My campsite neighbour for the past two days is Ted, a forty- something, obviously single white male from Los Angeles. He came over to my tent to introduce himself yesterday and quickly noted that my campsite beside the river was much better than his. He determined which day I was leaving so that he could take over my site. When he spotted my bike he told me all about how he’d stopped riding because he got sick of staring at a road. Ted was now into mountain hiking. As a member of the Sierra club his aim was to climb as many peaks as he could so that he could tick each of them off his Sierra Club summits list.

The campground is so peaceful except for my neighbour Ted. Even when I think I can get some peace while eating a meal he comes over to my table, sticks his foot up onto my bench and proceeds to lay out his hiking maps in front of me. He points out each of the peaks he plans to do in the next week and then asks me what time I was going to be leaving in the morning so that he can bring his tent over. Ted’s conversational skills are limited to only talking about himself.

My tent site was not even cold this morning before Ted brings his tent over and proceeds to set it up. I’m trying to have one last peaceful breakfast but am failing badly. Before I’ve even taken my food out of the bear-proof food locker, Ted is already putting his stuff in. He has to leave straight away because he’s going on a bird watching tour in the park. He’s already pointed out a bunch of bird noises for me. “Hear that?” he’s asked me repeatedly over the last few days, “that’s a (insert bird name I’ve never heard of here)!”.

My first National Park of the trip and what a great one to start with. While I was hiking to Mill Creek Falls I met a retired couple from Florida.