I woke at 6:30 to find practically the whole campsite up and at it. Craziness. I got back into bed, rising at 8 to see lines of people walking away from breakfast - perfect!
Our plan for the day was to to complete an 8mile bike loop, stopping off at trails we could complete with bike shoes on. 30 seconds after we started we came to the Mist Trail where we hiked up to the top of Vernal Fall. I hadn't realised it was rated as strenuous, and was wandering why people all around looked ready to collapse. As we approached the fall, we started to get drenched - slippery granite and bike cleats are not a great mix.
Tim started to get impatient with people slowly scaling the climb, clinging on for dear life. To top it off I kept stopping to take a million photos. The way down was like a comedy sketch - I must have waited for 50 or 60 people to pass me on the 10m drop from the top. All were so knackered that they barely noticed I was hanging over a rail onto a shear drop to let them pass. I finally saw a two second gap which I took. As I ran past a couple they told me to be careful! On meeting Tim he asked if I was going to let the squirrels go past too! People were like charging bulls, not willing to stop as I leaped out of their way to teeter on the rocky edges.
An hour and a half later we reached the bottom - the lady at the start had told us it would be at least a 3 hour round trip so we were surprised and chuffed that we had been so athletic. As it began to cool down, however our smugness was repaid with sore muscles.
Back on the route we went up to Mirror lake where we were warned there was a steep climb, which did not come to fruition. We went for a tramp around the lake, taking a wrong turn just as I realised it was 6 hours since we last ate! We of course found the road again and had to walk back up the 'steep' climb to retrieve our bikes.
Our next stop was Yosemite village for lunch, the Ansel Adams gallery and Yosemite museum. As we pulled up to to Yosemite Fall we bumped into Peter, the German guy who we had met in Gualala. He scoffed at people for people paying crazy amounts to essentially camp in Curry Village - as it started to rain we kept quiet that we were glad to have such shelter with then weather closing in.
We completed the loop, through meadowland and across the Merced River just as the skies started to really open. As we climbed into our tent and then our warm beds, we were couldn't help but me relieved that we weren't in our two man nook of a tent.
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