Yosemite National Park

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What a beautiful day in Yosemite! I took off this morning close to 6am and headed to the SR120 Tioga Pass to enter Yosemite through the east entrance.
I had checked the weather yesterday and it said it was going to be 96°, so I work shorts and a t-shirt. Dont forget my lucky pins from Christina! 
Last minute I put a dry fit long sleeve and a jacket in the car incase a.) I had too much sun and b.) if the wind picked up I had a jacket. Well, I got to Tuolumne River & Tenaya Lake and it was 39°. Granted the Pass is higher than the valley floor, I was sure glad I had my jacket with me.
It took me about 2 hours to get down to Yosemite Valley, where I parked at Happy Isle and made my way down to the trailhead for Mist trail. From Mist Trail, I planned on doing Vernal and Nevada Falls. It was about a 7.2 mile hike with 2, 216 ft elevation gain.

I stopped at the fork, where rangers were checking for Half Dome permits. To the left was the trail to Vernal, Nevada & Half Dome. To the right, Clark Point. From Clark Point you could go to Vernal or Nevada but an extra mile or 2 was added on to the trip from at least Vernal I knew.
So I went left. I began my trudge up the steps to Vernal Falls. I've mentioned this before and I'll keep mentioning it, some height stuff really freaks me out. This was one of those times. There were built in steps,  which were steep, but they were wet from the Mist of the waterfall and there wasn't always a whole lot to hold on to. As I began going higher, I began thinking about the way down. I literally couldn't even fathom trying to walk down what I was climbing without having a mental breakdown that I might slip on the water and fall to my death.  Then this squirrel appeared. It would stay a couple feet in front of me and just stop periodically and look back at me before it cautiously moved forward and then stopped to wait for me and in that moment I knew I was okay. The higher I got, I ran into a couple, Beverly and Doug. Beverly had firey red hair and throughout my trip she is the one that took the pictures of me. 
Beverly and Doug came to yosemite from Colorado. I shared with them the background of my trip. She asked about Linda and I shared of Linda's hiking and ultimately how Linda got me hiking 15 years ago.

Beverly and Doug loved to hike too. They also loved to travel. Before the pandemic, they had just gotten back from doing the 7 wonders of the world! And now here she was helping me photograph my trip! She told me she'd take as many pictures as I'd like because you could never have enough before finding the one you're looking for. Such a Linda statement! I hung out with them at Vernal and they too were not thrilled about going back down the steps. 
So rather than continue to Nevada, we took the hike to Clark Point. Hanging with them I knew exactly why I wasn't doing Half Dome. Some people just feel like home and they were some of those people. (Below is Beverly and Doug)

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