Yose (pronounced yo-SEE)

Yose loved to sleep under the stars, that's how she got her trail name. Yose is short for Yosemite Sam, the cowboy from Looney Tunes because Yose loved to cowboy camp. She love it so much that her trail family didn't know what her tent looked like for the longest time. There was something about waking up under the stars that made camping without a tent magical.

Yose was pretty fierce. Sure, there were things that scared her, she wasn't the greatest in snow, especially when an ice axe was required and yeah, there was that one creek crossing where she almost lost her footing, and when she was night hiking alone she was always sure there was a mountain lion stalking her. But she could log miles with the best of them, 40 miles by herself, no problem. 50 with her trail family, done deal.

The only time she ever wanted to quit the trail was when she was headed into Trout Lake because she literally woke up in a lake. It was pouring. And there was no good place to move her tent out of the lake in the middle to the storm. She woke up the next morning and just cried in her tent. But she didn't give up.

In five months and four days she walked 2,650 miles. She walked through the heart of the the High Sierra and fell in love with each of the Cascade Peaks. Her heart melted with each rainbow after a desert storm and cherished every sunrise and sunset. Her body went through slow changes and acute ones. And every day her body ached. But she kept walking.

For those five months she was everything she had ever wanted to be.

I miss you Yose. But I am glad that she comes around every once in a while.