We parked the Toyota in the old orchard parking lot at Currie Village and took the bus over to the Happy Isles to start hiking. Here's Lois right outside the restrooms -- cheery as always and excited about backpacking.

      We went up towards Vernal Falls and then up the horse trail. Went very slowly and took a lot of breaks, and at one point Lois curled up on a rock and took a nap. It was all new to her, this backpacking business.
      Here she is on the horse trail after one of our rests. Isn't she lovely? For years she had this photo stuck up next to her bathroom mirror, first in her apartment on Lion's Field road and then in her cottage on Happy Valley road. Next to it she had stuck a pin that said "This is what 50 looks like." And another that said "100% Santa Cruz -- I was born here."
      The big photo below shows the two of us where we took another brief break -- long enough for me to set my self-timer, anyway. To the right is Liberty Cap.

      We spent the night in Little Yosemite, and I was embarrassed to have a ranger come around and ask me for our permit, which I had not bothered to get. Embarrassed to have made myself look like an idiot in front of Lois.
      In the morning Lois made herself a cup of tea on my little Coleman stove.

      She sat by the swollen Merced River todrink her tea. I followed her over with my camera, but she wanted to be alone for a while, so I let her be.

      I'd told Lois about Joel and Unity climbing Half Dome, and she wanted to at least get up to the base of the cables. We started hiking but didn't get very far before she got a pain in her belly.
      So we had to go back, and decided to head back down into Yosemite Valley. Here she is resting a bit at the top of Nevada Falls.

      Lois thought she should get a shot of me as well. So why not? You can see how scruffy I look after a week of camping. But happy to be with her.
      That hat is one I bought at the Yosemite store when we were up there a couple of weeks earlier. The purple bandana I threaded through its loops was one my friend Rhonda gave me.
      Lois liked the hat and within days appropriated it for herself.

      We pick up our packs again and head back to the horse trail.

      Already Lois is feeling exhausted and pained. Poor darling -- she doesn't have the physique for this. I try to take more of her things into my own pack, and we stop several times to rest, but she is in agony. Finally another hiker takes her pack and carries it down to the Happy Isles for her.
      She's glad to get back to the car and even gladder to get back to Santa Cruz. I still keep thinking there must be some way to get her out into the lovely backpackable areas of Yosemite without putting her through such agonies.