Tuolumne Meadows + Cathedral Pass

The trail followed the side of a really flat valley for most of the morning until we reached the Tuolumne Meadows ranger station. Literally most of the morning without icy-snow and if there was some it was mostly horizontal. I was living the dream. 

We found the ranger inside the station and talked to him for a little bit. AH and I were secretly hoping that he would drive us into the valley but we were not about to ask so that opportunity never presented itself. After an awkward attempt by AH and I to peel ourselves away from the dead end conversation we were in with this man we finally said our good-byes and started towards the valley. Before we got to where the PCT diverges from the JMT (which is what we would be taking down to the valley) we had lunch in the shade and looked at where we were heading next. We did end up walking the road to cut a half mile off our detour. Not that that ended up mattering much. 

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”

John Muir

I've had my fair share of negative thoughts over the past couple of days but I think that is mainly because I had to follow a specific route through this terrain. If I were just plopped somewhere with a a couple weeks of food and left to explore by myself and had a home base per-say.. that would be the dream. 

After a long while of going back into the snow to get over Cathedral Pass we set up camp on a snowless but pretty damp piece of dirt within half a day of the valley floor. Wonderful. 

It turned out that AH set his tarp on top of a stream. I laughed. No shame.