As could most likely have been predicted some people over enjoyed themselves last night and woke up with hangovers to start today off. Prom was a blast and I doubt any of them regret their decisions. Ben and Rowan were our royal couple and Dave, Alice, and I were impressed we were allowed into the bowling alley just with our toga sheets.
An easy cure for a few people was a morning stop at the Starbucks a block from our host prior hitting the road. Josh, Dave, and I stopped they grabbed their caffeine fix, we checked out a cool dog and his old bug, and we were rolling. It was nice and flat for about 10 miles and then we had one more of our favorite 10+ mile climbs that includes signs to turn off your AC in your car to prevent overheating of the engine. Luckily we don't have an engine to worry about and we don't have to worry about stopping for radiator water either.
The scenery along the road as always was incredible since we had the Sierras along our left side all day. We stopped once or twice to admire the views, part way up we also passed into Inyo National Forrest which explained some more of the great vistas. One aspect that made everything so great was seeing trees, grass, and just greenery in general as we hadn't seen almost any in quite awhile.
At 7,000 feet we pulled off to take our lunch stop at Sherwin Summit. It was the peak of our longest climb of the day, but definitely not our highest pass. Out of lunch Dave, Josh, and I enjoyed our bit of down hill but it was short lived. We soon were hit by 15 mph headwinds and a nice low but gradual climb for quite a bit.
We kept playing leap frog with Sarah while doing this and eventually picked her up right before we passed Smokey the Bear and the next actual climbs. The hills were more 6% type grade hills but not close to as long as our mornings one. At some point we separated into pairs, after that Sarah and I enjoyed a few vistas and passing over Deadman Summit at 8,036 ft. We feel like it really should've been called Dead Legs Summit, but maybe next time.
From there we enjoyed the last 10ish miles which were a nice 2,000 ft descent into Lee Vining. We made on vista point stop where we met a nice couple from Houston. The husband does a road trip to the national parks each year and last year he had met a man walking across the country, so he enjoyed adding us to his list. I also bonded with him over some good Texas BBQ joints, he was pretty jealous we had just had Goode Company Pecan Pie two days ago.
When we arrived at our host people utilized a local coffee shop for wifi, slept, showered, and just caught up on things as we usually do. At 5:30 we had a lovely dinner provided with choices between beef stew, pulled pork, chili and beans, salad, and more. It was lovely and quite filling. Laundry crew then set out a day early since we won't find anywhere in Yosemite, a group watched Chef, and wonderful Kalli kept working hard to figure out Yosemite details. Our host had backed out on us a few days back and she had spent a large portion of the last few days and a lot of today trying to find a last minute replacement host or anywhere for us to stay. I think in the end she was successful but I'm unsure on the details and know at the least we have a few perfectly fine, but less convenient (for our day off activities) options.
It was a great day and now we just need to prepare for a nice big climb into the park tomorrow. Can't wait to get to another national park.