Fountains of Life | Day 4 on the JMT

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”  John Muir in Our National Parks

When John Muir Wrote Our National Parks Yosemite had been a national park for barely ten years.  He had successfully rescued it from certain destruction at the hands of those who sought to obtain great personal wealth at the expense of the natural wonder that is Yosemite.  Unfortunately I fear that John Muir would be appalled at what Yosemite has become.  More than any other national park I have been to, Yosemite is exactly what John Muir was trying to stop.  Everywhere you look there is some type of concession and a large corporation is making a handsome sum providing the services that the millions of visitors each year crave.  How can the modern visitor to Yosemite go home to the mountains when you really never left civilization?
On July 30th we left civilization.
Once we were five miles from Toulumne Meadows the number of people dropped dramatically, I only recall seeing a half dozen or so.  I finally felt like  I was going home.  Gone were the composting toilets, the frequent pack trains taking supplies to people staying at the High Sierra Camps, and the unprepared day hikers.  I was finally really enjoying myself.  I Love the High sierra

The image above was captured shortly before sunset from our campsite halfway up Donohue Pass looking towards Lyell Peak.  I’d like to think that John Muir would have selected the same campsite due to the amazing views that we were afforded there.

7-30-09
Awesome Day!
We decided to sleep in today and take advantage of the Toulumne  Meadows Grill that opened at 8:00.  After Breakfast we took our time packing up and gave some extra food to the guy we met yesterday (I had no desire to carry anything that was not absolutely necessary).  We hit the trail around 10:00 for the long flat hike up the Lyell Canyon.  Around 12:30 we stopped by the Lyell fork of the Toulumne River and took a much needed “bath” in the river.  We lounged around for the next hour and a half or so and enjoyed the amazing scenery.  This was Relaxing!  about 3:30 while we were on the canyon floor  it started to lightly rain, but we continued to hike on towards Donohue Pass.  At 5:00 we were just beginning our climb to the pass and the rain turned to hail.  We quickly found a place to put our tent and waited for the lightning, hail, and rain to let up.  After the weather cleared we moved to a much nicer campsite with an incredible view of Lyell Canyon and Lyell peak.  I can’t think of a better way for a day to pan out.