Mile 906.5 Reds Meadow to mile 1090.5 South Lake Tahoe

It’s a warm summers day, I’m home and with the one I love. Sunbeams sparkle across an elaborate spread of food, hmm…where to begin? Dessert? A cold iced tea? I reach for both and in doing so I knock the gorgeously tall glass of tea over. As it pours over and splashes on to me I can’t help but feel like something isn’t quite right…wait a second where am I again? And why am I beginning to feel so cold and damp down to the bone? Oh yea…that’s right…I’m dreaming…of course! I’m not in a warm place with the love of my life and I am certainly not surrounded by food and iced tea. That iced tea I spilled is actually just rain finding its way into my brave little tent. And that warmth is coming from the only thing that is still dry in my world…My sleeping bag. Yes, I remember now…I am deep in the granite mountains of Yosemite National Forest, posted up for a night of nonstop rain. My tent is flooded out and almost all my gear is drenched. I had hiked all day in a downpour of rain/hail/snow. So far I’d managed to stay pretty dry for the last three days of the storm but now the rain would not let up. As I lay there in the cold I frown over my dream just being a dream but there’s no point sitting there. So, in the darkness of the early morning hours, I quickly get into my rain gear, pack up my sopping tent and trek on through the rain towards sunnier, warmer days and towards…mist covered lakes… Really big trees…