The Log

DAY 28, JUNE 26

(MATT) The next morning we rose early and broke camp in order to find some phones in that deserted God-forsaken place. We did find phones, and I talked to the Lemmons and worked my way into their confidence, sort of. Then off to Yosemite. We had a good time and were all in good moods... at first. Chris was somewhat disillusioned because every tourist in the nation was there. Jon was not impressed but bought a shirt nevertheless. Sam read everything in the visitor center as usual. I was happy and read a surfer magazine. Then we decided to actually see the park. We had already seen Bridalveil Falls and gotten a little wet. Next we went to Yosemite Falls and heedlessly ignored the warnings and walked up to the falls. We GOT SOAKED and harassed all of the ignorant tourists, warning them that the water was rising and speaking in tongues to confuse them, etc. It was really fun.

Then we drove to El Capitan to watch the climbers. Jon and I walked, hiked up to the base, mesmerized by their daring and skill. (Chris and Sam stayed behind.) We, as usual, fell into gripping conversation with some climbers for a few minutes...

(SAM) The Truth: 1 hour.

(MATT) and figured that since we didn't hear the horn blaring, the normal Sam and Chris response when we talk to people, we weren't keeping them too long. We returned to our comrades, who now hated us because we had taken the keys with us, not allowing them to blare the horn. Jon and I were in trouble again. We couldn't break their silence at first, but I cunningly played Huey Lewis over and over til Chris broke and got into a good mood again. Sam took longer--only time worked on him! But he broke after a couple of hours. We drove to Sacramento and slept in a mall parking lot.