Creamsicle and the Beardless Woodsman: Day 10

8 miles from Vogelsang to Merced Lake with a detour to Emeric Lake

It was another stunning walk today, and we took a side trip to Emeric Lake. Instead of going all the way to the lake, we climbed up onto a cliff with a great view of the lake. We have gone to enough lakesides this trip that it’s better now (mosquito wise and view wise) to find a new angle on them. That’s what the cliff gave us. We got to Merced Lake camp in good time, and it had a blue-green pool at the bottom of some cascades right next to camp. So Vaughn, Maggie and I sat down and ate lunch there. Because I had the rest of my meals taken care of, I had food that I needed to get rid of. So I had a lunch that would make even the Snow Lodge EDR look crappy (except the country-fried steak)!! I made Ramen (which Maggie had never had before so she tasted it and loved it…some kids are just so uncultured nowadays) and Rice Roni (the San Fransisco treat taste just the same whether you get it in NC or San Fran, which I found to be a little disappointing). And although the view wasn’t quite as good as in the EDR, the food was better. After lunch, we all swam in the water, which was ice cold buy oh so refreshing. The whole group actually swam, all 9 of us…yes, even the two old queens!! We then decided that today was gonna be a relaxing day, because tomorrow was gonna be a female dog to say the least. So I worked on my bronze a little for the ladies, and we played UNO for a while. We then got the camp’s bocce ball set and played the most interesting game of bocce ball I’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of. We played all over rocks, logs, sand hills and the biggest pine cones I’ve ever seen. We then played horseshoes for a while until dinner. That helped me find out that, other than singing Beyonce songs, Adelle songs and that one song from RENT, I do have another talent: horseshoes. Look out Florida retirement homes!!! I played two games as Vaughn’s partner and two as Maggie’s partner, and I won all 4…think of the common factor. I must admit though that Peter had a smooth stroke on the horseshoe court…kinda like a pendulum, but with a mustache. At dinner, they only had tables for 6 people, so Vaughn, Maggie and I had to sit at another table with some old fellas. Vaughn got caught talking to one guy the whole time, and luckily Maggie and I stuck together. We did talk to two of the guys for a while, but I obviously wasn’t too interested in their conversation because I don’t really remember anything they were talking about. But then came Danger Rave (Ranger Dave, but Danger Rave most definitely suits him better). He is a 60ish year old naturalist ranger guide in Yosemite that has a mane (no exaggeration) of blonde curly hair, glasses, and always has his top two buttons on his shirt unbuttoned to reveal an endless sea nuzzle-worthy chest hair. We also think he is gay, not that there is anything wrong with that. He gave a speech at the end of dinner, and at the end of the speech he took a small flashlight, while some other guy was speaking, and started dancing and waiving the flashlight and yelling “it’s a rave, it’s a rave”. Oh Danger Rave. We then went after dinner to Danger’s ranger talk around the fire pit. The talk was packed!! There was probably about 30-40 people around the fire pit to listen to his talk. Danger made the fire and kept it going as he talked. I swear his hand went in the fire about 20 times and he was phased about as much as I get on a soccer field (I phase people, I don’t get phased ). What a man. Then, in one of his stories, he took his hat off and started whipping his hair back and forth like Willow, and then after it was all shook out he asked us who we thought he was. Somebody said Einstein, somebody said Buffalo Bill, somebody said Karl Marx, and I said Brad Pitt. That will give you an idea of what he looked like. But it turned out he was talking about Grizzly Adams. Who the F#$@ is Grizzly Adams anyways?! He told us a bunch of personal bear stories which were hilarious (half laughing with him and half laughing at him). He had a thing for speaking in bear voices. One of his stories was about a bear who smelled a Snickers from over a mile away, and when he got to the tent cabin with the Snickers and started tearing into the cabin, the kid ran and the bear said “SNICKERS!!” in a low growly voice. Another story had two cubs running back and forth on a log and apparently they were saying “Mommy is bringing hot dogs! Mommy is bringing hot dogs!”. Either this guy is Dr. Dolittle or he is a little on the nutso side. But we thoroughly enjoyed him, so I will not complain. Maggie and I have jokes for the next 20 years now thanks to the one and only Danger Rave. After the talk, we played another game of UNO or two and went to bed.

My feelings towards Danger Rave, because I just can’t put them into words yet:

“Mmmbop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du
Yeah
Mmmbop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du
Yeah” - Hanson