Friday, 22 July 10.8 miles, 5:45
Tuolumne River and Cathedral Peak
Although we arose at a respectable hour it took us forever to hit the trail: waiting for the post office to open, sorting our resupply, mailing home excess stuff, trying (and failing) to find a working pay phone, and finally shuttling to the trail meant we didn’t start hiking until 11:30 and didn’t leave the Tuolumne Meadows area until 13:00 or so. Tuolumne was beautiful but Lyell Canyon was a jewel. A turquoise stream meandered lazily through the wide, flat valley floor covered with grasses, flowers, open lodgepole pine stands, and rimmed with high ridges and snowy peaks. Exquisite!
View ahead into Lyell Canyon
Just after 17:00 we found Lyell Forks base camp, a small spot between a bouldery slope and the stream at the base of the climb up Donahue Pass: home for the night. After we set camp I stripped to my underwear and took a frigid sponge bath in the stream. I enjoyed not stinking while I ate supper. Across the river I can see other campers through the trees but the river is so loud I cannot hear them. We were joined by Mark and Matthew, a father and son from New Zealand who are also doing the JMT. We chatted while we cooked, ate, and cleaned up our suppers but as the day began to dim the mosquitoes emerged and sent us to the shelter of our tents.
