We were hiking in Yosemite a couple years ago in mid May when the crowds weren't too bad. We decided to stop by some Calaveras County wineries around Murphys on the way back to The City for the flight home.

On the road we knew something was up when we met a biker on a bridge over a chasm near Murphys -- standing on his bike with arms outstretched as he sped past. We were soon mired in the gridlock of a thousand Harleys in midtown Murphys.

It was all quite the shock after camping at the Wawona campground -- just opened for the season, and a couple days later we had inadvertantly landed in the the big biker weekend at Murphys for the nearby Jumping Frog Jubilee.

I remember being happy at the time that we had invaded their turf at Murphys, and that we hadn't encountered them at the Mariposa Grove.