July 5

7/5

20 miles (968 to 988, campsite near a nice little creek) 

Longest day ever. We got up to the sound of clays alarm. I hate having to set an alarm, but if we don't we would sleep until 8 and ain't nobody got time for that. Hopefully we will get back into the habit of waking early but until then, beep beep beep. 

We broke camp and left without breakfast, a dangerous move mood levels wise, and hit the trail by 6:30. We have heard that the best lake in Yosemite was on route today, only 4 miles down the trail and a short detour after that. We were laying on Benson lakes's beautiful sandy beach by 9. We had breakfast, coffee, and a morning swim vowing to return someday. 

The rest of the day was steep ups and downs in and out of 3 massive granitic stream valleys. I'm almost as slow on the steep downs as I am at the steep ups, so the pace was slow. We hiked into mosquito hour, swatting and cursing as we searched for a tolerable place to set up camp.