Trails & Tales of Yosemite & the Central Sierra
Sharon Giacomazzi is a Sierra hiker who happens to be an avid history buff and a born storyteller.  Sharon's love affair with the Sierra Nevada began early, as soon as she learned to walk.  She grew up on a large ranch in the foothills below Kings Canyon National Park.  When Sharon wasn't asleep or in school, she wandered the hills, wild and free, on foot or horseback.  Mountain life got into her blood and stayed, even during years away at college and in the city earning a living as a teacher.  The urban setting always made Sharon feel like an alien, a stranger trapped in a strange land.  Finally, in 1980, after 22 years of teaching, she decided to go home to the mountains where her spirit could be nurtured by the Sierra's natural rhythms and cycles.  Sharon bought property close to Yosemite and connected with her sense of place and her spiritual home.  After building her house, she created ways to eke out a modest living, then began walking, and she hasn't stopped.In the past 21 years, Sharon has trekked more than 7000 Sierra miles in and around Yosemite National Park.  She has been an outings leader for several environmental organizations and community colleges, as well as a leader of her own history hikes.  She has read and re-read scores of history books about the Sierra, finding they tremendously enriched her hiking experiences.  Treading a trail is certainly rewarding, but Sharon found it a bit one dimensional.  Knowing each place's background and nuances takes the hike to another level of intimacy that is very gratifying.  Sharon started writing about the trails and tales of Yosemite and the Central Sierra in 1992.  Like walking, once she got going she couldn't stop.  Since then, her articles have appeared regularly in the Yosemite Highway Herald newspaper and Sierra Heritage and California Explorer magazines.  Much to her amazement and delight, she encountered many people eager for something more than just a hiking guide to get them from point A to B.  They wanted some "meat with their potatoes," as one reader chose to put it.  Sharon loves to hike and write about her adventures.  Like John Muir, she too feels blessed when she can entice someone to get out there and mingle with the rest of the food chain and "taste the tonic of wilderness."