Almost Death in Yosemite

I had just graduated with a master's degree and got my first job as an Environmental Engineer for Trihey and Associates. I was driving the company vehicle from Concord, CA through Yosemite to set up trasects in the streams of Lee Vining Creek and Rush Creek on the East Side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. As I drove through the astoundingly beautiful scenic Yosemite I began to laugh with joy! I was being paid to drive through Yosemite National Park!!! Laughing gleefully I came around the corner of the winding two laned, narrow mountain road and saw a boulder the size of a very large microwave in front of me! I had some choices. I could swerve into the towering wall of stone on one side, I could vere off a 200 foot drop on the other side or I could go over the boulder and hope for the best. I plowed over the boulder! The truck rolled over it and the boulder lodged itself under the truck wrecking the differential gears on the back axle. I was flying... 45 mph with only my front two wheels touching the ground. I felt I was close to death. I did my best to not die. Eventually the boulder broke free but the drive shaft was broken. I now coasted precariously with four wheels on the ground. I steered and tried to gear down to slow down as I careened around the curves. Somehow I navigated those switchbacks and lived to tell about it. As the road ended at Highway 395 I flew straight ahead into the sandy high desert grinding to a stop near an auto repair shop!!!

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