Getting here is coming into a state of simply« being ».
Coming out of town is like being born again. And it’s maybe the crazy oppositeness to town that makes this place to be felt really sacred. The granit is explosive, an abundant energy coming out of it. Sitting on it, grounding oneself to it, is pure gravity, it’s like a magnet that is inviting unrestingly to sit and meditate to sit and drink of the overflow of energy. John Muir said: The mountains are calling, I must go. There is no natural resistance. Every barrier is taken down.
The bus driver had put the AC on full capacity, and by the end of the 2 hours, I had about every piece of cloth on me that I possessed and still I was freezing to a junk of ice. It was unexplainable how a girl next to me just had a tank top and shorts on and did not show the slightest sign of hypothermia. It was pitch-dark in the valley. Impossible to discern any shape of rock or building. We were driving in a wood. Sometimes I saw fire between the trunks. The smell of smoke filled to bus. Bushfire? Fairytale or horror movie? At Yosemite Village I jumped out. We were badly delayed. Felt bad for Danny who waited to pick me up. How would it be to see him again? What would it be emotionally? Would I still recognize him, his voice, his smile, his look? We hadn’t seen each other in 2 years. When I got out of the bus nobody was there. But all of a sudden a figure appeared out of the dark. There he was. Unbelievable to be there, the place I had dreamt of over long years and was about to discover in many different aspects. Since I have not given a shot to prepare any of this trip, I learned that we had another hour and a half to drive to where he lives. At a point Danny stopped the car an took me out to the meadows, and when I turned around we were standing right in front of this giant granit wall of El Cap that was glowing in the moonlight. Overwhelming. Danny lives in the Tuolumne Meadows. Situated north east of Yosemite Valley at 2650m above sea level. He lives in a ranger woodhut covered by canvas. So you can imagine how warm it is inside when the outside temperature is below zero. He shares his hut with Rueben (super frindly park ranger) and Ranger (Reuben's crazy but so friendly bulldog). I got to sleep in the van! With a very warm down sleeping bag.
