey." There were tons of tiny bright blue dragonflies. I exited into the parking lot and a road walk to the store/PO. I was walking out w a day hiker named grace and she gave me a ride to the store down the highway. I felt lazy but my feet were hurting.
Soooo many boxes.
But so organized.
There were sooooo many tourists and hikers at the store. It was pretty insane. It's also Fourth of July weekend. I went inside to get my box. They had all of the boxes relabeled with clear bold letters of everyone's names. He found mine pretty quickly but said they were almost going to send mine back bc it was sitting there for so long. That wouldve sucked. I went over to the picnic table to organize and saw Sita. It was pretty easy to fill everything into my can this time around. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I got a couple of extra things from the store like real cheese, an apple, ice cream and a pita wrap.
I had to make a call to Sonora pass resupply to confirm my arrival date for pick up. The pay phone was clogged with coins so I couldn't use it but I finally got cell service and called them. It sucks not having service at our stops bc I really need to arrange boxes. Then we walked over to the t meadows campground to look for backpacker camping. It was a long walk to the back of the whole campground. I passed sooo many huge tents, rvs with their generators, hammocks, lawn chairs, carpet, tables, etc. I was like in car camping heaven. So weird to see all of this. And we had a bathroom with flush toilets! I was pretty stoked to camp somewhere with facilities. I walked up the giant hill to where we were staying and it was already so crowded. So many of these people brought their hammocks and chairs. And sooo many campfires. I felt like I was in another world.
We found some last spots to pitch and settled there. This place is PACKED. It's also funny bc car camping spots just look like any other forest. You can't even tell we're in Yosemite. It's pretty loud right now. I can hear people from afar. But I'm glad we had bear boxes to use. I'm not really looking forward to this next section. I kinda just wanna get it over with and get to Tahoe already. Also, my new hiking shirt retains odor much more now but the mosquitoes don't really bite through so that's good. I'm glad I'll be on trail during the holiday.