Day 2

Day 2, 2012 July 4 (Alexandra) Woke up to a BEAR just a couple feet from our tent trying to get into our bear canisters. I named him Samson and am now worried about coming across a bear on my own - massive creatures. Made good time while trail was flat - unfortunately flat trail never lasts long. Lots of up, so much that I have to coach myself every 50 feet. Today we met two girls who are also thru hiking - their packs were massive! I don't know how they stayed upright with those packs on their back towering over their heads. Also, we met a Dad with two teenage sons who were hating their lives hiking this trail. Its hard to gauge bad - assness here - because those two girls were moving pretty fast & the two teenage boys were ready to quit. I was walking through an area with area with lots of downed trees and suddenly I smelled Bob Howard. It was uncanny! I guess the clock wood he used to work with might be the same as the downed trees. So I thought about Bob for awhile. We had lunch at sunrise camp and it was my favorite spot on the trail so far. We relaxed and ate and read some before pushing through to Cathedral Lakes. We saw lots of people and mule trains today. Tomorrow = Cheeseburger! Love, Perpetually slow & sore

(Jasin) As I sit to write this entry I am amazed by the view before me. We are on side of the smaller of the Cathedral Lakes about a 1/2 mile or so from the Cathedral Lake junction. We are camped in a meadow when we over look the lake and cathedral peak rises sharply to my right the open meadow and small lake provide a 360 degree view. The trip up to this amazing view was approximately 11 miles and 2000 ft of elevation gain. Most of the elevation came at about 2.5 miles into the day, and another about 3 miles before the end of the day. But before I get too much into the day, lets talk about how it started. At around 6 or 7 this morning I heard foot steps outside the tent and the jetboil get knocked over. I thought is might be a squirrel so I sat up and unzipped the tent to take a peak. Yep, the Jetboil was knocked over and when I looked at our two bear canisters, one was knocked over and had rolled down a small hill. Thats when I saw it, a BEAR. He/She was pretty big and brown and black in color. It slowly made its way from our campsite but not before its way away from our site but not before I was able to take a picture. At that point we were both up so we started the day. Alex was reluctant to get out of bed as normal. The night was colder but not bad. After breakfast and packing up we started off. The first few miles were relatively flat but the mosquitoes were out in full force. We had bug spray but they didn't want to stop to put it on or they would attack. (We stopped and put it on, that's how bad they were). Most of the morning we kept leapfrogging 2 girls who were also thru hiking the JMT. On the long up hill I met a dad with his two sons who were also thru hiking as well and we are all finishing around the same day. We ate lunch at sunrise High Sierra Camp which was gorgeous. A large meadow with views of surrounding peaks a great place to take a long lunch. We could have camped there but decided to push on. I felt good and so did Alex. It was only about 4.5 miles to where we were looking to camp and it would shorten the day tomorrow. The last three miles seemed worse than I think it actually was. We were tired and at about 9500 ft it just took it out of us. So here we are, an amazing view, this place is almost perfect if it wasn't for the damn mosquitoes and the sun being so intense. Washed out some clothes and talked about our day tomorrow. Looking forward to burgers at Tuolomne Meadows. We also pick up our food drop there as well. I am kind of pissed that the SPOT doesn't work. Good day overall, views are amazing - trail is tough but well worth it. No real soreness other than the right ankle and shoulders. Elevation: 9585 Elevation Gain: 2375 Daily Miles: 10.5 Total Miles" 17.0