The next stop on my way south was Lake Tahoe. The days getting to and around the lake were filled with lightning but not much rain. I so enjoy lightning storms, just not when I am on top of a mountain and they are overhead. Though every flash that I see still makes me smile. Tahoe was pretty. It is a resort area. I followed a bike path along the western coast. It appeared to be raining all day on the far side of the lake so I am glad I picked the west side. Getting away from the lake was actually more of a treat for me. I climbed over two amazing passes with equally amazing downhills. I camped high in the cool clear air. One of the greatest sunsets I've ever seen lit up the sky over Heenan Lake.
I had one more pass to climb to get to the Yosemite. It was a big 3 hour climb which I ran out of daylight to finish in one try. I camped right at 9000 feet that night, in my hammock near a steam. The stars were wonderful. In the morning the pink light lit the mountain peaks around me. Like beacons in the distance I climbed towards the heights until I too found the warm sun. Tioga pass was at 9945 feet, the highest in the Sierra Mountains. Over the next 50 miles I dropped 6000 feet into the Yosemite Valley.
The valley is the result of an unstoppable force coming up against an immovable object. Glacier carved granite so inspired, so supremely executed, and of such magnitude that no human hand could ever create its equal. I spent a day biking slowly into and back out of the valley. I hiked to the mirror ponds but they were dry, so too were the famous Yosemite falls. I hung my hammock in view of El Capitan for a night but saw no headlamps on it. In the morning I hiked to the base of it and looked up. The top loomed 3000 feet above me and the intervening rock looked quite impossible to climb, well, impossible for me.
Three days after leaving Yosemite I arrived at Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks. The entrance to the park is flanked by giant sequoia trees. They are just so fun to look at. It seems unnatural, or maybe supernatural for trees to get that big. My first night in the park I slept on the stump of a giant sequoia logged long ago. Lying down I could not reach from the middle to the edge. In the morning two brothers, Tim and Dave, bought me breakfast at the park lodge. It was a buffet. I think I impressed them both with how much I ate. The next day I saw and largest tree in the world by volume. Truly a natural wonder. The size of these trees cannot be captured in photographs. Wandering among them, feeling small and in awe is really the only way that they can be fully appreciated.
El Capitan
