Despite our deluxe apartment in the sky, Chris didn’t sleep very well. He chose to use the camp’s bed with its heavy wool sheet/blanket combo and comforter and woke up cold several times – Jane, on the other hand, slept in her bag atop the bed and was toasty warm all night. Apparently, one of us (probably both of us, actually) snored loudly, prompting a comment from our roommates – oh well, such are the awkward realities of communal living, although that’s the principal reason for us choosing the backpacking option, i.e. wanting to avoid the weirdness of sharing space with people whom we don’t know. No matter – Chris was the first one up, so he bundled up, grabbed the camera, and headed outside to watch the sunrise, Jane joining him shortly thereafter. The sunrise was gorgeous – at this elevation, some 800′ higher than Sunrise or May Lake, the grasses and trees have a somewhat different character, and the thinner air seems to reflect the sparseness of the foliage, or perhaps vice versa. In any event, the dawn of a new day at Vogelsang was marvelous to see, worth the price of admission in its own right. The camp was astir well before the first rays of sunlight landed upon it, and we were soon breakfasting with the whole gang of folks we had gotten to know. After breakfast, we took some group photos, gathered our things and packed up, and headed out leisurely about 9am – we figured the hike out would be easy enough, as we’d be following the Rafferty Creek drainage downhill the whole way. After a 0.8 mile descent to Tuolumne Pass, we’d continue northward for nearly five more miles before hitting the JMT/PCT near the mouth of Lyell Canyon about 1,300′ below the pass. From there, we figured it to be about 1-1/2 miles of easy walking west through Tuolumne Meadows to the Wilderness Center and the Jeep – about 7-1/2 miles total with virtually no elevation gain. It was sort of funny – and, in the end, quite premature – to say goodbye to our fellow trekkers at the camp, as we’d share the trail with them the whole day. Chris forgot to set the GPS as we left Vogelsang, not remembering to turn it on until we were 0.2 miles from Tuolumne Pass (so for those keeping score at home, please add 6/10ths of a mile to the GPS distance noted in the photo below). The walk out was pleasant enough – for us, these were miles 42 through 49, and our bodies were just a bit tired by this time. We saw that in others’ faces as well – maybe it was thoughts returning to logistics of the trip home to wherever, or perhaps returning to whatever daily responsibilities we needed to deal with, but there seemed to be a collective air of concern that had been absent over the previous few days. The scenery helped to mitigate that, however – the walk down was, in a word, beautiful – high meadows, mountain vistas, it just seemed endless. We spied another unnamed rock formation near the bottom of the descent and christened it Beckett’s Dome – after passing it, we found ourselves on the only remotely-steep section of the day, a final 200′ drop to the JMT. We had picked up Mary as a companion about a mile earlier, so the three of us walked westward now over open slabs and along the sunny meadows, meeting all sorts of day hikers and trail runners on the route. We probably looked like we’d been through the ringer – dirty packs, dusty boots, etc. We turned north on the connector trail to the Tuolumne Meadows ranger station and crossed the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne on a pair of footbridges that Chris recalls from his hike with his dad here in 1977 – what Chris didn’t recall was a little 40′ up over a rise that separates the Lyell Fork from the Dana Fork. This was a surprisingly tough hill, something we’d have flown over under a light load, but our weary muscles were pretty much toast by this time. We found Ranger Adam and his Tourists grouped under a tree near the Lyell Fork trailhead, engrossed in some post-hike debrief it appeared, so we waved our farewell from the trail, turning west on yet another connector leading down the Dana Fork – Mary took a pseudo-romantic photo of us crossing over to the north side of the river, and we bid her adieu there as she waited for the rest of The Sisterhood to catch up. The remaining half-mile of the walk went by in a hazy combination of deep sand, hot sun, and breezeless shade – as we came along the paved ranger station access road, we transferred off the trail and onto the hard surface, which was more than welcome after way too much of the sandy stuff. We passed by the ranger station and found again the Wilderness Center, from which we had started hiking a lifetime ago, it seemed – after a quick wipe-down to get (most of) the dust off, we were on our way by 2pm. We made two stops, the first at the Tuolumne Meadows visitor center to grab some mementos for the boys, the second at the general store for some ice cold water (Chris bumped into The Sisterhood again here in the parking lot – Jane, to her dismay, missed them), and we headed out east over Tioga Pass and down to Mammoth Lakes, where we had a hotel reservation waiting. On the way, we went over our six-day hike in retrospective, making several observations: 1) potable water being available at all the campgrounds we visited, bringing along our water filter was unnecessary (a LifeStraw would have sufficed for emergencies, at a fraction of the weight), 2) a group of 4, provided reservations are successfully obtained during the spring lottery, appears ideal for those wanting to stay in the tent cabins without sharing space with others, 3) treadmill work in advance of such a trip pays huge dividends in building stamina, 4) not a single mosquito bite over six days on the trail is ample testimony supporting a late season trip, despite the dry creeks, 5) total trip distance, per our GPS, was 49.84 miles with 10,824′ of elevation gain and an equal amount of loss (also, Chris’ FitBit logged 147,152 steps and 20,577 calories burned over the six days), and, perhaps most significantly, 6) we could count ourselves and those we met in the backcountry among those relative few, out of 4 million annual Yosemite visitors, who have made the effort and taken the time to see the enormous cross-section of the park that we saw. The trip was amazing from start to finish, and we’re so lucky to have had the opportunity – we’re already thinking about a return visit next year. To all who helped make the experience a lifelong memory for us, from camp staff to park rangers to our fellow hikers, we offer our heartfelt gratitude.