Yosemite

I took my very first trip to Yosemite this weekend. It was a last minute decision on my part. A group of people had been planning for months to go to the park and to do the dreaded Half Dome hike. I did not want any part in that. I hate exercising and probably hate hiking even more. But literally a day before Hubby was leaving I decided to tag along, mainly for the reason that I didn't want to stay home by myself. We found a sitter for the puppy and I packed a bag and off we went! We carpooled with a friend of ours and two of his friends. I have to say that we were a fun group! Laughs all around. We got to the hotel at about midnight and then got up at 4:30 the next morning. Unfortunately the bed was uncomfortable and I was anxious so I only got about two hours of sleep myself. But there was no way the others were going to feel bad for anybody, bright eyed and bushy tailed or not! We all gathered and after an hour drive into the park and a quick bathroom trip, the 18 of us were off.

There were two groups: the Half Dome hike group (which eventually split into the Advanced group and the Not-So-Advanced group) and the Nevada Falls hike group - Nevada Falls being about 1/4 of the way to Half Dome. I was part of the Nevada Falls hike along with my sister and her mother and sister-in-law. Have I mentioned I hate to hike? I hate it! And I have no valid reason for my despise, either, just that it's hard. But there I was anyway. Luckily I had a great hiking buddy in my sister so she pushed me through it. I wanted to quit almost immediately but there she was kicking my butt and telling me I had to do it. She also deduced that I was feeling sick because I hadn't eaten. I was so nervous that morning that I was only able to eat 1/2 of a banana, which is most definitely not enough fuel for a strenuous hike. So I pulled out an energy bar and nibbled on it while I walked. Eventually I had calmed down enough to finish the bar and I immediately felt better. We hiked to the footbridge of the first waterfall, the Vernal Falls, and then up 600 cobblestone stairs (on which we witnessed an unfortunate sight of somebody losing their breakfast) to the top. There the four of us took a snack and pee break, battled with some squirrels and birds to keep our food, and then made our way to our destination, the Nevada Falls.

I was feeling good at this point. I was hydrated and energized and appreciative of the beautiful scenery. I felt this way until we got to the bottom of the cobblestone stairs to the Nevada waterfall. Those sucked. They were steep and almost completely in the sun. At one point we pulled to the side to unzip and remove our pant legs. BTW - I would like to shake the hand of the person who invented zip-away pants. You're a genius - THANK YOU! We took a lot of breaks on those stairs but eventually Sister and I went ahead of the other two ladies and made it to the top in one piece. We pulled up a shady rock and ate lunch to refuel. Eventually the other two ladies made their way to the top and the four of us broke apart from each other and lounged in various places at the top. I even managed to take a quick cat nap on a 1/2 shady 1/2 sunny rock. All in all we spent about 2 hours on top of the waterfall.

What an amazing accomplishment that was for me - making it all the way to the top of the Falls. Especially since I was only planning on making it to the top of the first falls! I was pretty darn proud of myself! And I even managed to ration my water well, too. I think I had just enough to get back to the bottom.

Speaking of getting back to the bottom, we remembered how steep and dangerous the trail was coming up, and none of us were really keen on taking that back down, so Sister decided to ask a fellow hiker if there was another trail. Sure enough there was. It was a tad longer (only by .3 miles) but it was a gradual decline and more of a straight shot. The end of it even brought you back down to an outhouse and a water supply. It was still a bit slippery and there were a few inclines, but nothing we hadn't seen on our way up. And there was even a pleasant surprise of runoff from a waterfall, in which we stood for a bit to cool off.

Our main concern the entire time of our return was that we wanted to get off of the trail before it turned dark. Even though Sister had a flashlight, trekking down slippery rocks is no fun, especially in the dark, so we were racing against time. We only had to take one snack break on our way down to re-energize. We luckily got to the bottom of the trail before the sun set. We still had about a mile and a half (give or take) to walk to get back to the car, and at that point it had gotten dark, but luckily Hubby met us at the bottom and he brushed off his Eagle Scout skills and ran ahead of us to find the car and to make sure we were going the right way. We were and after a 12 hour hike, and 15 hours of being awake, we finished and were rewarded with a car ride to the pizza parlor.

Hubby and Sister waited in line to order pizza for the group and I waited in a separate line to order beer for the three of us. I then scoped out some tables and marked our territory and we waited until the rest of the group met up with us. They were all very relieved and grateful that the pizza had already been ordered, especially since it was an hour wait to get it, which gave them some free time to do a little souvenir and beer shopping. We all exchanged war stories and showed each other our battle scars. I couldn't think of any better way to end the day. We left the park around 10:30 and made it back to the hotel an hour later. I immediately booked it into the shower and soon Hubby and I crawled into bed. We slept pretty soundly, despite the broken A/C unit and the uncomfortable mattress, and awoke at 9:00 the next morning. Hubby and I attempted to ransack the Continental breakfast with only mild luck (there were so many people that we were able to get a small cup of OJ and I managed to pour myself a small bowl of cereal). We went back to the room, got dressed, packed and then hit the road. Unfortunately Hubby wanted to get on the road, so our car forwent the group breakfast and instead hit up a Burger King. However, that particular Burger King proved that not all fast food restaurants are fast and the entire process probably took the same amount of time as going out to breakfast would have taken, minus the incident of spilling OJ on myself. Or maybe I still would've spilled OJ on myself. In fact, I probably would've. There were more laughs in the car, accompanied with some snacking and we made it home by about 4 pm. We relieved the puppy sitter, vegged out in front of the TV, ordered take out, and were in bed by 9 pm. I could barely move this morning and I'm still sore. Today, stairs are my enemy.

I loved Yosemite. It was beautiful and I would love to go back. Next time, though, I'm going to be more prepared for a hike and I would very much like to stay in the valley. And maybe one day I, too, will be able to say I hiked Half Dome :)