First Church of God

Sunday morning it’s still raining, but we decide to hike anyway. This is our last day in the back country, and we are ready for civilization. My right hip starts hurting; steps up or down can only be made with my left leg. Fortunately most of the final stretch of trail is fairly flat.

After a morning of hiking, with a ½ mile left, we stop at the perfect swimming hole. If it was warmer we’d enjoy a good long swim, but now our only motivation for jumping in is our lack of showering for the past 4 days. It’s freezing, but refreshing.

Now with dry clothes on and the car heater on high we drive down to the Mobil Station Restaurant to sit down and let someone else make us lunch. French fries never tasted so good. We make the drive back to Yosemite Valley. The back country was a great experience, but it’s good to be in a camp ground tonight and fix dinner around a fire. We go to sleep tonight looking forward to our Half Dome hike tomorrow.

Screaming voices startle me out of a sound sleep. The panic and fear filled shouts are an eerie way to wake in the middle of the night. "Bear" "BEAR" There’s a bear in our camp, and the screams seem to come from close by, maybe two tents away from ours. Scotty and I sit up, instantly wide awake, staring at each other with shocked faces. My hand grasps my knife which I always keep next to me at night. We wanted to see a bear all week, and now is our chance. We hesitate, too long. By the time we climb out of our tent the bear is gone. Still, it was exciting to know that a bear was so close. The adrenaline rush makes it difficult to drift back to sleep, but eventually we’re sleeping again. No more bears tonight.