Okotomi Lake

Expecting another scorcher of a day we started early. Cooked up some pancakes with maple syrup then hit the trail up to Okotomi Lake. The 5 miles and 2,000 feet of climbing took us 2 and a half hours, first through thick forest growth and big fir trees, then through smaller, more open subalpine trees, and finally across open scree slopes to the camp. To make sure that people and wildlife don’t get in the way of each other, the camp ground was divided into separate areas for sleeping, preparing food, storing food, and toilet. In Yosemite, they are trying to teach the bears that humans don’t provide easy food by enforcing every visitor to keep their food in bear proof canisters. Here, we have a pole where we have to hang our food and anything else that smells, well away from hungry claws and paws.

We spent the afternoon sat on a small gravel beach by the side of the lake, reading in the sun. Ground squirrels became more and more confident as we sat there, scuffling around in their incessant search for food. When we peed in the bushes, they smelt it immediately and raced to the crime scene to get a taste of salt.