day 12: 3rd day on the JMT, Sunrise Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows

We started a little later than we planned, we woke up at 6:40, almost an hour after we wanted to.  Fine by me, because I didn't sleep well the night before.  The wind was whipping something fierce and kept waking me up.  I choked down a Clif bar (still no appetite), John ate easily.  We both did our morning rituals, broke camp and hit the trail.

Sunrise Meadow before we were driven out by mosquitoes

Today we wanted to make it to Tuolumne Meadows (10 miles away), get a cheeseburger and set up camp early.  We started out going through Sunrise Meadow which was chock full of mosquitoes! Both campsites we'd stayed at so far had so many mosquitoes.  And boy do they love John!  Thank goodness for Jungle Juice.

After the meadow (which we booked it through) there was a slight uphill which triggered my morning meltdown.  Except this time I literally didn't have the energy to keep going.  Obviously, this was from lack of food.  John made me sit down and eat a granola bar and Reese's Pieces on the spot.  I cried through it, of course, because it was so difficult.  I have no idea what was wrong with me, never in my life has lack of appetite been a problem for me.  Almost instantly I had more energy.  We continued on.

The hike was slight uphills, steep downs and some flat.  To amuse myself I sang hymns and other songs in my head.  It can start to get easy to focus on everything that hurts.  I also prayed that God would give me an appetite so I could eat so I could have energy.  He did because come lunchtime I was able to eat without feeling like I was going to throw every bite up!  We had tuna and ramen.  As I ate the tuna I pretended that I was eating my mom's tuna salad sandwiches in her kitchen and we were just having a good time together.

After lunch we kept on.  Same kind of terrain, rolling more or less, medium effort.  My feet were killing me though.  Then my shoulder started cramping, which was no good.  Just walked through it.  Then we came upon snow!! Snow + downhill= seriously difficult.  But we got through it, John led the way.  We also saw Cathedral Peak and Cathedral Lakes (well, one of them).  Talk about gorgeous!  Stunning.  John took pictures but they were doing restoration growth so we couldn't get too close.  Hike, hike, hike.

Cathedral Peak (to the right) and one of the lakes

We arrive at Tuolumne Meadows and it's pretty and peaceful.  Lots of day hikers and people strolling around.  We could smell each of their soaps or perfumes as they passed us and we wondered if they could smell how gross we were.  We eventually found a shuttle that took us to Tuolumne Shop and Campground.  At the campground they had a little restaurant (very little) and we both had ice cream, bacon cheeseburgers, fries and lemonade.  I struggled with mine a little more but at least I was able to eat something.  We were also able to text our families at this point and tell them we were OK.

Peaceful Tuolumne

Then we walked to find the backpacker's campground.  We set up camp, "washed" ourselves (they had basic bathrooms with toilets and running water, yay!) and clothes and are about to go to bed.

Our campsite at Tuolumne 

(notice the bear locker in the back to the left, that's where we stored our backpacks and food)

What hurts: my feet, back, muscle behind my right knee, left hip and shoulder.  For John: his heels are numb.

Total JMT miles: 23