The Return (Day 5 of a 5 part series)

On the third night in the silicone impregnated nylon shelter there was scant rest for the weary. The wind had picked up that day and grew fiercer during the night. The adventurers hunkered down in their sleeping sacs as the wind howled down the pass hitting the tent with madness. All night the two lay awake feeling one gale blow by just as the next one was building strength.

The day dawned bright but cold. Without a pause for breakfast the travelers broke camp and set out on the trail to leave the mountains behind. Along the way they met others who were on the way to cold adventure. The happy hikers were glad their time in the wilderness had been so isolated. A group on horses was encountered and the man at the end of the string mentioned a silver knife he owned had been lost along the trail and could the pair keep an eye out for it. Along the trail the adventurers came along some grazing llamas, more people, and an ill kept camp the type of which give bears a bad name. The two hardly paused and though they moved quickly the trip out seemed much longer than when they had trod the path three days before. A glint of silver suddenly stuck our heroine’s eye, it was the knife lost by the young cowboy. As promised when the pair finally reached the trailhead she left it at the pack station with a note and hopes that the owner would recover it.The hearty wanderers drove reluctantly out of the mountains with a new sense of just how big those mountains really are. Many stops were made to take photographs and admire the scenery. They traveled back through Yosemite where in the days they were gone veins of yellow started creeping up the rock faces where trees which grew along the streambeds heralded the coming of autumn. The weary souls stopped to admire the grandeur of Yosemite and though they wished to stay the night, there was no room at the inn or anywhere else in the park, as it was a holiday weekend and overrun with visitors.

And so our heroic pair returned, late at night on a Saturday, to a small apartment in the city by the city by the bay from whence they had departed some days before.



Day 1; Day 2; Day 3 ; Day 4;