Yosemite

First off, not a camping person. Yosemite is a famous “one of those things” you need to do, and I got invites spontaneously, so here I am. Very apprehensive (definitely over packed clothing wise) but I had already committed, so let's go for it. Hoping to get some minor self discovery done while I'm out here; I have big decisions to make and need some guidance, be it self medicated or else how.

Initial thoughts! Drive in with Tyler was fun. Lots of reminiscing about high school and the crazy stuff that happened. He's definitely more tech broy that expected but I'm glad he's enjoying his life out here. In N Out for dinner was a great choice, then we loaded up on beer at Safeway on Manteca. Set up our tent in the dark relatively quickly, no worries there. Parked relatively close by and moving stuff was a breeze. Tyler really wanted to get some night pictures of tunnel view so off we went.

The drive over took about 30 minutes in the darkness. It was scary in an odd way - we couldn't see anything at all off the roads. Tyler fed me stories of the sights I was going to see tomorrow, and my brain attempted to stitch the darkness and my imagination together with little luck. The most frightening part was seeing the tree tops poke through the heavy blanket of night time on our side. Its like looking at the hair of a giant without getting anymore information - you know there is a great force next to you, but just how large? No idea.

Regardless, we made it to TunnelView. Tyler went to work setting up his equipment and I finally got my first view. I might update this tomorrow, but I definitely recommend starting at night. Seeing the stars run forever, broken only by unknown mountain ranges far in the distance is a powerful thing. Can't remember the last time I've seen this many stars. It's kind of busy here (maybe 30 people) but they all speak in hushed times. Mostly, I feel, out of respect of nature, not any man-made sense of privacy.

You can see stars on the ground as well, racing through far away spots at the limits of my vision. They blink down valleys and up cliffs, sometimes in pairs, sometimes alone. What are they? Cars, tents, hikers? Perhaps something more natural altogether, like fairies or sprites? I don't think I want to know - it's much more fun as a puzzle. An unsolved puzzle is a like a story you get to fill in the details, but a solved one is simply a list of facts.

I think that's all the musings I have for now. Tyler will probably be here for a bit and I will continue to strain my neck upwards.