kick ass yoga in yosemite

y'all. i went backpacking. y'know, where you strap it all (food, tent, clothes) to your back and hike to the middle of a beautiful nowhere and make it your somewhere. and do yoga there. that's what i did.

a while ago i signed up on a whim with a ucsf weekend trip - yoga in yosemite. a yoga teacher i know here in oakland was running the yoga part of it, so i thought i'd give it a try. previous experience? well....i'd been hiking before. mt. monadnock totally counts, right?

i was a little nervous, having come back from the sierra's on labor day with a splitting headache (altitude? stress? dehydration? allergies? dunno). but i went anyway, drinking the whole time and gaining a reputation for the most hydrated/likely-to-have-to-pee-at-any-given-moment. and it was great 12 other people, including 2 ucsf guides (who were very cool) and the yoga instructor (also, very cool) - we camped out on friday night, then hiked in to sunset lake in yosemite on sat morning (after a frigid morning yoga class at the campground). the hike was up, up and away in the hot, hot sun. but we took it easy, and everyone was pretty good company, so it went by quickly (either that or it's like childbirth - you forget the reality of the pain as soon as it's over -- "eh, giving birth wasn't *that* painful. really, it was beautiful.").

then we found a beautiful spot by the lake, camped out, and chowed down. some went swimming. oh, and we did some restorative yoga at DUSK on a LAKE in the middle of beautiful yosemite. it was HEAVEN. next day? breakfast, yoga, hang out, swim, lunch, pack up hike out.

really there's a lot more to write here but i'm exhausted. hopefully, i'll have some pictures soon...as soon as i send my cvs camera to mom, have her develop the pics, and then send them back to me. (there are no cvs's here, and no disposable digital cameras)

whew. what a refreshing weekend! ended with a serious moment of mangia at a pizza joint on the way home. fun.