Sequoia NP (Tuesday)

Today is an easy one, mainly to recover from yesterday’s walk and to get some laundry done. I grab a coffee to get me going. The coffee drinking situation in America (this part anyway) is interesting. Most of the coffee I have come across is filtered coffee, weak filtered coffee. Expresso coffee is rare but I did find some in San Francisco. Here at the Lodgepole store you buy a large paper cup and then go to the coffee thurmus-machine to fill up. I noticed people returning to refill their cups. I went up to the cashier to ask if it was alright to refill my cup thinking I would get the ‘Are you crazy?’ response. He replies ‘Yes but only for today. You can’t reuse the cup tomorrow’. I laughed thinking he was joking. He wasn’t. ‘Ok, just for today is fine’. Three huge cups latter – I tried but I just couldn’t drink any more! Then I think of the missed opportunities from previous days where I thought you paid per cup. Americans must get a shock when they come to Australia and pay $4 for a coffee and ‘where is my refill?’.

Holly crap! While a write this a young bear strolls through my camp! I’m at the very end of a long campground that hugs a rocky river. it’s a great location but I guess I’m exposed more than most to the critter inhabitants of the woods. This teenage-looking bear came out of the wood and ambled past to get to the river. My neighbors and I jumped to attention and starting yelling and carrying on as we have been instructed to do by the rangers. To keep them wild and independent, we are to make them as uncomfortable as possible when they come too close to camps. After we chase it off, we then chase after it to get photos – very comical!