The Great Sierra Adventure!

On Friday night, July 27th, the group pictured above (L-R: Maggie, Justina, Tasha, Russell) arrived at our place in Keizer shortly after 9:00 p.m. We were so grateful that Kennard Haworth had offered to trade cars with us -- since the Honda Pilot (pictured) had lots of room for all of our gear, without the need of a top rack.

After french toast and bacon on Saturday, cooked by yours truly, we got off in good time on Saturday and drove all the way to Sacramento, staying in a motel that Maggie had reserved. Then, on Sunday we drove south and took the somewhat-scary one-lane road into Florence Lake and found the campsite I had reserved online at Jackass Meadow -- just a mile from the lake.

I cooked pancakes and bacon for the group -- along with cocoa & juice -- on Monday morning, and they all were at the dock in plenty of time for the 8:30 boat across the lake. The plan, of course, was for the four of them to hike 110 miles north on the John Muir Trail, arriving in Yosemite Valley in 10 days! (Late on Sunday afternoon all of them but Justina donned swim gear and plunged into the cold lake water.) -rw