We made it! Safe & sound.
Thanks for the replies everyone. It was sad to see the "Red Bear, Dead Bear" signs on the roadway, that are placed where bears are hit & killed by cars.
The trip was way long, tons of driving. We started Thursday night, heading from Rohnert Park to Santa Cruz to meet with my Aunt & Uncle who were taking us. On the way, we stopped in Mountain View to pick up a set of Smittybilt tube steps for $30. Sweet deal, but no instructions. Crossed from 101 to 280, and then from 280 hit 17, in the dark & super thick fog. Got in to Santa Cruz at about 10:30.
Friday we didn't do much, but go out for dinner with my cousin in Santa Cruz. My Aunt & Uncle prepped their van they take all over the place, while we mostly relaxed. I've been feeling sick all week, but hey, we have reservations, and I'm not missing out!
Saturday we left around 10:30. We had a nice drive up 152 out of Watsonville; the twisty hilly drive had some great views of the fog on the coast. Stopping in Casa De Fruita for lunch, we cooled off a bit. There is still no A/C in our (black) Suburban, and the temps were heating up! Continuing on to Merced via 99, it was getting hotter out. Hung a right on 140, and once we started going uphill, it was obvious something wasn't quite right with my cooling system, still. Even with water wetter in the radiator, the engine temp started climbing as we were going uphill. We stopped at a park in the middle of nowhere, to cool off. The engine temp (210 on stock gauge) didn't cool down, so I threw a bottle of water over it, and fired it back up. The fan always runs on startup, and without dissapointment, the fan was running and cooled the engine right off! Hmmm, new fan clutch in the future? Passing through Mariposa, we hit the twisty part of 140. Right as we hit the entrance kiosk to Yosemite, the engine hit 210 again! We gave it a chance to cool off (shut down for a few) again after entering the park, and hit 120 towards our campground, Crane Flat. Thankfully at the higher altitude it was cooler, and the drive up the twisty road was a slower one. We stopped for gas at the Crane Flat station; 13 gallons from Aptos. It was late, as we pulled in to the campground. Our site wasn't exactly level, but we parked the Suburban in between some trees, and my Aunt & Uncle's van had the "car" spot since we would be travelling in it the next day. Beers & a walk back to the station for fire wood! We got back to the campsite in the dark, and lit a nice fire. I forgot this was National Forest land, and they told us we could collect firewood around the area, since we were not in the valley.
Saturday night was somewhat comfortable. My wife had picked up a double size piece of egg-crate foam from a futon shop ($100? really?) that was very very comfy. The trick though was that we were angled sideways, so I was rolled into the wheelwell & hi-lift, while she was rolling over pressing me harder into the wheel well & jack. I heard some sniffing/snorting during the night, and some people were hitting their car horns & banging pots, but we never saw bear footprints. We did see either racoon or marmot(?) footprints, but all of our food was in the locker. People were using their lights too much Saturday night; I kept waking up to headlights coming through the side windows. We think people were driving to the restroom which was close by, and keeping their lights on so they could see. Very rude. In the morning, I woke to lantern light at 5:30; the people across the way were making breakfast! I guess that's ok.. they were quiet at least. Maybe nobody figured we were sleeping in our vehicles.
Sunday we went into the valley. Everybody was there. Really, traffic was worse than anywhere I have ever been. We took a bus from the village to a "trail" that would take us to some waterfalls. I, having asthma & cold like symptoms, kind of prevented us from hiking too far, but I did my best. We cooled off in the stream/river for a bit, and got some nice photos (I have yet to upload the over 200 photos). We walked to Curry village to catch the bus, since everyone was catching it at the trailhead & we wanted to sit down. It was quite hectic even after getting a bus. It probably took an hour or more to get back to the village, and once there, the traffic was so backed up we just hung out in the store for a while. I think we left the village around 6:00 or later, and headed back to camp. I got some beautiful photos while driving of the setting sun hitting various rock formations. Once at camp, it got very dark very quickly. I decided to grab some rocks to help level out the Suburban. Probably the only "rock crawling" I'll do in it! In the light of a failing LP lantern (one broken mantle), I cooked up some stew for dinner, and popped a bottle of wine. We were able to get some wood that was left around, which were some very large rounds that really needed to be split; and I didn't bring my axe
My hatchet had failed, but we were able to peel off a bit of the large round & fire was had.
Sunday night was more comfortable, but we were still listing to the passenger side. I should have got out the hi-lift & finished leveling the body, but oh well. Still, the foam was very comfortable, and with the wing windows open, the cool air was refreshing at night.
The bugs did bother me almost all the time. I'm guessing it was the medicine I was using, nobody else had any issues with the bugs. I think it was mostly gnats though, I have no bites. As I mentioned, *everybody* was there, and that probably kept all the animals at bay. We never saw any bears, nor saw any evidence of bears in our area. The campground Sunday night was loud though. Up until 10:00 there was music, and after that the people were just loud. No lights to wake us up Sunday night though, or in the morning. After 6:00 all bets were off, people were up & packing to go home, and not too quiet about it.
