My first visit to Yosemite

It began with an alarm going off at an ungodly hour such as 4:45am, which was then followed by two grumbling people doing a short morning routine before throwing packs tents duffels and food over their shoulder, into the trunk of the car, and hittin' the road.

Eventually some tunes became appropriate and we made our way over the Grapevine and down into the valley. We stopped in Fresno to have a morning snack and coffee and then to pick up some more food and a few other pieces of clothing that were ridiculously on sale at the REI in Fresno. I was proud of my technical REI softshell jacket that was discounted from $149 to about $35. Otherwise, I would never have purchased it. And now I can be a techie adventurer on the cheap. That's my style.

Anyway...

Another hour into the mountains we stopped in ... Oakdale? ... at a Safeway to get the perishables that we needed to keep in the cooler, a roasted chicken for the meal of the day, and a tank of gas. At this point Todd insisted he take the wheel (I'm glad he knows how to drive a manual!) so that I could fully see the sights as we entered Yosemite.

We followed a curvy road (and a line of tourists in their SUVs and such) slowly into the park, held our breath through a mile-long tunnel (I didn't make it all the way, darn slow-driving tourists, that's my excuse) and soon pulled off to the side to take in the very first view of Half Dome ...



And before I knew it, someone was taking a picture of us and I was told to act like I liked Todd, which wasn't very hard to do...




On the way up to our campgrounds, we passed a rock climber's hot spot: El Capitan.



And when we got to the campsite and were waiting for our friends to meet us there, we tried to catch up on the sleep we would have gotten had we not woke up at aforementioned ungodly hour.

Streeeeeetch!

A lot of time passed between this last picture and the next, so I'll fill up the space with a true story of our night-hiking adventure extravaganza.

It was Todd, myself, and our friend Sean and his girlfriend Amanda there in Yosemite with the hopes of hiking under the stars to the top of Half-Dome, where we could take a snooze and hopefully catch the sunrise. Knowing we had around 10 miles to go that night, we stopped for pizza in Curry Village, which was also the location of the trailhead. After a long line and a fumbled order (being lactose intolerant is a new experience for me and comes along with a lot of fumbled food orders!) we hit the trail around 10:30pm.

After a bit of hiking it turned out that Todd and I hiked a bit faster than Sean and Amanda, so I gave them my headlamp and we figured we'd just stop and wait for them here and there so we could hike our own pace. Nobody minded. After they took my headlamp Todd and I began to truck on and Sean asks, "The trail doesn't split anywhere, does it?" and from what Todd recalled he said no. About 3 minutes later we reach a split in the trail, ha. But the trail we were all going to take followed a creek and a decent waterfall, and even though it was in the dark of night, the sound of the falls was beyond distinguishable. Plus, Sean said he had hiked both trails before and knew the one we were taking. At this point we figured he would remember the split as well (since evidently we all forgot about the split, even though we had discussed this split earlier in the car because one is wildly more steep than the other).

So we trucked on, when perhaps we should have waited there at the split. After about a half-a-mile of high granite steps, we make it to the top of the falls and wait for the other two to catch up. They never did, and we never saw their headlamp coming up the trail from below. We asked other hikers that reached the top after us if they had seem them and we only got "no's." We had to assume Sean took the wrong trail and perhaps forgot about the HALF-A-MILE of insanely steep steps. We decided that if we climbed back down while they were still going up the other trail (which meets the one we were on in about a mile and a half further) then we would never catch up with them. So we book it to the top of the next falls where the trails meet and basically wait there for about 2 hours as we ask other hikers coming from the other trail if they have seen our friends.

Eventually we piece together from their stories that Amanda had not wanted to continue and Sean ran ahead to find us without avail (because we were on a different trail) and around midnight (when Todd and I reached the top of the second falls) they turned around and went back. So at 2:30 in the morning, we learned they went back. It was too irresponsible to continue our hike without being in communication with them, so we decided we needed to head back. We took the trail that they accidentally took on the way back just in case, and after four miles we're back to the parking lot.

It is 5am. We have been up for 24 hours now and have hiked 6.5 miles, and are needless to say exhausted and ready to crash. When we get back to the parking spot, we are quietly astonished to find that the car was not there. We sit down at a table to wait for dawn and to figure out what to do as we both start to crash. Finally we decide to walk the mile an a half on the road to Yosemite Village where there are shuttles etc. that can hopefully take us to our campsite 17 miles away. We considered hitch-hiking but thought we'd explore more organized transportation first.

Nothing was open yet, so at 7am we crash on a bench in front of the Visitor's Center. Just before 8am an employee walks up and I wake up in time to ask him if he knows of any way to get back to Crane Flat (our campground). Evidently there is a tour bus that leaves at 8am across the street that will take us to the gas station just outside of the campground. We wait across the street to watch the tour bus fly by us without stopping. I guess it is only out of courtesy that this bus normally stops there. Luckily a regular shuttle drives by and we question her about this tour bus and she tells us to hop on and she'll take us to it's regular stop at the lodge. At the lodge, we bought our $5 tickets and hopped into the comfortable tour bus and had an amusing ride with the amusing bus driver up to that gas station. We walk the few hundred feet to the entrance of the Crane Flat campground to find Sean and Amanda in his car driving out. She leans out the window and says, "We were coming to pick you up!" and I reply, "We found our own way back."

Minimal conversation followed. Everyone recognized their responsibility in the matter, and life went on.

So at 11am Todd and I had the wine we had planned to enjoy under the stars at the top of Half Dome as we set up camp. I had my first experience getting light-headed trying to blow up my new air mattress.


After a few hours of napping mid-day in our tent while Sean and Amanda explored the park a bit, it got dark and we began our evening hang-out around the campfire. Sean and Amanda sit at the picnic table with their bags of wine ...


Todd makes a campfire...


So after sitting around the campfire and chatting, we eventually crash again at something like 10:30pm. Sean and Amanda leave at the crack of dawn and we slept right through it.

The next day we spend playing around Yosemite on a beautiful day.





We took a short walk to the base of Little Yosemite falls ...

Todd looks up at the falls.

Timed picture of the two of us. I must say, for what we went through losing our hiking companions, sleeping where the two trails met on a log and on the ground waiting for them to come, finding out they'd gone back to the car 2 hours earlier, hiking the long way back in case something had happened to them on the trail, getting back to the parking lot to find that the car was gone, staying awake and dragging our quickly crashing bodies another mile and a half in hopes to find a ride home, etc., etc., we were truly glad to have had each other through all of that.

Striking a hikin' pose!

That's Half Dome in the background. I'll get you next time, Half Dome!

Before hopping back in the car we waked to the Merced River, waded around and skipped rocks for a while, then sat and relaxed for a bit.

A little duck casually came waddling by, right by my feet. I can't be too surprised that it's not afraid of people!
And that's it for the pictures.

After that we headed out of the park, first stopping to walk out into a big field below El Capitan to try and spot some climbers, which we did not, and then later, almost out of the park, we pulled over and hiked down to an awesome swimming hole, where we took a refreshing dip and laid on a nice warm rock in the shade to dry off, hang out and enjoy our last moments in that beautiful, beautiful place.

It was really, truly, a great vacation. One I'll remember.