Yosemite Hike Day 5
What a great day. Best day ofthe trip and probably in my running life:
5:30a run from Merced High Sierra Camp Up and Up / Out and Back: 5.3mi. - 48:37. 900 ft. of Elev. gain (and loss) in 2miles.
Back to camp and started the hike with Dad and Kevin. Hiking on my own for most of the day other than playing leap frog with a another group of hikers and a dad and his son. Found decent up hill hiking rhythm for most of the morning, and cooled off with a bath in a creek around 10a. Second real good "wash" of the week. End destination at Emerick Lake required about 6 miles of hiking and 2k of climb. Another beautiful mountain lake camp site. I arrived around 12p and had a couple hours before Dad and Kevin made it. Spent the time chilling in a shady spot and found a great camp site right on the water a couple feet away. We set up camp and chatted and then had to really step on the gas to get the rain flies on the tents and throw the gear inside as an awesome thunderstorm with rain rolled in. First mountain storm for me was awesome - lightning, thunder and heavy rain at 9400 ft. I was plenty dry and safe in a cover of trees and inside my tent. Stayed bone dry and took a nap through the last hour of the storm (best nap ever!)
Storm blew over, and the sun came back out around 4:30. Grabbed a bite and left out on a run. Took a route that climbed from 9400 up to 10,200 at the Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. The High Sierra Camps are literally a village of hotel room size tents and dining rooms, bathrooms, and lots of amenities. By reservation for high paying customers only. What an awesome run. Out and back trip to climb, run through the camp, check out another Lake near by, and then descend back to lower camp at our lake. 9.7 miles in about 90 minutes, obviously slower on the climb.
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