Today became an exercise in logistics. From the start, our plan was to hike out from May Lake some 3 miles down to the Tioga Road where we could catch the daily shuttle bus at Tenaya Lake to get back to the car at Tuolumne Meadows. The shuttle, which originates in Yosemite Valley, passes Tenaya Lake at 10:10am, and, since breakfast doesn’t usually end until about 8:30, we thought it would be a tight squeeze to make it to the bus stop at the appointed time. At any rate, Yosemite Valley ended up being closed by the Ferguson wildfire for a couple of weeks before our trip started, and the daily shuttle service was discontinued as a result. Well, the Valley reopened on August 10th with “limited services” – when Chris called the day before we left, the park told him the shuttle would resume service on Saturday, and we wouldn’t need it until the following Tuesday, so all good, right? We were then surprised upon arriving at May Lake that no shuttles at all were operating in the high country, leaving us with three options for getting back to the car: 1) walk 13 miles from May Lake to Tuolumne Meadows (least preferred), 2) hitchhike along the Tioga Road (none of us had ever hitchhiked before – hmmm), or 3) find someone going from May Lake up to Tuolumne Meadows and get a ride. As it turned out, Fred and Julia had a car 1.2 miles below May Lake at the nearest parking area, and they needed it moved to Tuolumne Meadows since they were continuing on to hike the full loop and had planned on taking the shuttle in the reverse direction as us back to their car at May Lake. So, it all worked out – the five of us left the camp about 9am and sauntered down the easy trail to Fred and Julia’s car (a Mazda 3), stuffed ourselves into the back seat (Chris’ and Pedro’s packs fit into the back, Jane held hers on her lap), and we drove together about 20 minutes up to our car at the Wilderness Center – we then transferred all the gear to our Pathfinder and took Fred and Julia back west to the Cathedral Pass trailhead on the Tioga Road so they could continue their hike south to Sunrise. Ah, the universe was aligned once again. We had talked about driving home through Yosemite Valley instead of back down the east side of the Sierras – we wanted to hit the big gift shop at Yosemite Village for some souvenirs for the grandkids, and we also wanted to see what devastation the Ferguson Fire had wrought outside the Valley’s west end. So, we continued down the Tioga Road and around to a hazy Yosemite Valley, stopping to snap a photo of smoke still rising from smoldering hot spots in the Merced River gorge. Surprisingly, the Valley was quite crowded, despite low water flows in all the falls (Yosemite Falls was completely dry). Also surprising was how Google Maps routed us home – Hwy 41 was still closed, so we drove a circuitous route west down Hwy 140, then east on Hwy 49 to Oakhurst and south down the 41 to Fresno. Still about 7 hours in the car today, not arriving in Bako until nearly 6pm. With all the uncertainty involved with the fire, this was still a great adventure – we’re now planning a trip for next year in the reverse direction with Vogelsang, Merced Lake, and Sunrise on the itinerary, so stay tuned…