I virtually had to drag Claire out of bed this morning. She didn't get out until her coffee was almost cold and I started bouncing on the mattress. Breakfast was nothing special, but we did eat in the nicest breakfast location so far - overlooking the mountains with lots of swallows, woodpeckers and other birds flying around.
We got up to another hot day. Our first stop was at a local bakery/cafe, which the motel receptionist recommended to us as they would pack sandwiches up for hiking.
It's difficult to get normal sandwiches here. Everything is done to excess.
If I'm going to be carrying my lunch round in a sweaty rucksack for several hours in 80+ degree heat, then I like something that's less likely to give me salmonella, like cheese and tomato, or marmite. Not 25 different varieties of chicken.
Today's sandwich shop didn't offer either of my preferred options, but I thought their ham and tomato sandwich would be a reasonable compromise. We were a bit confused when we were asked whether we wanted potato salad or fries with it, but the lady said she'd put them in a suitable container.
The sandwiches arrived with all sorts of extras inside, like onion and gherkins, and contained in enormous polystyrene boxes with the potato salad on the side.
We had to eat them before we started our walk, as even if we could have fitted the boxes in our rucksack, the bears would have been able to smell them a mile away.
We walked up to a waterfall today. It was still hot when we went up, and we felt quite out of breath going up to the falls. We later found out that the air is thinner here because of the altitude, and it's not just a case of us being unfit.
The trail would have been easy if it hadn't been for the snow drifts across the path, which were beginning to melt. The snow was pretty compact in the main, but occasionally it collapsed under us and we'd get a shoe full of snow.
There was hardly anyone else there, which was nice. We were a bit nervous of coming across a bear, but we didn't. Not sure if we're relieved or disappointed.
We sat down on a big rock at the top of the trail, intending to enjoy the view, and take loads of photos (Claire) and read a book (me). Just as we got settled, it started raining. Big drops, which turned to ice after a couple of minutes, and then hailstones like bullets. There was thunder crashing around the mountains.
We were completely unprepared for rain and had no waterproofs with us. I was wearing shorts, and we both had lightweight tops on so the hailstones hurt.
We sheltered under a giant overhanging rock (after checking it wasn't a bear's den). As the hail eased off, Claire spotted someone else had been sheltering from the weather too:
It was a yellow bellied marmot. It's about as big as a very fat cat and just as cute.
We made it back to the car, but not before getting caught in another hailstorm. We weren't in any danger from the weather, but felt a bit stupid as we had a boot full of wet weather gear.
A few hundred feet lower down, the weather was dry and sunny. There was still thunder rolling around, but we decided to go and look at the Giant Sequoias anyway. When there's trees that big around, surely any lightning wouldn't strike us.
We saw the General Sherman tree, which is the biggest tree in the world by weight and volume. It didn't look as impressive as some of the other trees in the grove to be honest, so I took a photo of a nicer one.
We spent a short while gazing up at the trees, and then got a bit nervous as the thunder was getting louder, so hot footed it back to the car.
Tomorrow we're going to see the biggest tree in the world by width, and then on to Yosemite.
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Location:Sequoia National Park, CA
What a huge tree! Makes Clarissa's feet look normal :)
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