July 6th, 2009 - Donahue Pass to Glen Aulin

Woke up looking forward to burgers and fries awaiting us at Tuolumne Meadows just 13 miles away. Unfortunately 13 miles ended up being further away than we thought. It took longer than expected to make it over the pass. Although nowhere near as technical or steep as previous passes we had been through, we still had rocks to scramble over and some snow that slowed us up.

After conquering Donahue Pass, the trail was relatively flat - moving through endless meadows. We saw tons of people, the number growing the closer we came to Tuolumne. Ran into a ranger on horseback who checked our permits. Luckily he didn't look for our non-existent bear canisters which we should technically have been carrying. Phew! Close call!

Made it to Tulumne Meados about 1pm. Ran into Rocket Man and Mission Control sitting at one of the picnic tables in front of the store. It was good to catch up with him and hear how their journey had been since we last saw them at VVR.

Pigged out on burgers & fries. Then came the big job of resupplying. We picked up 4 boxes from the post office (including our drop bucket). Went through all our boxes - deciding what we needed and what we needed to send on. We were happy to get rid of our ice axes but dreaded adding Bear Vaults to our pack weight.

Next on the agenda was putting together our shopping list and picking up everything we needed at the small store. Unfortunately, most of the typical thru-hiker food had been picked over so our food options were very limited. Somehow we made do.

Grumbling about the weight of our packs, we finally set back on the trail about 5:30pm. Can't believe how long it took us to resupply! The haul down to Glen Aulin - just 7 miles away seemed to take forever.

We arrived at camp just as the sun was setting. Although a backcountry camp area Glen Aulin's clos proximity to Tuolumne makes it a very popular location. The camp area was jam-packed with tents.

We met up with Rachel (from Mather and Pinchot Pass) who invited us to set up our tent near her tent. I was a little uneasy going to sleep due to Glen Aulin's notorious bear problem. We just hope that everyone uses the bear boxes or bear canisters!

~Tori