We woke up to cloudy skies and a forecast of rain possible
all day, so we planned to keep it a low key day. We enjoyed a pancake breakfast on the camp
stove before grabbing some coffee and heading up to Elizabeth Lake from the
trailhead inside Tuolumne Meadows Campground.
We took a leisurely hike up the 2.3 mile trail, passing many people as
we went. At one point, after passing yet
another group of hikers, Dave looked at Alex with a smirk and said “Huh… and I think
you are slow…” This is an ongoing back
and forth between us since our slow still is faster than the average.
Upon reaching the lake, we sat for a while watching fish
jump from the lake and took in the views of Unicorn Peak. While walking down, we stopped and talked
with a trail crew leader about backpacking and climbing in the area. She mentioned that all the rain we have been
getting is from a tropical storm/hurricane hitting the coast. Now that makes sense! Without internet, all we knew was the
forecast from the daily weather postings at park buildings and the screenshots
we took on our phones before we headed back into the park.
Once back at the car, we decided since it was still early,
but climbing was out of the picture because of the weather, we would head back
to Lee Vining for some food. Somehow we
forgot to do that yesterday! After
picking up some food for the next few days, we headed to the Mobil for bacon
cheeseburgers with fries, and updating of the blog.
When we arrived back at camp, we found it had hailed once
again, leaving a decent coating on the ground.
We enjoyed tortilla wraps filled with cheese, hot sauce, and corn chips
before relaxing for the evening and getting ready to try once again to climb
West Cracks (if there is not too much rain over night).
