Day 26

Doug showed up to start the day with us as scheduled. He led us out of Mammoth Lakes on a rarely traveled road that the city would use in case of a fire evacuation. It was probably the funniest start to a ride yet. We were screaming around corners at 45 mph through a forest and then we suddenly popped out onto the highway. At the 30-mile mark there was a gas station that we stopped at to fill up our water bottles before the 12-mile climb up Tioga Pass to the gates of Yosemite National Park. When I rounded the corner to begin the climb the road didn't look steep but for some reason I was having a hard time keeping a 7 mph pace. I glanced over my shoulder and then it was much easier to see the grade of the hill, which I think was eight percent for the first nine miles and five percent for the last three. The hills were playing tricks on my eyes but defiantly not on my legs. After 1h 25m of non-stop climbing I finally made it to the top and was rewarded with a sign that said, "Elevation 9,945 feet. This pass is the highest automobile pass in the state of California." The gates to Yosemite National Park were also at the top of the pass. The park rangers requested that we ride the next 8 miles through the park and into the campgrounds in groups of two since the road was so narrow. After we got to the camp we set everything up and Steve, Scott, and I went to go look for firewood. In Yosemite you are allowed to pick up fallen wood for a fire. Chris' mom, dad, and brothers came to Yosemite to visit with us and make us dinner. Tomorrow is supposed to be a day off but our campsite for tomorrow night is 50 miles away through the park so we have to decide whether or not we want to shuttle those 50 miles or ride. This is our first real day in bear country so we had to make sure that we locked everything that had a scent to it into the bear box. We haven't seen any bears yet but I saw a rather large 8-point mule deer in velvet when we were gathering wood. So far Yosemite has been teeming with wildlife, which is making me fall in love with this park.