GETTING BEAR AWARE IN YOSEMITE

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We quite happily left dodgy Fresno behind and began our journey to Yosemite, somehow we got our timings wrong and we arrived much earlier than we had expected to do. We arrived into the small town of Oakhurst and decided to stop for breakfast as we knew it would be a long day. The breakfast in America are rather strange and we have still yet to understand how you can out pancakes, maple syrup, eggs amd bacon on the same plate. We avoided that combination but the french toast came with icing sugar, just way too weird!! Stopping off at the tourist information centre was the best decision we made as the guy there gave us some really good advice for the places to stop at. Armed with that and our free maps we set off on quest to investigate one of americas largest national parks.

So we dorve the 20 miles to the park entrance where we paid our $20 which we thought was very reasonable and drove to our first stop, the Mariposa trail. As it turned out there was no parking left at this site and therefore we had to drive 5 miles down the road to catch a bus back. It was slightly annoying as we only had the day to see the park and we didnt want to waste the hour that it took but we didnt have much choice. The Mariposa is a trail through the sequoia trees. These trees are mighty big and the largest on the trail is believed to be over 2700 years old. We didnt make it all the way to that one but you will see from the pictures that the others are hardly tiny. We didnt dwell here too long at all as time as always was of the essense and we were soon back to the car and driving for the next hour or so to get to Glacier point. Neither of us really knew what to expect here other than the fact that the guy had told us at the info centre the views were pretty amazing. He wasnt kidding, the drive itself took us through some lovely vegetation, the roads winding, narrow and quite high in places. Everytime we rounded a corner I took a sharp intake of breath that we didnt hit the rock (still not used to being on the wrong side of the road and car) much to Tims annoyance!! Finally we rounded quite a tight bend and the trees opened out, we caught a glimpse of the monutians and we were both taken aback. It was all over too soon though as the trees closed in again and hid them from our view. With nowhere safe to pull over we continued on our way to the lookout. Oh my goodness, as you pull off the road and onto the carpark the views are astounding. The mountains were formed by glaciers and they even look snow capped as the granite is very light grey. The views stretch out and below you is the valley of Yosemite, curry village etc.... You can see the tiny river running through the towns but best of all is the dome the single largest grantite monolith in the world. Thats what the literature told us and we hope that it was not the Americans just showing off again, after all according to them they have the best of everything in the world. This is the only thing we have found to be annoying. I asked a guy why they have the world series some weeks back when the sport is only played in America. He replied that the whole world revolves around New York, arrogant individual!! Anyway I digress .......the views are spectacular, the air is fresh and cool even though we had a lovely sunny day. We explored all of the view points and were really impressed. Having experienced so much now we were both pleased that we had not become as complacent as we thought and we stood in awe of the natural splendor before our eyes. These moments always give us reassurance that we have not seen and done it all!! By the time we had finished being wowed by this the day was passing on rather quickly. We decided to drive down into the valley and take a look at the town there. As we pulled back onto the road and down th steep hill we saw two people hitch hiking. We pulled over and it turned out they wanted to go back to the village where we were headed. They ahd walked up the hill in the morning and we too tired to go all the way back down. They hopped in and we chatted along the way, they gave us some good advice for a place to stay that was in our budget and with us both being concerned about how much there was still to see we decided to see if we could get a room. Actually they were tents pitched in the forest at Curry Village. They were a little out of our budget in the end but we were so keen to stay and explore some more that we paid our $99 (for a tent), parked up and studied our bear guidelines we had been given.

While we were checking in they were showing videos of the bears climbing into car windows and literally pulling the doors off the hinges. We were warned that if we left any food or beverage items even in the boot the bears would smell them and we could kiss goodbye to our rental car. In fact we could be made to pay damages to the site for not abiding by the rules. This lead to a mad 30 minutes ditching all the empty bottles of water (yes even empty ones), sweet wrappers, coke, sprite etc.. etc.. out of the car. Then we had to take our cool box out with all our food bits in and of course our stash of alcohol. This was all to eb put in our bear box outside our tent. It was quite big so we managed to fit it all in just about but then we realised that tootpaste, mousse, soap all have a scent and they are also quite interesting to a bear. If we did not want an unwanted visitor we had to make sure anything like that was also in the bear box. So we crammed all that in aswell. Sitting back proud of our quick organisation we decided to mark our stay with a bear which was a great idea until we had to get everyting back out to get in the coolbox. We ditched the idea and with Tim wingeing he had missed some of the view points on the way down the hill we headed back out to catch those on camera. He was right to want to go back though as I had been chatting with our hitchhikers and some of the views had almost passed me by. As come drive the steep windng road it is unbeliveably pretty. From here we went back to camp and managed to fish out our beer, we sat as the sunlight disappeared and had a few before carefully packing them back in the bearbox and disposing of the empty bottles. The camp offered a buffet which was not fantastic but reasonably priced so we enjoyed our dinner and set off for bed. Now the tent itself was raised off the floor with steps to a wooden door. The sides and roof were made of a canvas type material that we figured was hardly bear proof and in the dark outside I was a bit jittery about the bears. The guy told us when we checked in that they get sightings everyday and we were told to take encounters very seriously. Brown bear encounter make as much noise as you can to frighten it away. Black bear (grizzly) encounter lie on the floor or get as low as you can and stay still..or was it the other way round...mmmm... you can see my concern no?? Still we survived pigs in Goa trying to get in our hut and why pick on our tent there were hundereds on the site. This little panic did lead me to forcing Tim to take all of his aftershave outside to the bearbox in the dark, he was not impressed!!!! The beds were a bit hard and the grey 1940's boot camp blankets were hardly attractive, we laughed at how much we were paying for such limited resources. The shower block was nice and clean though and warm water all day so it wasnt as made as it might sound. After a couple of weeks of living in hotels though we were truly back to basics which was a bit of a shock. We slept soundly and uninterupted through the night and woke to a lovely bright sunny day. It was still a little chilly but really nice to sit outside our hut in the morning peace and quiet and sip our free coffee. Tim found that if you went to reception first thing they had coffee available we figured that we would take advantage of that rather then pay at the cafe (although I refused to go and get it for looking like a cheap skate!!). We decided to stay for another night as we had got chatting with two ladies next door whoc had told us of a few things to do we were not aware of. We had saved some money in cheap hotels in the past fews day and the xtra this would cost would be taken from that so it was affordable. We paid for our extra night and set off in search of some bikes to explore the valley.

The bikes were hardly our mountain bike standard for starters they have really weird handle bars which curve upwards and are very strange. The peddles dont go back which make sit hard to start from a complete stop. The brakes work by pulling back on the handle bars and in all like everything else that is not walking in America everything was the bloody wrong way round!!! Took some getting used to but within 10 minutes we were doing okay. We went to the indian museum first which had artefacts from the local indigenous tribe and also teepees in the garden made in the orginal traditional style. It was interesting but took no longer than 20 minutes to appreciate. We hopped back on our bikes and rode through the valley by the river. Peaceful, warm and very quiet we enjoyed the tranquility after so many days on the freeway. The river runs throught the valley as you would expect and we encountered it at various points through the day. The river sides are sandy and beachy and it was hard not to stop and lie there in the beating sun which was surprisingly hot by midday. A quick run through the town gave us little to stop for and we found ourselves heading up towards one of the lakes. On the way we stopped to watch some rock climbers, a guy had some binoculars and offered us alook though them. Quite awesome really, they were so high and free climbing too which you would not get me doing for all the tea in china. Very impressive to see if a little nutty! We thanked the guy and set back on our trail. We got to the lake but found that it was actually dry, pretty much like the waterfall we had encountered in the morning. By all accounts Yosemite and the region are very short on water after an extremely dry summer where forest fires threatened the park. It was a really wonderful day, so nice to be out of the car and getting some exercise. We got back to the site and enjoyed a few beverages, it was then that we realseid we are actually sat underneath the dome monolith. We had not realsied this the night before and felt very lucky to have one of the best views in the site. We had rode around the site and found that alot of the tents we tucked away in corners. Our view actually opened out onto a stage area where they held various shows in the peak season, it was closed for renovation why we were there but it did mean that we had lots of space around us and lovely views of the mountian tops..lucky us $100 well spent!! After another buffet dinner and an early night we planned to leave first thing the next morning for the scenic drive out of the park.

The day started beautifully once again and after packing up our bear box and backpacks we set off on the road again. Rather simple instructions to follow route 120 all the way east to the exit of the park. We knew it would be a long drive and we were a bit dsiappointed that some of the viewing points close to the valley were not very good due to the fact that they were having controlled fires that morning and the smoke was bollowing out through the valley. Within 30 minutes we had lost all signs of the smoke though and the drive once again was winding, very high and very steep. All of a sudden my brake foot seems unable to stop itself from smacking the floor even though I am not driving, Tim finds this quite amusing where as I am just gritting my teeth and closing my eyes in places! The road gets worse the further east we get and the pair of us are now just willing to get out of the park to start covering some distance. There were some really pretty views back over the valley near the exit but it was soooooo cold that we did not dwell like we had done before. Finally after about 3 hours we have left the national park, planning to get to Lake Tauho if time would permit. Yosemite was a real surprise and treat, it is nice when you dont know much about a place and it has the ability to really capture you. It was a real highlight and I cant believe how beautiful it was. Both of us would have liked to see a bear but were not disappointed to be leaving in one piece!!

We hit some roadworks which held us up for a short time but we found ourselves driving through a quiaint traditional town just after lunch. Tim was really taken with it and we decided to stop for lunch. Our choice was a hotel/restaurant where we found the food waslush and ther ooms in our budget the deciding factor though was the fact that the hotel had free internet. We had paid $12 in Fresno for an hour which is just ridiculous so a chance to get our buget up to date and some of the blog done was just too tempting. We chekced in and got to work straight away. As there was only one computer Tim took a walk around the town checking out the museum and shops. Apparently the museum was fascinating full off old papers and information on fines given out in the early 1900's. It was a shame I did not see it but 6 hours later I had managed to get some of the blog sorted and we hopped out for a sandwich and an early night. The computer did nto have excel so Tim has now been forced to do our budget on paper which is a pain but had to be done. I would like to say that the hotel was friendly and wecoming but quite surprisingly for a small town it wasnt. The staff complained all the time even though they knew I could hear them, they were ignorant and rude. Bridgeport is a very small place with so many building of character all of the locals we encountered were friendly and smiley possibly all the miserable people work at the Bridgeport Inn. What we did find out though was that close to the town there was an original goldmining town called Bodie which was now an official ghost town. Too much to resist and we double backed on ourselves to go take a look.......................................................

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Photos

Taken by a couple from Chaddesden
Its a small world indeed

Timmy in a teepee!!!
HOW

Crazy man on unstable tree
He fell off and got rather wet feet, of course I did warn him that would happen

Chilling outside our tent
The bear box in the background

Ground squirrel
Forever trying to get stuff off our bear box!

Valley views
This was one of the rock faces being climbed - nuts!