This week the word raced
throughout the eastern Sierra --
Tioga is open!
It's early this year
and I'd hoped to get
to Lake Tenaya
before the tourons
came and the snow melted.
The rented Cruise America motor home
sped along at twenty-seven
miles an hour.
I did find a secluded table
at the lake
after I sloshed through
the soaked paths.
Four tourists and three coolers
found my retreat,
decided, because I was alone,
they could consume my space,
turned on their irritating music,
and began to feed.
When they left,
they put down the top
on the convertible,
rolled up the windows,
and left an apple core
on the forest floor.
The snow is still
three feet high
in the Meadows.
