Day 58, September 28th 2007 (Meriposa,CA to Crane Flat (Yosemite National Park),CA)

Sleeping last night didn't go as well as I had planned. I wasn't woken up by an officer or any official person that wanted to kick me out of the park. I also wasn't woken up by any sprinkler systems from the park. I was woken up by something though and it was around 2 in the morning. I had been sleeping since around 7:30 pm, a little after the sun had gone down. I was in the peak of my rest, about 6 or so hours in, when something came running down the little hill in the woods directly beside where my tent was set up. It scared me half to death and I sprang wide awake right away. I could hear this animal sniffing outside of my tent and I wanted to do anything possible to get this thing away. All of my knowledge that I had received had told me to make noise to make the animals go away. So here I was in a park at 2 in the morning clapping my hands as loud as I could. I was scared, had no idea what was out there, and this was all I knew that I could do. After clapping and almost hurting my hands from clapping so hard for a good minute I didn't hear anything anymore. I heard something a little ways further down the hill that made me think that this animal had gone running away scared, but I was wide awake now. I couldn't get back to sleep until about 3:30 am because any noise that I heard I thought could have been this animal coming back for me. I think that most of the animals that came running around during the time I was awake were probably little creatures, but it didn't stop me from clapping for a little while to send them running in the opposite direction. I went back to sleep and woke up again at about 5:30 am because I thought I heard this same big animal from before coming back up the hill. I clapped sporadically and couldn't sleep again until I was out of my tent and packing up around 7 am. It was quite the night and had left me with only a little sleep that wasn't even very good sleep in itself. I was alive and ready to see Yosemite. I had packed and eaten some granola for breakfast to get myself on the road at 8. I was so happy to be alive and to be able to see the park that I had waited so long to see. I had been told so many great things about Yosemite along my travels that it was an incredible feeling to be only within 40 miles of its' majestic beauty. First I continued a climb for the day and was at a summit of about 3,000 feet before I started to descend. It was perfect weather again for the morning and I was feeling more and more blessed for being up and riding today. Making it through last night really was a great feeling and nothing could go wrong at this point. I made it to the forest just outside of Yosemite and it was incredible in itself. I was riding through a valley that ran directly along side of a stream and the mountains were great. Most of my ride through this forest was fairly flat and it was great to be able to enjoy the views without having to exert all of my energy. It didn't last very long though. I had made it to Yosemite National Park and directly behind the entrance sign was my first climb. It took me around a windy road and was on an incline the entire way. I climbed what must have been a good 1,000 feet before I actually made it to where the entrance with the park rangers were. There was a fee of 10 dollars to get into the park if you were on a bicycle and although I didn't feel great about paying the 10 dollars, it had to be done to pursue forward. It was 20 dollars if you were in a car so I guess I was happy to see that it was a little cheaper for me going through the way that I was. The camping was unfortunately full in Yosemite Village which meant that I was going to have to go closer to the Tioga Pass. It didn't bother me at first that I had to camp closer to Tioga Pass because this was the road that I was going to take out of Yosemite the following morning. I figured that I could make it up to the camping spot, which was only 12 miles up a mountain, and then after my luggage was off I could stroll down to Yosemite Village to see what it had to offer. I would have gone to the village first and then gone to the campground, but I wanted to make sure that I made it to the campground before it filled up. Well, after a good hour and only having made it up the mountain half way, I decided that I wasn't going to be going back down to the village. The climb that I was pushing for ward on was up and up, but didn't have a single descent in the road. There were a lot of cool stops going up that had spectacular views of the area. I figured since I was not going far today and was incredibly exhausted from this hill that it would be okay to pull off on every scenic stop up the mountain. There were probably 10 stops going up and after 2 and a half hours I made it up the short 12 mile climb to the top. I had gone up to 6,300 feet and the closer I came to the top the harder the climb was. It was not only windy going up, but the air was so thin at the elevation that it was harder and harder to push forward. I was at the top and at the entrance of the campground at 2:30 and was crossing my fingers that they still had a couple of spots open. It was a Friday so I wasn't looking forward to paying the weekend rate to stay in the campground, but I was in the park it I needed to do whatever to have a place for the night. When I showed up at the entrance there were two younger guys that looked about my age and they both looked shocked to see that I had made it there. They asked where I was riding from and when I told them that I had started in Iowa they both couldn't believe me. They said that I deserved a free campground and I didn't want to disagree with them. They told me where would be a good place to camp and then told me to enjoy my stay. It was nice to be able to receive some help along the way when it was possible and this made the trip up the mountain seem more worth the climb. I set up camp in the incredible campground and was able to enjoy the area for a couple of hours before it started to get to cold for me. I was at 6,300 feet and it was starting to get fairly windy and that made it even colder. My sleeping bag was good for temperatures of 40 degrees and warmer and I hadn't seen a problem yet, but I knew that this was going to be a challenge. I was curled up in my sleeping bag with three pairs of socks on my feet one on my hands to use as gloves and one of my shirts over my head to use as a hat over my head. I stayed fairly warm and woke up around 7 pm to make myself a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. Peanut butter and bread seemed like the perfect combo for what I needed and although it was starting to be my most common meal it still tasted good. I was only out of my tent to eat for a good 10 minutes before it was too cold again and I was back in my tent for the night.
Daily mileage: 47.7 miles
Average Speed: 9.6 mph
Total mileage: 3,421.2 miles