And lest you think there aren’t people everywhere who are completely oblivious to what’s going on around them, ……….

This is an historic ceremonial lodge that has been on this site for many years.  It was most recently rebuilt in 1997 using all of the traditional methods.  And this last picture was a favorite stop but only open on a limited basis at this point in the season.  It is the Yosemite Branch of the Mariposa County Library.  The only wifi spot in the park (unless you’re staying at one of the lodges) and a very easy on the eyes librarian. 🙂

Logging is a constant in Yosemite.  Not as a commercial enterprise but as a necessary “evil” to control disease and drought damage.  During the week you can hear the chainsaws working.  You can’t imagine how happy the park people have been with all the rain that’s fallen in the last five days.  A couple of times the campground has been a lake so we visitors don’t necessarily share their glee.  Spring runoff helps with drought effects downstream but only good rain helps the forest.

This tree was several hundreds of years old.  I should have placed something on it for scale but the diameter of this stump is about three and a half to four feet.  The dark spots are marks from wedges.

Old school coffee.  No way to use the Keurig here. 🙂  Actually real old school coffee would be boil the grounds in a pot and let them settle to the bottom before pouring.  I’ve had this four cup camping percolator since I was going to the boundary waters as a teen ager.  And I didn’t even drink coffee back then.

Friday, March 24th

Today, the weather is in fact for crap.  I would call the rain suppressing.  After drizzling around for the morning, I decided to make my way down the hill to Mariposa and hang out at the library for awhile.  It’s warm and dry, and my Momma did not raise a fool.  Oh, and did I mention good internet access and cell signal.  I’ve been feeling very disorganized since my phone change.  I did lose some pictures, but luckily some of the more recent ones I’d taken were in my mail which was recovered.  I move the photos from phone to laptop in mail, save them in a folder, and upload them to my site for use in a post.  There’s probably a better way but I don’t know it.  Anyway, I digress.

I did in fact make a change in plan for next week as I think I inkled in an earlier whine.  I am not going from here up to Truckee.  In this case “up” is both north and higher elevation.  The driving in Northern California is getting iffy in the higher elevations.  The day I arrived, they opened the road to the park that comes in from the south.  They closed it again to “chains only” on Wednesday.  My original intent was to wander through Death Valley on the way up to Yosemite.  I think I’ll be wandering through it on the way back down the way I came.  Down being both south and lower.  Read that, warmer and drier.  I am wet and cold, well not right this moment, my stuff is wet and cold, and I am ready for something different.  I have been happy to be “roughing it”, (no electricity, walk to water) in the park for the past eleven or so days.  But a change in “comforts” will be welcome.  I have a battery and a small inverter, so I’ve been able to keep my stuff charged, but otherwise it’s been old school.  It’s been days since I had a shower, and days and days since I had a beer.  But I am totally smiling while I’m writing all of this.  I feel privileged to have been here.

I’m going to stop writing so I can start back to feeling organized.  My In Box is loaded with pics and I have to figure out where I am with all of that.  Forgive me if I repeat some.  Like I said yesterday, I still have loads of Yosemite in the pipeline.

I’m great, truly, but think of me tonight. 🙂  It will be dark, it will be raining or snowing, and it will be cold.  I think everybody should have my life.

The list of people to thank for being able to enjoy Yosemite today is a long one.  Here are just a few.  This is a people list, God of course is His own list.

Talk about your multitasking.  In June of 1864, at the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, signed a bill federally protecting two tracks of land, the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias, and Yosemite Valley.  This was due in large part from the lobbying efforts of Galen Clark, who was the first white man to enter the grove of giant Sequoias at the southern end of what is now Yosemite National Park.  This was the first time in history something like this was done.  Yellowstone was the first national park but this was the first designation of protected land.

John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt get the credit for Yosemite eventually becoming a National Park.  They camped together in two different spots, and by the time Teddy left and had spent three days with John Muir, Yosemite National Park was all but a done deal.

Who knew, the Buffalo Soldiers after their service in the west during the Civil War, became the first guardians of the park.  They were sent here without much authority but used creative methods to manage and protect.  The Park Service has some Rangers who are descendants of the Buffalo Soldier Battalion.

The  presence of the Awaneeche People when the park was created did much to shape its care and development.  Maria Labrado was the last Native Awaneeche to live in the park.  She died in 1931.

I’ve spent a lot of time up at the overlook that looks down the valley.  Time spent reading and watching the light and clouds and mist.  This is my favorite light condition so far.  I didn’t edit the image.

And this one is just a tribute and a nod to Ansel Adams.  It’s been tempting to post a lot of black and white shots, but I didn’t want to act like some Ansel wannabe. 🙂

Today is nice so I’m getting back out on the bike.  I hiked up to Vernal Falls this AM.  Tomorrow and Saturday are supposed to be for crap again.  Sunday I’ll be leaving but will still have a lot of Yosemite left in me.

I am well and hope you all are too.

Ok, so the exclamation marks started to wear on me.

Wednesday, March 22nd

Yesterday it was rainy in the morning so I decided it was a good time to hunt down the laundry and catch up on some writing.  I got to capture these little gems on the way back.

This was the last picture I took with my former phone.  I was eating lunch at the time.  This isn’t the actual original picture, it’s a reenactment.  The original left with the phone.  Oh, did I mention that someone else has my phone?  You can’t make phone operators idiot proof.  I laid it down on the bench and rode away from it.  By the time I realized it and went back, it was gone, and not turned in.  A mistake that was very costly in time and money.  My lingering self recrimination is not only my absent minded mistake, but my laziness with passcodes.  In the past I’ve put a passcode on, and then gotten impatient with it, and taken it off.  I can’t help but feel that if I would have had a passcode, the person might have turned it in instead of keeping it.  Who knows.  That happened last Friday, so Saturday was spent (read that killed) by a trip to the nearest (not very) AT&T store.  I spent a bunch of my travel money so I might have to think about the impact to the rest of the plan. (sigh)

Last night we had torrential rain.  The campground is full of little lakes.  A lot of tenters had to roll up their sog and retreat.  The forecast says rain/snow mix for the rest of the week.  Same for all of next week up by Tahoe, so I might also be re-thinking pressing farther north.  I’m going to hang in here at Yosemite regardless, but then might return south to lower elevation and work my way into Utah from the southwest.  Hmmm

Other than that, I am well and hope you all are too.

Let’s do some history huh?

Between a million and 250,000 years ago, Yosemite Valley was filled to the brim with glacier. Think 3000 feet of ice. It’s retreat ground and polished the rock faces. 30,000 years ago a second glacier filled the valley about half way up. When it left, a lake filled the bottom. Rock and sediment washed into the valley over thousands of years until the lake became forests and meadows and a river. The effect was a flat valley floor that still exists. The meadows have been preserved because the first Native Peoples, the Awaneechee, annually burned them for growing grasses and crops.

Yosemite Valley in early evening light.  In this light the drought and disease pine damage is evident.

So as you look up the valley, there are four distinct geological pieces. The rock faces, the boulder fields at their bases, the forest, and the meadows. The boulder fields are intimidating. The distance from the road to the base of El Capitan is very short but tricky and strenuous. And lest anyone think that the park doesn’t relish it’s Mecca status amongst climbers, I could see food lockers some distance from where I stopped.

Here’s something I’ve been trying to get my head around; the boulders on top fell anywhere from yesterday, 🙂  to say the time of the Magna Carta. The boulders in the middle probably came down long before Jesus. And the one’s on the bottom, well, let’s say about 30,000 years ago.

Mirror Lake and a reflection of Half Dome in Mirror Lake when it wasn’t being cooperatively mirror like.