Since today was a short day, we let the light wake us up as it spilled into the tent. On our way out of Carson River Resort, we met Angel, one of the owners, who was very accommodating to us (they let us stay for free after hearing about our trip). Thank you so much; we loved our stay and hope to return someday!
We woke early, left most of our gear behind, and biked to Camp 4 to get a spot for tonight, since the backpacker site is one night only. To our surprise, there was already a group of roughly 20 people waiting in line when we got there, around 5:30AM. We were very jealous, as most of them were sleeping in camping chairs or on sleeping pads on the ground.
A lesson we learned quickly during this trip: whenever you see a river crossing on the map, you can expect to climb. The San Joaquin was no different, and by 10am I had wrung the sweat out of my gloves during the steep climb up from the valley. It wasn’t a scorcher but with little air movement and no shade we had gotten off to a sweaty start to the day. Today is our last climb from the valley up into the Sierra Nevada’s which is exciting though!
This morning, there was some commotion in camp due to a bear passing through again. It is likely the same one that had been through a few times yesterday, hoping to snag some picnic baskets. As it sauntered around the perimeter of the campground, it even pawed at some sleepy campers’ tent; the surprised yell from inside of the tent caused it to run off, although I’m sure it will be back.
The air was still very cold when we departed camp, so the initial climb felt great, but then there was a long descent. We crossed through Kings Canyon National Park, but we have decided to add that park to the future “to do” list. It probably wasn’t a great time to be there anyhow, due to a fire in the park making the area very hazy.
