Whew, Back to Civilization

Wow, where to begin. It feels like I've been out of touch with people for so long.

Last Friday, I picked up Bo at the bus station and we started our trek to Yosemite National Park. First stop...Wal Mart. Bo had never been to a Wal Mart, so it was kinda funny. He was amazed at the size and selection Wal Mart had to offer. I brought a tent and that's about all for camping. We both needed to buy sleeping bags and I went ahead and bought a stove, pots and pans, and a cooler, I figure I'll use it all again somewhere down the line. If you need camping supplies, go to Wal Mart. Sleeping bag was $8, the stove was less than $20. Bo and I couldn't believe how cheap stuff was. Of course neither one of us made a list of stuff we will need as far as food and such, so we just wonder around picking up stuff. We finally made it out of there and we were loaded down.

Yosemite books their campsites 6 mos. in advance. They said they are completely booked within hours of them releasing the sites. They have a few first come first serve campsites high up in the park. We heard we must get there early to get those too. Knowing this, we knew we could have trouble finding a spot, but we're both optimistic people. That night, we knew we probably wouldn't get a place in the park so we decided to try some sites we heard about just outside the park along the Merced river. We drive about two miles down a one lane rock road that hugs the mountain and the river, it was a little scary at times. We were not finding anything, everything was taken. By this time, it was starting to get a little dark and we knew we had to find something quick. Finally, we come across a spot along the river that had a flat area just big enough for a tent, so we took it. We knew it wasn't really a campsite, but we had no other choice. We had to get up early to try and get a spot inside the park anyway, surely the ranger wouldn't be by that early.

That night was great, we were literally steps away from the river. When it got dark, it was really dark. Sitting along the riverside, we saw a lot of bats flying around, it was pretty cool. Then, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I couldn't quite make it out, it ran away too fast. Keep in mind, we were both a little on edge sleeping out there with all of the bear talk around. Everywhere you look, there's signs about bears. A little later we hear something again. We shine the light and it's a skunk. I about freaked out, I would rather wrestle a bear than get sprayed by a skunk...that is until I saw the bear...keep reading. Anyway, Bo has no idea about skunks. He thought it was funny that I was that freaked out about a little skunk, I then had to tell him all about them and what they do. The skunk eventually disappeared into the night and we got some shut eye. Today as we were driving back, we came across a dead skunk. Bo quickly realized why I didn't want to piss off the skunk.

We got up about 5:30 and got on the road to Yosemite. Never saw a ranger, free nights lodging. Yosemite is a huge park, it takes forever to get anywhere. The roads are up, down, and very curvy. We get to White Wolf campground, elevation 8,000 ft., about 8:00 and luckily find a spot. We start to get set up and within the first five minutes a woman comes over and tells us were right in the area where a bear has been hanging out for awhile. Her family was actually leaving the campground because of it. That just added to our sense of adventure and excitement. We wanted to see this bear. Besides, it's just a little black bear, it's not like it's a grizzly...right? That day, we took a hike from our campground to Lakens Lake. It was a moderate hike, about 4 miles round trip. The lake is a beautiful glacier lake, the water is really clear. We hiked around one side and a little further up see this big hill which looked like it had a clearing, so we naturally start to climb up it. I'm glad we did, the view from up there was amazing. On the way back, we were going to go around the other side of the lake...surely the trail goes all the way around. Uhhh no, we had to make our own trail. Again, a little on edge, no trail, bears and mountain lions. Oh, I love adventure! We make it back, cook dinner and relaxed around the fire. We were relaxed until we hear "hey, hey!" and then this air horn goes off a couple times. You guessed it, the bear. It was somewhere in the campground, we didn't see it. If you see the bear you're just supposed to scare it away. I'm sure after the air horn, it was scared to death.

Sunday, we got up and made our way to the valley, about a 50 minute drive. This is the touristy part of the park, they have a lodge, store and visitor center. From the valley you can see: Yosemite Falls, largest waterfall in N. America and 5th largest in the world, El Capitan, the tallest granite monolith in the world, and Bridalvail Falls, just a waterfall. Again, very touristy, not really what we were looking for, but we had to see those sights. We weren't going to see Bridalvail falls until we went in the Ansel Adams gallery and saw pictures of it. We then decided we must go while we're this close. Once we get to the fall, I'm standing there looking at it and taking pictures when I hear "Eric??". I turn around and it was Peter and Phillip, the guys I met in Flagstaff. What a small world huh? We didn't know each of us were even going to Yosemite, let alone be at the same waterfall at the exact moment in time. It's still pretty weird when I think about it. We finally make it back to our camp that night and fix dinner and a fire. The campground store sold a box of wood for $10, we would just stop along the side of the road and go gather our own wood. Bo loved the idea of my "trunk" I have on my truck. You can throw anything back there.

We're sitting by the fire when we hear "hey, hey" and some screaming. You could hear the panic in the woman's voice, she was serious. This time, it was a campsite about 150 yards from ours. Several rangers came by hunting the bear, they were trying to shoot it with bean bags from a shotgun to get it out of the camps. About 11:00, a couple hours later, we were getting ready to go to bed, when I hear this heavy breathing. Keep in mind, up here at night it is very dark. I just knew it was that bear. I looked at Bo and he said he could tell by my face. He clicked on the flashlight and we saw this huge black bear. When we saw him, or her I think, she was about 70 yards away coming in our general direction. She was moving at a pretty good pace. Bo kept the light on her and neither one of us said a word. It was awesome, we got to see a wild bear run past us about 20 yards from our camp. The bear was headed towards the woods, so we didn't feel we needed to try and scare it. I can't say enough of how great that was to see. As Bo would say, "That will be stuck in my retina forever".

Yesterday, we decided to take a hike to North Dome. The hike had been recommended to us by several different people. It was about 10 miles round trip. It was a tough 10 miles too, up and down hills. It was worth it though, the views I got yesterday were priceless. It really was like you were on top of the world out on this big dome mountain. I think we were about 10,00 feet. By the time we got back, I was dead. I used muscles I didn't know I had. It was probably the best day we had. I slept like a baby last night.

We got up today, packed the truck and I dropped Bo off at Modesto to catch the Greyhound to LA. He has to leave the US on Saturday, his 90 days are up. He going to Mexico and Guatemala for the next 90 days. We had a lot of fun together the past four days, he's a great guy. I learned alot from him, and hopefully he learned a little from me...I did teach him how to build a fire. He's such a great carefree spirit. He didn't know where he was staying tonight in LA until last night, he doesn't know how he'll get around in Mexico or where he'll go. He just goes and things always work out. I think that's true for most everyone, some just want to worry and panic over the small things. In the long run, things always work out.

I arrived here in San Francisco this afternoon. It's a balmy 68 degrees today. The first thing I did was take a shower!! I hadn't showered since last Friday, I was feeling pretty gross. Now I'm showered, refreshed, the blog is updated and now I'll go see what San Francisco has to offer me...no gay jokes needed. I'm staying at the HI in Fishermans Wharf. It's a nice hostel, just like a hotel except it's only $27 a night. So far, the place seems a little stuffy. It's too much like a hotel. The only reason I'm staying here is for the free parking. Anywhere else in the city is $20 a day to park. If it don't get better, I'm going to switch to the Green Tortoise hostel and just leave my car here since I got a parking pass thru Friday. Pretty smart huh?

Hope everyone has a happy 4th!

Dough

P.S. I'll try to work on pics tonight. I have waaay to many, and I know you don't want to look at all of them. I'm going to filter them and pick out the good ones. I have some really good ones too. Stay tuned!