Friday, August 12, 2016 - The Set Up

The big question of the day is, "Does Sally have a campsite today?"  This is rather monumental. If they did not reserve her campsite starting today, then this van full of gear cannot get set up and Sally must mooch another night off of Hiroko. More importantly, it means Ed and I cannot help set up Sally's campsite, which entails pitching tents and canopies, erecting clothing stands, setting up chests of drawers and other tasks that will tax Sally's stamina and physical abilities. The question can't be answered until Sally visits the camping office after 8:30 am this morning to see if it has been reserved for her. We had breakfast of toasted bagels and cream cheese, then sent Sally off on her bike to find the answer. 

45 minutes later Sally returned, all smiles. She did indeed have the campsite. The current occupants had until noon to vacate, so we drove down to El Cap meadow and toured the rest of the Valley. About noon we return to the now vacated campsite. A quick hour and we had Sally's tent and canopy up, clothes and equipment in their proper place and bear boxes organized with food and toiletries.

Sally and Ed headed out for a shower while I took a splendid nap. They returned and we headed for the Merced for a swim to cool down in the heat of the day. Adam and Jim, two park rangers that Sally worked with in 2012 were coming by for dinner and a beer. Before they showed I wanted us organized for the start of the high route. We had to leave early in the morning and I did not want to be organizing gear and food in the dark after dinner or early in the morning when sleepy brains make stupid mistakes. We piled all necessary items in the van and organized all our gear before they came. Dinner was followed by talk and catching up with these old friends until 9:00 pm.