American Adventure

California (Yosemite 2)

Thanks goes out to a couple of great park rangers from Yosemite for discouraging me from riding on through the night, and telling me to cheat and stay at an empty camping slot for free.

This country is truly full of caring people.

Starting on Tuesday, September 24, 2002, 6:38:04 PM

On my way I couldn't help but stop to get a few shots of an awesome sunset. Realizing that the sun was on its way, I decided to take the time and get these pictures and just enjoy the moment. I had found a few people also enjoying the scenery as they watched the colors of the sky change.

I made my way down and around the park to the west side where all the really spectacular scenery is. Unfortunately it was quite dark and the night was upon me. I managed to use the long exposure settings to capture some of these images. The first one looking into the Yosemite Valley and the second looking upon the falls. The picture on the right is of El Capitan. Each of these images were hard to shoot as I could barely see them myself it was so dark. The camera certainly did manage to capture more light than I thought it would. I hadn't planned on staying the night here and felt like I should be moving on but I really wanted to see more of this place so I began to look for a camp ground.

Most state and national parks have strict rules against camping anywhere other than designated camp sites. These camp sites are usually quite expensive just to pop up a tent. I usually feel quite stupid paying full price for a camp site when I only need about ten square feet for my bike and tent. I drove around and found that all the camp sites where full and almost decided to leave the park and forget it. I ran across a few rangers and talked to them when they suggested that I just try to find some nice people to let me camp near them in their site. As I drove around I found a space that had nobody in it so I just pulled in and figured that I'd talk to them when, or if they showed up. I also realized that there is a place in the camp sites that I call, "No man's land". That space between four different camp sites that is somewhat indeterminate as to how far each site extends. I realized that, since I don't really need a parking space for the bike, I could use some of that space for my bike and tent. I did and nobody said a word. Also, nobody ever showed up to claim the empty camp site so everything worked out well. I pitched my tent, played the guitar for a while and talked to some of my neighbors. Some really fun and interesting people I met there.

While sitting on a picnic table, playing the guitar in the dark, I was suddenly startled by a bat that flew so close to my face that I could hear it and feel the wind off of its wings as it passed by. As I watched I noticed that it circled around and around me and then headed on over to other camp sites and did the same. I kept playing for a while and noticed the same feeling at the back of my head. I stopped and it went away. I felt it time and time again as the bat kept coming up behind me and hovering right above my head several times. Although bats normally give me the creeps, for some reason I started feeling more comfortable about this one. It was apparently just trying to pick off mosquitoes and other insects as they were trying to feed off of the campers.

While I was looking around for my camp site I ran across these two little raccoons along side a back road, away from the main camp sites. I stopped the bike and started to creep up on them to try to get a picture. I had gotten about ten feet from them, about to snap a picture when a dog barked off in the distance. The two coons quickly headed for the nearest tree. I walked up to the tree and took a few pictures of the curious little critters.

I slept well and got up in the morning with the sound of all the other campers slamming things around and making enough noise to scare off any animals and well, me too. So I packed up and left.