Yosemite for 3 days

[DREW WILEY]

My babysitter as an infant was allegedly the first white woman to ever enter Yosemite. It's certainly possible, since she first visited there as a child
herself, and was in her 90's when I was born. The photos pretty much validate that claim. The Valley was still inhabited by Indians with their bark huts, and they wore exactly nothing! I think these were ambrotypes, now somewhere in our extensive family collection. The stories of those early
visits I learned second-hand from my parents as well as that woman's daughter, who was already an old woman herself when I was old enough to
start tending her garden. She gave me my first dog, for my one year old birthday present, which I do vividly remember, since it licked cake frosting
off my face. By the time I was twelve I was able to interview the last living member of one of those Miwok clans; but it was tricky since an intermediate Paiute dialect had to be used. He was believed to be 122 at the time; and this claim seemed realistic too, since he was born well before
the '49 Gold Rush, yet personally encountered his first white when he was already middle-aged. Passed away the next year.

 

[wy2l]

Drew:

I understand that, in Yosemite Valley, even today, especially in hot weather, it is possible to see scantly-clothed natives belonging to the HIPPIE and YUPPIE tribes swimming in the rivers and streams, partaking of the time-honored tradition of smoking the locally grown weeds (for medicinal properties, obviously).

 

[DREW WILEY]

Do you mean the Giardia River? No, I wouldn't swim in that myself. In a little over a month I'm heading into the headwaters of that stream for a couple of weeks, which is a significant section of the greater Park largely vacant of humans. But I'm crossing over from the San Joaquin drainage and not up from the Valley with its heat and crowds. As far as medicinal herbs, even opium poppy farms have been busted down in the brushy hills.
If you ever stumble onto something like that, DO NOT inform local law enforcement or the county sherriff's office. Contact the FBI anonymously with
the tip. Otherwise, you might end up as part of Yosemite landscaping forever!

 

[Two23]

I always head straight for the Big Trees.


Kent in SD