Hopkins 4K for Cancer

July 26, 2003

Take a hike!
Yosemite National Park, CA to Groveland, CA

Day 56



Today me, Dave, Meredith, Babak, and Travis formed “Team Hike.” We were biking through Yosemite, so we figured we might as well make it last as long as possible. We did a good job of that. We spent the morning hiking trails right around our camp ground. We concealed our bikes among some trees at the trailhead before we hiked around Dog Lake and Lambert’s Dome. Travis actually jumped in the lake, but the rest of us didn’t feel like it. By the time we got done, we were hungry, so we decided to stop at the general store by the camp ground to buy some food. We didn’t actually end up biking until noon! Fortunately, a good portion of today’s miles were downhill.



To our surprise, at the water break, we found that we were not the last group. The others had stopped to hike as well. They were just returning from their hike when we decided to continue on. Later, we stopped to hike to Yosemite Creek. The creek was nice and relaxing. There were lots of rocks in the creek, so we climbed onto them and rested there while we listened to the water go by. Before we knew it, half an hour had passed. We didn’t want to hold anyone up, so we headed back to the road and made our way to lunch.



Lunch was right at the gate of the park. After lunch, we dropped to about 2,500 ft. in elevation. The difference was very noticeable. When we came across the first gas station outside the park, Meredith had to make a pit stop. As we waited by the side of the road, I heard a rustling in the leaves. When I turned to look, I spotted a rattlesnake underneath a blanket of dried leaves. The rattle snake seemed more scared of us than we did of it, and it slithered out of sight.



We arrived in the town of Groveland around 6:00. There was an awesome church dinner waiting for us when we got there. Lots of pasta with marinara sauce, meat sauce, Apesto, and delicious dessert. It was some of the best food we had eaten in a while. After dinner it was time to clean our bikes. We wanted to clean off most of the grime so that we wouldn’t have to work so hard to prepare them for our final day of riding. After the bike maintenance session, I wrote a little in my journal, but fatigue set in and I decided to catch up on my journal entries later because I was in need of some rest.



Rajeev Mahajan