the un-packaged vegan: When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes... and Nose, and Throat....

Heading towards Yosemite Valley, knowing I was 3 to 4 days of being done with this leg of the adventure, so many thoughts were running through my head. First was being so stoked that someone talking to a vacationing crowd of families, about climate change, did such a very good job of saying what less snow means. When Al Gore talks about the glacier loss in the national parks, he doesn't really say that that means more rain and flooding and loss of a natural form of water storage. He makes people want to get into their cars and drive to see the glaciers before they are gone.

So that was running in my head. The amount of beauty I had seen, was seeing, was overwhelming. How was I to take it all in. To be honest, I was kind of reaching a threshold! I mean, how much can one brain/heart/set of eyes take in?! A lot I would come to find out.

But I was also trying to figure out just how far I was going to go and what I was going to do on my way down to the valley. I wanted to do it all! I was planning on doing it all!

Then the thickness of the smoke became more and more apparent. The book told me all the things I should be able to see as I made my way down the trail, but I could see none of it, or at least I couldn't see it they way they said it would be. It, indeed, was a different kind of beauty. Clark's range wasn't visible at all. All the landmarks that would tell me how far I had gone, and how far I was to go.... not visible.

Then my throat started to itch and my eyes started to burn. I got into Sunset High Sierra Camp, a short day only a little over 8 miles, and started to make some choices. Water was becoming more and more scarce. The streams were trickles or just puddles, and people going the other way were reporting diminishing water supplies. It is September after all. The snow melt gone. It's not the rainy season, and things dry up. Add that to the desire to have more drinking water to counteract breathing in so much smoke... There were things to think about. So I decided to forgo doing Clouds Rest. The desire to do it was the amazing view from the top. I also decided not to go up to Sunrise Lake, or any of the other view point places, because, well, there was no view.

Don't misunderstand, I was still surrounded by so much amazing beauty! I just ended up not looking too far out and paid more attention to the things closer to me. The change in plants, trees, rock formations, the sounds my feet made under me... so much.

At this point I am completely in love with the Sierras. The massive beauty, the subtle beauty, the people, the ease of using public transportation to get in and out of trails. I was smitten, so when I ran into a couple who live close by and do regular adventures in the area, I asked a great many questions. And they were super cool to talk to! Soooooo I now have a list of trails and destinations to return to, and that made some of my decisions to not do certain things much easier.

So I packed up with the plan to camp one more night on the trail and then do the final descent into the valley and then start an adventure to see my friends in Santa Cruz, and with every water vessel full, I headed on down the trail