On the second day of our hellish sojourn, we were besieged by mosquitoes first thing in the morning. They swarmed in upon us from every nook and cranny and sent us fleeing to the bottle of DEET we had locked previously in our bear canister. This put us in a great hurry to gather together our tent and sleeping sacks, and supplies, etc., and to get started again towards our goal of Toulumne Meadows which lay so very, very far ahead.
That day the path took us again toward higher elevations, perhaps closer to heaven than my damned soul will ever now reach, as I cursed He who created mountains so totally steep.
At one crucial point, my manservant and guide Erin decided that we should not head for the treacherous Cloud's Rest path that we had originally intended to follow this day, but instead take one that looked more flat, yet still with a fine view. This path was called the Forsyth trail and it was neither short, nor flat, nor un-scary, nor did it have a view of anything except for continuous brown forest and rocks. I began to prepare myself mentally for the inevitability that we would run out of food and I would not wait long to kill and eat my guide and sleep in her carcass for warmth.
Along the way, we were given a sign by the heavens that this quest was not entirely in vain, for had we not discovered this, we would have learned nothing more than to not go into the woods with an unreliable guide, and that freeze-dried food is delicious. We were shown a great truth this day, which made us doubt that some divine presence had not, in fact, abandoned us in the forest but perhaps was leading us towards some type of enlightenment and not just lightheadedness from the elevation. We learned for a fact that a bear, indeed, does poop in the woods.
After the great distance of ten miles, we came upon a spot called Sunrise Lake. It was a picturesque body of water surrounded on one side by a marsh, on another by a mountain still with snow on top melting down to the shore, and on the others by bare granite. We felt that this was an ideal spot to make camp once again. It was only three in the afternoon, so we had much spare time with which to find ways to amuse ourselves.
We decided to rid ourselves of our stench by going for a swim in the cold water and therefore did remove from our carrying sacks and put on such clothing suitable as to swim in, such as swimsuits, and did walk thereover to the shore of the lake and did, by means of walking at first then jumping headfirst, go into the lake. We found the sensation to be a chilling one, whereby we grew bumps upon our skin resembling those of a goose, and I did undergo a major shrinkage of which I feel this log is an inappropriate place to describe fully. We enjoyed our swim immensely and were quite refreshed.
As the evening came upon us, we were again attacked by the blood sucking mosquitoes who came in so great numbers we felt the need to start a fire to create a great smoky cloud, through which we felt they would not fly and come to rest upon us, nor suck us dry. In the gathering of felled timber near our campsite, I found a large log that I carried back to the ring, before which time I tripped, hit myself in the side of the head with it, and fell down upon it. "What more," I screamed, "injuries must I endure? Is not the wrath of your malaria spreading hordes enough? Must you distress me further with this itchy ear wound?"
The fire did provide us with much warmth and a semi-effective screen to keep out the pests, but we were inconvenienced again by the fickleness of mother nature. The wind whipped around the lake in all directions, and did not stay at one position for long enough so that we could sit by the fire at rest, but rather we had to move because the smoke would blow directly in our faces and cause us to be unable to breath, much like the mosquitoes we were trying to stand off, or it would blow in the opposite direction so that the bugs would come from behind and bite us on the neck. Therefore, we spend the evening walking circles around the fire, chasing the wind. Our feet were much sore the next day because of it.
That night I did sleep so soundly that should hungry bear have entered into our camp, scratched a hole in the side of the tent, chewed off Erin's face, and lain down beside me I think I would have noticed not the noise.