Let’s see where I left off… After mammoth lakes, Andrew and I had a beautiful ride to Lee vining, taking detours off the highway to ride the mammoth lakes scenic drive, and then the June lake loop. We stopped for lunch, a dip, and a beer at silver lake – perfect! Then we headed into Lee vining where we picked up Morgan at the fanciest Mobil station you ever did see.
We decided to stay at a campground about two miles up the Tioga pass. There, we meet McMann, a fellow bicycle tourist on his first tour – he had come up from Nevada through death valley. His route: ride for two months, and just see where the road takes him. Sounds good to me!
We made quick work of tioga pass, which wasn’t as hard as I though it would be, and were in Tuolmne Meadows campground by 11:00. Morgan, McMann, and I did a short hike up Lyle canyon, and had a great lunch, dip, and nap at a gorgeous spot on the tuolmne river. Back at camp, we met a ton of Pacific Crest trail hikers, and entertained them with a little double-clarinet/melodica jam session.
The next morning, we said goodbye to McMann, and headed down through the rest of Yosemite – what a beautiful ride! Definitely one of my favorites! When we were able to get in touch with Alice and Anton, it turned out that they were only an hour behind us, having ridden the huge climb out of the valley in record time! They caught up with us in buck Meadows, and the five of us continued on to the most deluxe RV resort I’ve ever seen – bocce, hayrides, a petting zoo. Now we’re just outside of groveland, about to head to Sonora and then up ebbets pass!
