Woke up to a beautiful day…beautiful light coming over the mountain in front of Sunrise Meadow. Everyone in our group was already up. We sat and ate breakfast before packing up.
Got on the trail around 7:30 and had a nice start to the day as we walked through a long meadow. There were a lot of interesting rock formations as we hiked in the morning. We crossed over Cathedral Pass and then went by Cathedral Lake which was really pretty. Once we passed the lake, we started to see a bunch of day hikers heading to the lake. We made it to the grocery/grill/post office in Tuolumne Meadows by 1:00.
We picked up our package, looked through the hiker box (picked up only a few small things) and ordered some chili and fries. The food was really good and the bonus was that someone gave Beardoh two free sodas when he went to bring back our tray. It was a sweet treat to end our meal. We mailed back our extra stuff and the guy in the post office was kind enough to charge up all of our electronic devices. Once everything was charged, we decided to head back to the trail and do the minimum required to legally camp (about 5 miles) instead of camping at the backpacker campground at Tuolumne.
The trail was very mild in the afternoon and we found a great spot to camp…just up from a river and meadow with nice mountains on the other side. There were deer down by the river this evening, so we had a bit of entertainment. It was nice to have a break in the middle of the day and then get into camp just before 6…then it felt like we just had the regular evening things to do and we wouldn’t end up going to bed so early.
As we were down at the river cleaning up, we couldn’t help but think how nice it would be to hike in from Tuolumne Meadows and stay for a week on the side of the valley meadow. It is so nice here with the river and the meadow surrounded by mountains. We’re all in bed by 8:00 and it is feeling chilly this evening.
Somehow Beardoh’s bear canister is completely full even though we have just three days (and not full days) into Mammoth. He will probably have a solid day of food extra when we get to Mammoth. Today’s total miles was about 16.
Daily Miles: 16
Total Miles: 33.6
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