Summer 2003 Trail Mix

Yosemite Spring

by David Speidel WLT Spring, 03

In the Spring of '03 I made a trip to the Yosemite Valley with two other teachers and more importantly 16 high school students from George Washington High School in San Francisco. It was, at it routinely is in the Yosemite Valley, a trip with everything we could have asked. Getting semi lost? All part of the plan. Finally, camp was set on Friday night and the outdoor experience began. A long hike on the following Saturday and the city kids were ready for their beds, but the best was yet to come. We had given specific instructions to make sure that rain flies were tight, even if there had been no sign of bad weathr. Mother Nature obliged and gave us a pounding from 11:00PM to about 7:30AM. The students woke up wet, and ready to leave. Then it happened. The rain turned to snow. Snow unlike any that half the kids had ever seen before. Snow unlike I had ever seen before, and the cleanup came to a screeching halt. It was time to experience Yosemite for what it was, life in the raw. Students spent the next hours catching snowflakes on their tongues, and then running to the car for the heater. Thanks BAWT!