Smith Crew: Yosemite or Bust- Day 2

The second day of our trip was the most jam packed with silliness,

adventure, and a bear hunt. We kicked off the morning by riding our bikes to some Indian caves that are NOT marked on maps. Our instructions to find them, were basically to "ride to the end of the road, look for the outhouse, follow the horse trail to a huge flat rock, and walk toward the rocks from there." Well we followed the instructions, and found the caves that I climbed around in 15 years ago with my 8th grade class. The kids were in heaven and we were so impressed with Griff. He would march around in his little boots like he was a pro. Every time I would lend him my hand, he would say, "no, I can do it myself!"

In this particular cave, you had to lower yourself down into. We sent Kai down first, and passed Kailer, Kali, Jordyn, and Griff to him. It was pretty dark down there and we forgot all our flashlights except for Kai's headlamp.

As soon as we climbed out of the main cave, the kids found a rock to take a break on.

They were pooped.

We had so much more to do though, so we sallied forth on our bikes to Mirror Lake.

We hopped off for a minute to check out this river, and I chucked Griff in. Not really.

Man and Mountain

We didn't get the memo that Mirror Lake was something we would want to play in, so no swimsuits.All the kids stripped down and for some reason had no problem playing in

freezing cold ice water.

Love this pic. No clothes, but he was careful to wear a hat.

Back on the bikes to get to camp for a late lunch.

Passed out, but gripping tightly to his bow and arrow.

On our lunch break, Aaron fashioned a dagger for Kailer, out of a piece of flat wood.

Now he was prepared for our bear hunt.

Drove to Bridal Veil Falls.

There is waterfall in this pic, you just cant see it.

After the falls, we stopped off to check out a cool bridge, and ended up on a bear hunt.

I saw this creature out of the corner of my eye and figured it was either a huge dog or our lucky day.

The bear got a little camera shy and walked off into the woods. Aaron and Kailer thought it was a good idea for them to follow it a little. It was okay though because Kailer had his dagger. As they walked in the direction that it went, the bear popped his head up like a jack in the box from behind this fallen tree,

scaring the heck out of Aaron and Kailer.