Day 3 Aug 3, 1982<br>Having lived through the
bear visit we awoke the next morning a little groggy
but glad to see the sun. We were soon on our way to
Tuolumne Mdws on an appreciated downhill. Lembert Dome
soon came into view and we came to the road. We
decided to save the Soda Springs part for another time
and walked down the road to the store. I had intended
to get a piece of cardboard to cover the hole in my
pack but that idea was lost in the blur of Ding Dongs,
ice cream and candy bars. After all, we had been out
over 50 hours. Fortunately, a little ways up the trail
a lady gave me a piece of nylon patch. We also came
across our first speed fanatic. A couple of guys came
jogging up the trail and announced; so and so, president
of Ultralite Corp. running the trail 5 days out of
Whitney. We still had 22 days left to get there. We no
doubt would be moving a lot slower. <br>Our intention
had been to stop near Kuna Ck for the day. However, I
caught up to Gary at the Vogelsang Pass turnoff. Thgere
was a bear cable there so it seemed like a good place
to camp after last night. Owen soon came along,
checked the trail junction for our tracks and started on
until I called to him. The entertainment that afternoon
was provided by a high school group from Carmel. They
looked over the cable arrangement, even climbing a tree
on one end several times. Having never
counter-balanced we carefully observed what they did. When it was
time to hang our food we threw a rope over the cable,
hoisted one bag to the top and marked the highest point
we could reach. Lowering the bag down we tied a
small loop in the rope at that point hoisted the first
bag back up tied the second bag on and evened them
out. It probably took us 2 minutes and our bags were 2
to 3 feet higher that any others, The leader of the
Carmel group was right over to ask us how we got them so
high and then played with theirs again. I put our
packs at the top of a smaller tree because I though all
the Kool-Aid, bacon grease etc spilled in it would
have the bear chewing the fabric. Soon after dark a
bear was spotted in a nearby camp. We slept soundly
knowing that about a dozen high school kids were on the
alert.
