Seish and I both slept like logs. The first time we woke up was at 7:00, instead of our customary 5:30, or 6. It was nice to know we had rested well. After a quick breakfast, he headed up the rest of the dirt road to Bodie State historic Park. We had arrived a few minutes before the park openned, and while parked, waiting at the entrance gate, we watched the park ranger walk towards us to start her day. We were feeling pretty spunky that morning and had thought about giving her a count-down as she neared us. Our insticts told us that might not be a good idea and they turned out right. I got out of the car to greet her and while she did say "good morning" to us, she also insisted in a very stern, rather grumpy voice that we get back into our vehicle and wait for her to get ready. I thought it was a pretty strange request and considered waiting outside the car because I didn't really want to wait in the car anymore. But after she repeated a few times, increasingly showing that she had got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, I thought it best to follow her request. When she was ready, she bade us forward and gave us a "Good morning and welcome to Bodie" as if she'd never seen us before and was just rattling off her speal to yet another patron. Hmm, I guess some people don't do well outside their routine.

After finally getting into Bodie, which was a fairly intact ghost-town with lots of wooden building still standing, and of course, the big Stamp Mill mining buildings. We read that Bodie was one of the most infamous mining towns with a real reputation for nasty men doing nasty things. A famous quote from a woman visiting Bodie is, "Goodbye God, I'm going to Bodie". We also read that at it's peak Bodie had 65 bars and only a couple churches. In an amusing comparison, I noted that it was almost the opposite of Los Alamos - 30+ churches and 2 bars. Seish was really fascinated with the place, and he should be consulted for more exciting details.

After leaving the ghost-hell of Bodie, we started our journey towards Yosemite which I was very excited for. I'd been once a few years before, but only in "The Valley" for two nights for the New Year and we didn't really do much hiking. Seish and I will be spending two nights also, but one night in Tuolumne meadows, which I've heard a lot about but never been to. We did take a small side-track to visit the shore of Mono Lake which I'd whizzed by before on road trips but never visited. It's a very interesting place. It's a lake with no outlet so it's full of minerals. Twice as salty as the oceans and 80 times more alkaline. We touched the water and it indeed was very slippery - like soapy water. Seish mentioned that this would be very popular for Japanese women because they love the skin softening properties of alkaline waters. Hmm, perhaps there's a niche market?

Evidently, Mono Lake is also a place of ecological controversy as well. Los Angeles stole 4 of the 5 contributing streams and the water is now 40 feet below it's natural level. An agreement has been made to reduce LA's usage and bring the lake up 17 feet over 20 years. Always compromises... One interesting effect of the lake being low however is the fascinating appearance of previously submerged Tufa towers. They are build by calcium carrying freshwater entering from underground springs and floating up through the heavier carbonate filled Mono Lake water. Their meeting creates calcium carbonate which solidifies and builds up slowly to create towers that the freshwater flows upward through. It's another of natures unique places that I think demands respect.

The east entrance to Yosemite Park is a very impressive steep mountain pass that takes you from the barren desert to the fresh green of the high sierra's. It's a welcoming change from the emptiness of Utah and Nevada. I can feel the approach of the abundant wet west coast. Seish and I ate lunch at a cute, rustic little cafe at the Tioga Pass Resort - a small collection of a store, some rooms and a cafe nestled between the first two lakes on highway 120. Our waitress was a friendly and laid back woman by the name of Beth. She came here to climb. She works as the only waitress here and rock-climbs when she's not waiting. Yosemite is just one place in a series of great climbing areas that she as worked at for the sake of climbing. She has a real pasion for climbing. She was the perfect person to ask where we could find some simple top-roping. A handfull of medium difficulty climbs were just a half mile back down the road next to Ellery Lake. Since we were so close we decided check them out after we finished eating.

Beth gave great directions. We found the climbs no problem and I just enough gear to set a couple of really nice climbs. For both of us these were the first climbs in quite a while. It felt good to be on the rock, enjoying the Sierra sunshine. After flashing our National Parks pass at the entrance we leisurely drove down into the Tuolumne Meadows area while gawking at the scenery. Huge granite mountains rising from the alpine meadows and forests decorated with lakes and streams. Tuolumne creek accompanies the road, giving glimpses of magic pool and rapid after magic pool and rapid begging that we come see with it's clarity, brightness, and fresh smell. We pulled over to dip our feet in and relax for a few moments. Nostalgic thoughts of childhood days in Montana and Washington were flowing through my head, triggered by the resemblance.

After securing our campsite and setting up our tent I took a badly needed power nap while Seish went on a store run. After I woke up from my nap feeling much refreshed, I met our nice neighbors from San Jose - a Mother and Father and two young energetic and very silly girls. They told me of their annual camping trips and I shared some of our stores from the road so far - of course including the great Joseph.

Having drove by Lambert Dome on the way in, we decided that should be our evening hike. It's a grand granite dome that immediately begged to be climbed. Many people walk a short ways up the prominent granite face until the granite becomes so steep it prevents progress without ropes. We decided to get on top by hiking up the back-side via a short section of the John Muir trail.

After a short, steep hike through some lovely forest we exited the forest and started out onto the back of the granite dome. The strange, massive granite rock we were walking on recalled the huge expanses of sandstone in the colorado plateau. Sierra granite seems like the west-coast answer to desert southwest slickrock. We saw magnificent views of Tuolumne meadows with its creek meandering though, framed in the distance by Cathedral peak and other great granite domes. We watched the sun descend as a bright red disc through the smoke of fires in the far west and watched it's crimson light ignite the river of lenticular clouds in the east.

A dinner of pesto gnocchi with salami, mushrooms and garlic in a vodka cheese sauce was welcomed by our eager stomachs. It will let us sleep well...

-jesse