Yosemite Sam, Part 4 — Yosemite Day 1

A week and a half later (Thursday, 9/21/06), Sam and I were up at the crack of dawn, on the road, headed for Tuolumne Meadows. Mindy, Jackson, and Clara had left the day before to spend the weekend in Santa Cruz. Sam and I had plans to be away Thursday through Sunday. I figured my little Honda Civic wouldn't be big enough to pack all of the stuff Sam and I would need, so I had rented a small SUV for the trip. Well, turns out a small SUV wasn't really big enough either! Two strollers, sleeping bags and warm blankets, extra pillows to keep Sam from rolling around too much at night, ice chest, firewood, apnea monitor (w/ extension cord), backpacks, three cases of beer, etc. etc. Poor Sam occupied a tiny cavity I managed to carve out for him in the back seat, amongst the camping gear and stroller parts. It was comical, I wish I had taken a picture.

We stopped a few times to stretch, feed Sam, and do some last minute shopping, but mostly the car ride went really well. It could have been a lot worse, but luckily the rental car came with Sirius satellite radio. I found a kids' music station that Sam really liked, and that kept him happy during the long trip. Unfortunately, that ended up being the only station out of the 100+ available that we listened to all weekend. All of my attempts to change the station to something more my style were met with loud protests from the back seat. Sigh. Oh well, happy Sam = happy Daddy, I guess.

We finally arrived at Porcupine Flat campground around 2:30 pm. I chose the most isolated campsite I could find, because I was worried that Sam's apnea monitor and general noisiness would bother other campers at night. Here's Sam relaxing while I set up camp (and the Chariot and the overstuffed Ford Escape in the background):


I got everything set up, and we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the campground and goofing off. After dinner I was trying to get a campfire started, when I suddenly realized holy crap it's cold! The sun had gone down and the temperature dropped so fast it took me by surprise. It was at this point that I realized just how under-prepared I was for cold weather. I don't know why, but somehow while packing I failed to realize that late September at 8,100 feet might be a little chilly. (In hindsight, it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because there's no way I could have fit any more warm clothes in the car.) So I whisked Sam off to the tent, and bundled him up in pajamas, a sweatshirt, sweatpants, socks on his hands and feet, and a wool hat. I stuffed him into a sleeping bag, figuring he'd be warm enough, and luckily he was so tired that he went to sleep pretty quickly. Poor kid was an ice cube by the time I went to bed a few hours later.