We were still a little tired because we talked until fairly late into the night. Our tent cabin mates, Kirby and Matika, both from Ashland, were so much fun to talk to. And even more amazing, Kirby taught James how to sing! He actually made great progress in a very short time, and I felt bad that I can't explain these things better. We finally stopped talking and laughing and singing because it felt kind of late - amusingly, Matika's watch had also stopped, so we had no idea what time it was.
Then we packed our bags one last time, and said good bye to beautiful Vogelsang. The mule riders had already left the morning before, so we did not have to worry about them coming up from behind and raising a huge dust cloud. We realized that Vogelsang is actually one of the easier camps to get to - which explained the many electric toothbrushes, make-up, and other trappings of civilization I'd encountered in the bathroom in the morning. People might just take a hike up, spend a few days, and hike back down. But, on the other hand, since the hike up from Tuolomne Meadows is around 7 miles with 2 000 ft. elevation gain, we didn't see any inflatable canoes like at May Lake.
We enjoyed the walk back to the Tuolumne River, and dipped our feet into the river close to the end. Ahhh that felt good! Then we retrieved our items we had stored in the bear locker, and climbed into the car for the drive down to the valley.
