Another Lazy Day (Aug 7)

After we checked out of the hotel we made a quick stop to Walmart to replenish our food supply and get some laundry detergent so before we went to the laundry mat. Laundry wasn't as expensive as we expected and even with a week and a half of dirty clothes we got away with doing one load. We picked out our washer and when I went to put in the detergent Nate stopped me and told me that I had gotten fabric softener. I was disappointed and frustrated that I had to buy detergent at the laundry mat after I already bought “detergent.” I did use the fabric softener, our clothes were delightfully soft.

With soft clean clothes packed away we started our drive to Yosemite. We got in late and asked the park ranger at the entrance if he knew of any available campsites. He told us where they would be posted and said that it was last updated at 4:30 pm. The only campground that had sites available was Yosemite Creek. It had 75 campsites, no running water, and was out of the way so we were hopeful that we would find something. We turned onto the road that the camp was on and were irritated by how many bumps were in the road. When I say bumps I mean BuMpS. It was crazy how many potholes and rocks there were. We averaged about 10 miles an hour on a one lane road for a 4 mile journey.

We struggled to find the boards that talked about the campsites and how to pay and reserve one. We grabbed a ticket and started around the grounds to find an open spot. A fellow camper waved us down and told us that the only other site that he knew of that was open was right behind him if we could figure out how to get to it. It was behind and patch of bushes and didn't really look like a site even thought there was a post to mark it, so we decided to take our chances and see if we could find anything better. Before we left Nate asked him if we could share with him if we couldn't find anything else, he agreed. The bumpy ride continued and with no promising potentials we made our way back to our original spot. Nate hopped out of the care and introduced himself to our new friend, Erik, and his dog, Blizzard. After setting up our tent we went over to Erik's campfire and chatted with him. He is also on a three week road trip with his husky that he's had for 2 months. He's in the ski industry and has a degree in marketing at 28 years old. We told him a little bit about ourselves before we both turned in for the night. They had big metal boxes that we had to put all of our food in. Even though most of our food was already in a bear can we decided not to take our chances and put it in. I loved sleeping at Yosemite because the ground was sand! Much better than some of our previous rocky beds.