Camping at Yosemite

---

Easter Sunday held an evening ride from Santa Cruz to Fresno, not to necessarily visit family and the Easter Bunny (though I did have an Easter Dinner and beautiful family waiting for me) - but to embark on a couple day adventure with two wonderful ladies...well four if you count our furry companions. After Sherie and I arrived in Fresno and were greeted by Phoenix and her wonderful home-cooked Easter Dinner, we slipped into sleep land for a few hours. Our goal was to get to Yosemite by day break in order to get a prime camping spot. But, as usual, we slept in and didn't manage getting on the road until about 2ish on Monday afternoon.

Which ended up being perfect of course.

We were lucky enough to have one of the last three spots in the Yosemite Valley to choose from. All three would be located next to a bathroom and dumpster, but beggars can't be choosy really. So we picked the one closest to a stream, spot 193 in Upper Pines Camp Grounds. True, this is one of those put-your-tent-next-to-your-and-100-other-cars type of camping situations...but we knew we'd make the best of it. Plus, our spot had a beautiful ring of trees that we put our tent in the middle of. Then we decided that our spot next to the bathroom was perfect, not only for obvious morning-tinkle reasons, but also because we would be the hub of a lot of important activities. Which meant that we could provide a little love for everyone that had to pee in our area! The goal was to play music and send love to everyone that came by, and we definitely did try that.

So, we three set to creating camp. Honestly, both of these women are adventure warriors and we had the camp set, food locked in the bear container, and ready for our adventures in no time. We realized that there were signs up informing us that dogs were not allowed on the trails, which seemed like a ridiculous rule. So, we decided that we would head toward water and blaze our own trail with our furry sidekicks. As usual, this created a much more authentic hiking experience! We came across a beautiful river and forest with an awesome view of both Half and Full Dome. Played some music, danced and stretched among the trees, planted a pretty seed and blessed it with lots of strength and love. And of course laughed and carried on in constant Russian-German hybrid accents while drinking wine and such.

Eventually, the sun began to set behind the humped mountain we appropriately labeled The Camel and we had to make our way back to camp for warmth and music. Another benefit of being next to the bathroom was that we were linked in with gossip and information from other campers. We were told about there being bears that have come into the camps every night, so to watch out and keep our food locked up. In a way I think we welcomed that evening's experience.

Phoenix made some excellent rice and cup-a-noodle, while we got hot chocolate and s'mores going. At one point we heard a bunch of people yelling and clapping, which let us know there was definitely a bear near by. So we began screaching and hooting to scare it away, even though it was not near our campsite. Our RVing neighbor was NOT pleased with our calls and gave us a stern, though misunderstood scolding. Once she realized we were trying to scare away bears and not just being barbarians howling at the moon (though we are that too), she felt a little bad. We hoped to sooth her with our gentle guitaring and singing.

At a certain point Phoenix and Sherie went to the camp of some guys that wanted us to hang out with them (a downfall of the bathroom?), to let them know we were having a ladies night so wouldn't be joining them. I stayed to strum the guitar and be with the dogs by the firepit. Then there was this strange movement at the picnic table about 7 feet from me, and I squinted in the dark to see what it was.

IT WAS A BEAR AT THE TABLE!

He had just quietly snuck up on our camp, put his front paws on the table and was helping himself to the food we had left out...less then ten feet away from where I was sitting. I gasped, picked up one of the dogs and called for the other which was sleeping and leashed to the very same picnic table, as I backed away. Honestly, not knowing what to do with no flashlight and a potential dinner-on-a-rope for the bear I called out "Umm...Phoenix! Bear. At our CAMP! Bear. PHOENIX!" And in swoop the two bear warriors. A moment to think and suddenly Sherie bangs on the big metal food locker and Phoenix starts screaching. Which scares the bear and he takes of running with the bag of Marshmellows in his mouth. He heads behind the bathroom and Phoenix chases after him, followed closely by Sherie. I hung out at the camp with the dogs, until I realized they were still chasing it and screaching...at which time I go around the other side of the bathroom, camera ready. But no pictures, I knew it would just lose the moment and for nothing to show really - was too dark.

The warriors returned full of vigor and I welcome them back to camp after their hunt. Haha! It was really an interesting and educational experience. We all agreed that we thought we should have been more scared than we were, but we were all very calm. The fear of bears that I've had in other situations is now MUCH less. I could tell the bear wasn't intersted in our flesh...he just wanted an easy meal. And the loud noises and warrior screaches were more trouble than it was worth, so he left. That night we slept with the drum in the tent, ready to start banging on it if we heard the bear again - which Ranger Jack, who came to check on us and the situation, said he was pretty sure the bear would be back for more food. At one point we thought it did come back, so we banged like crazy while in the tent until someone said "It's not a bear, I'm just throwing away trash" Haha! (Later that person came back and scared us in the tent with a good shout and tent-shake...butthead). No other bears that night though.

The next morning, Tuesday, we got up and Shiree made some yummy toast over the fire. Then we set out with guitar and drum to hike up the main trail to see some waterfalls. This would be the same trail you would take if you wanted to hike Half Dome, which we plan to when it's open. We decided we were going to risk taking the dogs, and soon realized some important reasons why they don't want you to take dogs up. The trail is narrow and heavily populated, and you know how people just can't help but stop and pet cute dogs. Thus causing congestion on the trail and such. And of course the whole...poop...thing. Anyway, we went up a fair distance, sat and played some music on the trail and then realized we didn't want to get fined big money for the dogs, so headed back down. On the way we came across several natural stairs leading off the path, perfect! We're not much for staying on the beaten path.

This lead us to an excellent hide-away with trees, huge rocks, a rushing river, and a lean-to that was built up against a big boulder. Magical little shelter, FOUND! So we sat there for a while and began the art session. We had brought paint, paper, and coloured pencils...but I decided to just use mud, my knife, fire, water, and such to make my art with. I dipped my canvas into the river after jumping from boulder to boulder to get to the perfect spot. Linsay Lohan (my temporary travel dog, who belongs to my roomates) is a most excellent adventure dog. Almost too good. She would try to follow me out into the river, crawling from boulder to boulder...but would end up getting stuck in the middle of the rushing water! So I had to jump to the tiny rock she was stranded on, lift her up, put her on my shoulders and head back to shore. This lead me to lose my footing at one point and plunge from the knee down into the chilly river. Crazy but awesome dog!

After our stay in the magical hide-a-way we headed back toward camp, collecting firewood as we went. Phoenix had had some encounters with the river too, so we were all pretty cold. We took advantage of our tent-next-to-car situation and sat in the heat to warm up, as it started to snow slightly. Yep. Snow. It had hailed a bit earlier, but now it was full on snowing. So we decided to drive around the park a bit and keep warm, loosely heading for "Curry Village" where we heard there was a lodge and warmth. It was funny to be back in "civilization" after spending hours rolling around in the dirt and river. So we ordered an excellent jalepeno and peperoni pizza, which I would NEVER usually put jalepenos on anything really - but welcomed the new experience. It was great! I've never really allowed the experience of spice to happen without the preconcieved emotions of "OUCH! I don't want to have a burny mouth". Thanks to Sherie for that adventure!

By that time it was snowing pretty hard and we realized we would have to head back to camp and welcome the beautiful snow. A fire and music would solve any issues we had with cold, so we set to it after a brief romp in the snow-dusted meadow. At camp, we helped ourselves to an incredible existence of music, face painting, and chatting about reality while snow fell around us and our fire pit. Eventually we decided to head to bed because we knew we had to get up earlier the next day for the ride back to Santa Cruz. With all the body heat in the tent, we all slept soundly. Can't lie - we also had an air mattress, so we so very comfy!

Wednesday morning we woke and broke down camp quickly. We had slept in of course, and had to check out by noon. Then we made the beautiful drive out of Yosemite, back to Fresno to drop of Phoenix, and then Sherie and I made the three hour journey back to Santa Cruz...where we promply began working on her taxes. Haha!

---