aesthetics

Day 40 ~ miles 723 - 746

We slept well under the phenomenal stars of the Sierra sky, but it was freezing cold!  We awoke early, as usual, and hiked a gentle ascent down from our campsite. 

Everything in these mountains seems to be so aesthetically pleasing.  It's as if every live tree, rock, fallen dead tree has been perfectly placed.  We pondered the age of some of these huge live trees, and how long the fallen dead trees had been decomposing, surely a slow process at these heights.

We saw our first marmot!  He popped out of a dead tree, presumably his home, to check us out as we walked by.  A cute, chubby little mammal of the woodland, it seems similar to a groundhog.

Fighter jets performed stunts overhead for much of the day as we hiked.  We made our way to a grassy meadow where we are camped by ourselves at 11,000 feet.  It gets cold so fast in these parts!  We possibly just witnessed Air Force One fly overhead, or some other large jet flanked by 2 fighter jets on each side...pretty neat!