Bridgelandia: Yosemite -- Vogelsang to Merced Lake (Day 2)

So we started the day at 10,100 feet and ended at 7,150. A math teacher might tell you that's a drop of almost 3,000 feet. Any person will tell you that going down that much is almost as hard as or perhaps even equally hard as going up that much. Or as I tell my students about their choice between AP Calc and AP Stats, they're both hard, just hard in different ways.

Hard though it was (especially the last two hours, where we just walked switchbacks the whole way), it was a beautiful day and quite fun. We met the scout group that we ended up camping near the next two nights and leapfrogging...we were more the tortoise and they were more the hare.

We got a stunning view of Merced Lake, where we were camping, from pretty high up, so we knew it was beautiful, but did I mention it was also really far down? :) Here are some photos from the day!

If you have to pump water through a filter to drink it, this isn't a bad place to look at while doing it

Also nice: it came with a nice rock for sitting on

Hannah taking a freezing face bath

It comes highly recommended

Some of our provisions for the day

And we're off

Would love to know this tree's story

At this point I have to pause and give a little background. Not long after we started on day 2, we passed this scout group, who had camped a little ways away from Vogelsang because they had heard how cold it was at camp; they wanted to get out of the wind. Then they passed us while we were taking photos of the twisted tree. Then we passed them as they were paused in this meadow. It went on like this for the next three days. They were really fun and nice teenagers.

As you can maybe see, I chose to run through. I have to say that running with a 30 (?) pound pack on your back is not recommended...I felt nauseous for the next hour.

Love this progression of photos!

Typical break time pose. If you lean over like Hannah is, it takes the weight out of your shoulders. And I was sucking down water.

This was one of the coolest parts of the stream/waterfall. It roared down this flat rock for quite a distance.

B had to "document" all of the flowers/plants

This is a post-lunch, still optimistic photo. We paused to look at a marmot, and you guessed it, the scout group passed us and took this photo. This photo marked the beginning of the insane amount of down we did this day, including a ton of switchbacks.

B wanted to explore this area more. Hannah wanted to take photos. I wanted to lie down.

These trees grow in the most incredible of places.

All of the signs were made like this; I really liked the style. This one actually was describing how we could get back to Vogelsang and Tuolumne Meadows...no thanks!

Yet another break time. A trick I learned in the grand canyon -- find a rock to sit on that you can rest your pack on so it takes the weight off without having to take the pack off, which will then have to be put back on.

Our first sighting of Merced Lake, where we were headed. We still had a long way to go...down.

We were soooo close at this point. Maybe a half mile. We were all hoping against hope at this point that there would be a bathroom open at this camp. Turned out it had just been opened that day!