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We had scored a group site for the weekend (thanks Casey!), and the usual suspects headed up to the Meadows for a bit of high altitude fun in the sun. Melody and I drove up on Friday night, where we found Jeremy and Zindzi who had set up a huge screen tent around a picnic table. I was a bit worried by the sight - I thought it might imply unusually fierce mosquitoes - but my fears were allayed when it was revealed that this was but a pre-Burning Man test. Bryan and Vivian came in a bit later, but we were in the tent by then. In a break from tradition, the menu for the weekend consisted of (gasp!) hiking. Yes, hiking, that activity you do with your legs, and not with your arms. (No, not slab climbing, hiking - I know it's an unfamiliar word to most of you, so look it up if you're still not sure of the concept.) I was debating between several death marches: Cloud's Rest, Mt. Conness, Lyell canyon, or a circuit of the Echo peaks. Conness fell off the table, as I didn't know how much snow there was on the approach, and was too lazy to check out Saddlebag Road in advance, and as for Cloud's Rest, well, that's pretty much in the Valley, and this is Tuolumne season after all. 28 miles round trip to Mt. Lyell sounded way too tiring for my lazy ass, which left us with the Echo loop. So with a not quite alpine start, we headed off to the Cathedral lakes bright and early at 9AM on Saturday morning - hey, I need my beauty sleep. The beauty of the first lake was only matched by the incredible density of the mosquitoes - I wasn't aware that those little blood sucking hell beasts were such aesthetes. We reached the shore with a bit of stream and bog hopping and quickly reapplied the DEET. Luckily Melody's blood is sweeter than mine, and they chose her in preference to me, so I was able to use her as a stalking horse. I always knew that being sour and bitter would come in handy one day.

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Scenes from Cathedral Lake

We moved on to the second Cathedral lake, paused for a bit, admiring the dense clouds of bloodsucking vermin hovering over us, then cut cross country up to the ridge behind which Matthes Crest shyly hides from view, where we stopped for a bite to eat. No bugs to report there. Hmmm, I seem to be fixated on that subject. After lunch, we cut back around the shoulder of the Echo peak, and made for Budd lake, glissading on our butts down the snow fields when we could. Good thing nylon dries fast! We walked all the way around Budd lake, doing a bit of climbing on one side to get over a ridge, where Melody earned some new scars, and even foolishly tried to go for a swim. Melody went in first, and got as far as mid thigh before screaming for mercy and heading for the shore. After carefully observing this performance, I used my keen powers of deduction to draw a link between the snowfield that was feeding the lake 15 feet away, and the water temperature, and thus only committed to exposing my calves to the frigid waters.

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Approach to Budd Lake, and where we fearlessly tried to swim. Operative word: tried.

After another break to return circulation to our traumatised legs, which required a bit of basking in the sun and a good deal of chocolate, we hiked out to the trailhead, then drove down to Tenaya lake for a real swim. The water was actually bearable there, though we did run in at full speed to prevent our brains from receiving sensory input until it was too late. Then it was time for dinner at the Mobil station, where we pigged out, with a side order of mango margaritas. mmmmm. Not surprisingly, the rest of the gang was also in evidence - Jeremy and Zindzi, John, Susan, Alex and more. But no Bryan and Vivian. Back at the campsite, we found Simon, Patrick, Julie, and the kids. We got a fire going, and hung out for a while, but still no Bryan and Viv. Hmmmm. Next morning when we awoke, Bryan's car was still not in evidence, and Viv's tent was empty. Now we were starting to get a bit worried. We didn't know where they had gone, but thought that the possibilities were Ellery Lake, Conness, and Inverted Staircase. I thought that I had seen Bryan's car by Fairview the previous afternoon, but there was no way that they wouldn't be back from there by the morning, even if they did spend the night at the top. We alerted SAR, and split up to look for them. As I was driving out to Ellery lake, I saw Bryan's car coming toward me, so I made a quick U-turn behind him, and we pulled over. Turned out that they had gone to the Mobil station, and had seen us just as we were leaving. Alex had even seen and waved to them, but hadn't informed us of their presence. D'Oh! Then they went to the hot springs where they camped out, and didn't get back 'till the next day. Oh well, all's well that ends well, but I was hoping for another epic spooning story from Bryan - he's so fond of those!

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Stately Pleasure Dome and Tenaya Lake

We didn't have time for a long march on Sunday, as Melody had to get back to Berkeley for an Ultimate practice, so we just spent a couple of hours hiking around Tenaya lake, and even did a risky and exciting stream crossing, where we were almost sucked under by raging white water torrents. Ok, so they weren't really raging, and it was only knee deep, but we did have to take our shoes off, and then wait for our feet to dry! Oh, the humanity. The rest of the gang went to Olmstead, with Bryan soloing Tenaya as a warm up. There are unconfirmed reports that Jeremy finally was able to get on Tideline, but these are currently unsubstantiated. The drive back was uneventful, though it was hard to drive through Oakdale without the traditional stop at the Taqueria. We made up for it though with a popsicle break outside of Manteca.

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Olmstead point