After our dinner at Merced Lake, we spent some time packing up our campsite – things were a little simpler since a) Jane had no wine left to stash in the campground bear box, and b) we had been allowed to get rid of at the HSC the small amount of garbage we’d been carrying, which also would have gone into the bear box. Thus, all our smelly stuff now fit into our personal bear canister, and we went to bed knowing all we’d have to pack in the morning was what was in our tent (plus the tent, naturally). The campground was already stirring when we awoke, and we got right to tearing things down – we were ready to go before we knew it, and we strutted with pride into the HSC, packs on our backs, just as they were calling guests to coffee at 7am – of course, everyone else was preoccupied with their coffee or tea and took no notice of our little personal achievement. No worries – we dropped our packs near the dining tent and joined the crowd. Breakfast was the typical spread, although the eggs were done in large frittatas and were delicious, as expected. Our breakfast companion was Ranger Adam Ramsey, who had been at Merced Lake for two nights leading a group of hiker/campers on a guided tour of the same loop as ours – one day ahead of us until now, his group had started as 10 people, but a family of four had dropped out the second day, another guy had dropped out ill a day later, so his band (whom we labeled The Tourists) was now five. Adam is a rock climber as well as a ranger/naturalist, and he flies up trails with the greatest of ease, as we later found out – a very interesting guy, he’s been a ranger for 7 years, the last four of which have been spent in Yosemite, stationed at Glacier Point above the Valley. We ate lightly for the second day in a row, as we wanted to get on the trail – today was the day, our big climb to Vogelsang. Leaving Merced Lake HSC, we’d head east for 0.8 miles on a gentle gradient to the Merced Lake ranger station, turning north onto the Lewis Creek trail, a steep set of switchbacks that gains 900′ over the next mile to a junction. Here we’d head north again to follow Fletcher Creek more gently for 0.6 miles before climbing another 700′ to a saddle adjacent to Babcock Dome. Once above the dome, the advice was “well now you’ll be in the meadows, and it’s easy from there” – “easy” in this case means 4.2 more miles and 1,200′ more gain to Vogelsang HSC, for a total of about 8.4 miles and ~2,800′ of gain. One of our dinner companions at Sunrise was a lady who had done the loop before, and she had stated that there was no more scenic leg of the loop than this one – effort-wise, we looked at it more in comparison with our familiar Mt Baden-Powell, the conventional ascent of which involves 2,800′ of gain in just 4 miles, so this should only be half as hard, right? We left the camp just after 8am, our earliest start of the trip, and walked sorely but steadily eastward – we were passed shortly thereafter by Ranger Adam and a couple of his charges, and we watched them float effortlessly up the switchbacks as we made the first turn. Still in shade at this hour, the switchbacks were not as bad as we expected – they bring pack trains up this way, so there were more cobbled ramps than stair steps. Plus, the views south and west improved with every step, first to Merced Lake and Half Dome and then to the Clark Range. Our pace was steady – we’d go for 100 or even 200 steps, take a breather for 30 seconds (ok, maybe 60) and start again. Ranger Adam’s strategy, it appears, was to go faster for longer and then take a longer break – his group and ours would leapfrog each other all day. Much the same with another group we had first met at Sunrise – we called them the Family Packers, six members who were also meals-only like us, and they’d pass us while we were resting so we could return the favor later. We were surprised to find a descent on the other side of the first climb – once past the Fletcher Creek junction, where we turned left, we actually dropped down a couple of switchbacks before crossing Lewis Creek and resuming our climb once more. The approach to Babcock Dome was impressive – treeless and immense, the dome literally blocks the Fletcher Creek drainage, creating a shallow valley behind it to its north (“the meadows”) and forcing the creek into a long series of cascades down the dome’s southern shoulder. Reaching the base of the dome, we started up another lengthy set of switchbacks, although these didn’t seem as taxing as the first ones today – soon enough, we were over the top, spurred on by the Family Packers whom we could see below us. We again dropped a little coming across the saddle into The Meadows, and the trail resumed its gradual ascent as we passed through pretty green grass interspersed with flowers. Ranger Adam passed us briskly again here, and Vivian also caught up with us (Len had chosen to stay on the Lewis Creek trail, an alternate route to Vogelsang that’s slightly longer but also involves an additional 600′ of gain over Vogelsang Pass) – she, too, passed us by, and we ascended up and out of the northeast end of the meadows past yet another set of Fletcher Creek cascades. At the top of this section was a large granite dome that was unnamed on the map – it’s now Ollie’s Dome – beyond which we entered a broad valley that was simply striking to behold. Lined north and south by steep granite ridges, the valley was carpeted with short tundra-like grass and dotted with stands of lodgepole pine – it was breathtaking, and it was also relatively flat (or at least a very gentle slope). We cruised up the valley to the day’s final junction, a fork where we’d stay right (south) to head up to Vogelsang while the left path went directly up to Tuolumne Pass and down eventually to Tuolumne Meadows. Just past the fork, we decided to sit and at least eat an energy bar – we had so far not stopped long as weather had been building to the south for the past couple of hours. The last forecast we had seen noted a 20% chance of thunderstorms for Friday (today), and Chris has more than a slight phobia about getting caught in such a storm on high, exposed ground. So, with the cloud cover starting to thicken, we rested for about ten minutes or so before resuming our passage through the meadows, and the trail started to steepen again about a half-mile from the fork. We ascended up this final grade (honestly, it seemed interminable, we were so anxious to get there) sometimes along Fletcher Creek, sometimes removed from it, through a succession of gullies and flats, gradually getting better views of the Vogelsang Peak area to the south. The real landmark, though, was Fletcher Peak, a squarish, massive lump of granite tall ahead of us at the base of which we knew was the HSC. Eventually, the gradient moderated significantly and we found ourselves at the camp – it was only 1:45pm. Earlier in the day, we had discussed the possibility of getting a tent cabin on this last night, availability permitting (Len and Vivian had had empty beds in their cabins the two previous nights), and the long climb up the final pitch had sealed the deal – with the threat of rain and as tired as we felt, the last thing we wanted to do was set up camp. We checked in with the camp manager, he had space available, so we forked over most of the spare cash we had brought along and bought space for two in Cabin #9. It was a four-bed cabin (other are six or even eight), and our roommates had yet to arrive – we claimed two beds on the one side, found the washroom where we cleaned up a bit (no showers here, but sinks with hot water), ate our belated lunch, and promptly got bored stiff. This was the earliest we had arrived at any of our daily destinations, and we didn’t know what to do with ourselves, especially with no tent to set up or campsite to find. We wandered east up the Evelyn Lake trail to Fletcher Lake for some photos, then back down the creek where we found a great foot-soak spot with whirlpool action in a little whitewater section. The dining tent was very comfortable and the staff didn’t seem to mind our presence, so we picked up some different books from their library shelves and just lounged there until dinner – it was awesome. Jennifer and Mary showed up as a few sprinkles were beginning to fall, and we found that Len had made his way safely up the more difficult trail and was in camp too. We met our roommates, a retired couple from Cupertino, who had just hiked up from Tuolumne Meadows – in all, a very leisurely and pleasant afternoon. Typical of the Sierras, the clouds had mostly blown out by dinnertime, and the dinner was an outstanding chicken gumbo soup with rice and the usual hearty bread and salad. After dinner, we went out on the open grass to watch the spectacular sunset while Ranger Adam provided a very interesting talk about the history of the Park Service (that turned 100 years old just two days ago, as of this writing) and of his own career thus far as a member of it. The HSCs all have quiet hours starting at 10pm, but everyone, including us, were turned in by 8:30 or so – for most of us, it was our last night on the trail, and maybe there was a bit of melancholy in camp at that realization.