Friday, June 26, 2015 – Rest Day

We woke up sore and stiff after the previous day’s adventure.  We planned to rest and relax for the day.  We parked in the Housekeeping Camp lot, planning to make breakfast (skillet heated left-over pizza!) before showering and doing laundry.  We were super excited to find in the camp store we were able to fill our coffee cups for $1!!!  

After, lazily enjoying the shade of the pine trees near our car, we finally made the move to shower.  The shower felt amazing!  Other than river baths, we hadn’t taken a real shower since the morning we left Wisconsin.  We also were excited to find that laundry was even cheaper to do than at home… $1.25/per washer and $0.25/10mins in the drier!  

After clean-up was complete, we commenced relaxing under the pines, and soon saw Gretchen and Jax making their way to the showers.  After they showered, we all headed over to Yosemite Village for well-deserved ice creams.  We parked ourselves at table inside the building for a few hours to continue relaxing and charging our electronic devices.  

After the four of us parted ways for the evening, we stopped in the Village store for some fruit and beverages before walking along a trail back to our car.  We stopped on a bridge with great views of Yosemite Falls and the surrounding Valley to take some pictures, and enjoy our store purchases.  

Thursday, June 25, 2015 - Snake Dike

The alarm went off at 3:30AM.  We quickly cleaned up the car, and made the hour drive the Trailhead Parking Lot where we planned on meeting Gretchen and Jax.  We were planning on meeting at 5:00, but at 5:20 they still and not yet shown up and we had no cell phone service, so we started to hike and hoped we would see them later in the day.   

We continued on our way towards Half Dome via the Mist Trail as we had the previous day, and found ourselves moving at a good pace, passing many other hikers as we went.  Soon we found ourselves making our way along the climber’s trail towards the south face of Half Dome.  Around 7:40AM we stopped on a large boulder to check the location of the start of the Snake Dike, and also check to see if we had cell phone service in order to try to get in touch with Gretchen and Jax.  We were excited to see they were on their way and shouldn’t be too far behind.  They had parked in the wrong lot this morning, and after we never showed up, started to hike.  They passed the lot we were supposed to be meeting in and saw our car. 

After a few back and forth texts, they made their way to our location, and as a group we started to navigate our way through slabs (with the occasional sections of bushwacking) towards the start of the climb on the southwest face.  Unfortunately, we looked at the start of the climb, decided it wasn’t the right spot, and after unsuccessful searching, we backtracked and decided it WAS the start.  

The climb starts on the ledge with the last tree above it.

After a quick snack at the base, we geared up to begin the 8 pitches of climbing that would take us to the summit of Half Dome.  The first 2-3 pitches were the most difficult, with the later wandering far out to the right before making its way back to end above the previous belay.  Despite the climb being runout, Dave found it to be a fantastic lead.  Gretchen and Jax did an awesome job sharing leads and testing their mental fortitude.  Jax had an intense lead with a mystery non-existent bolt and planned slide down the slab.  Gretchen got angry at a run out slab that had no gear to place until she was practically at the belay... so at that point said "screw it" and went straight to the belay.  Alex and Dave did a short section of simul-climbing on the dike in order to get Dave to a set of anchors.  He called down to Alex, "can you give me another 12 feet, because if not I need to down climb.... a lot."  She happily obliged!  All in all everyone had some adventure laced fun on the climb.

We waited on at the start of pitch 8 for Gretchen and Jax, before making our way to the endless leg burning slabs for the summit. The four of us made our way, taking many breaks as we went.  Fortunately, Dave handled this well, even though he probably could have run up it in one go.

After finally seeing the summit, at about 4:00PM, we took pictures, had a snack, and chatted with another guy who had come up the cables, before making our descent down the cables route.  By this time of the day, most people who come up the cables route hike have come and gone, so we saw very few other people.   We found the section of cables to be steeper, slicker, and more intense than we were expecting for something so commonly done by non-climbing folk.

Tired, thirsty and hungry, we made our way down the cables to the trail.  We had 9 miles of hiking before we would be back at the trailhead.  We stopped after a few miles for some water, as we had depleted our supply. Dave had given the last few ounces to young man who looked tired and thirsty just after the cables, with many miles of hiking to go.  Dave asked him when he last had water... it had been a few hours. He needed it more than we did, and we had the ability to get more water once we reached the river... he however, did not. The intense sun and wind on the climb made plenty of water a must.  We found that many hikers we passed were unprepared for the long day, with not enough to eat or drink, and struggled because of it.  We actually ran into the young man's father and brother near the trailhead, and let them know he was on his way, but was moving slowly.  His brother grabbed some water and made his way up the trail to meet him.

We finally made it back to the car around 8:30PM, and had celebratory beverages.  Hungrily, and stumbily we made our way to Degnan’s Pizza Loft with eyes that now seemed overly sensitive to the light after the intense sun and wind of the day.  Sadly, after waiting at the counter for 10 minutes we found out that they were closed.  We were told that Curry Pizza was open for another 20 minutes, so the four of us made a mad dash, running to our cars to get some much needed food.  We enjoyed gorging on pizzas before parting way for the night.  We drove sleepily back to our camping area, glad to be laying down and sleeping... particularly after a half asleep Alex stopped complaining about the dead (they were not dead) trees in camp.

Wednesday, June 24 - Fresno

After a delicious breakfast sandwich and coffee at Cool Beans in Oakhurst, we headed off to Fresno.  The day was long, waiting around for new brakes to get put on the car, even with an appointment.  One highlight however, was finding an awesome “$0.99 Only Store.”   This store had tons of cheap groceries, many name brand and organic items, that were within a month or two of their expiration date… perfect for us!  We loaded up a cart… an it only cost $59.16!

On our way back to our previous night’s camping spot, we stopped in Oakhurst again, this time a Sugar Pine Gourmet Pizza.  We would highly recommend this place!  The food and people were awesome!  We enjoyed talking with the owner while we waited for our food to be ready.  We enjoyed a delicious wrap while we waited for our pizza.  The wrap had homemade ranch dressing on it… Alex who doesn’t even like ranch went out on a limb to try it and loved it.  We got a huge veggie pizza which would serve as dinner as well as breakfast in the morning before climbing Snake Dike.  After dinner, we sorted and prepared gear so we would be ready to go in the morning.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - Snake Dike Hike and Glacier Point

We headed to Curry Village to make breakfast and get some coffee before doing the approach trail to Snake Dike, in preparation for climbing it with our friends Gretchen and Jax the following day.  We figured we save ourselves some time by making sure we knew exactly where the climber’s trail breaks away from the main trail… sometimes finding these can be tricky.  We began hiking from Happy Isles, following the Mist Trail past Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls.  The trail to Vernal Falls involves a lot of up hill, with a long section of steep stone stairs.  From Vernal Falls to Nevada Falls the terrain is a less steep due to the switch backs in the trail.   After reaching Nevada Falls we stopped to eat the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we packed. 

After Nevada Falls, the trail mellows into a gravel/sandy path as it heads towards Little Yosemite Valley.  After a few minutes of hiking, we knew we had missed the climbers trail based on the geography, so we turned around and watched more carefully for the trail.  While checking what we thought could be our trail, Alex caught a shoelace on a branch across the trail and took a fall, dragging the branch with her.  As she caught herself with her hands, she heard the familiar rattle noise coming from off the trail to her left.  “Glad I didn’t fall over there!” she thought.  Sorry mom :o)

After retreating and finding the real trail, we continued along it until we got close to the boulder/slab areas near the base of Half Dome.  Happy with finding the approach, we turned around and began our descent to The Valley, this time, partly via the John Muir Trail. This trail though longer, was less steep, but was like a slanted, pokey cobblestone road… not the most pleasant to walk on.   It did, however, provide spectacular views of the falls below.

It was Dave’s turn to be the grumbly one, feeling drained and tired of being in the sun and heat.  WE spent a great deal of time talking about icy drinks when we got back to The Valley floor.  Despite Dave’s grumbles, he encouraged others who he said looked as grumbly and disheartened as he felt.  A small boy was walking up the trail with his parents, and we overheard him say in a tired and defeated voice: “I’m done, this is good enough, I just want to turn around now.”  Dave responded with, “You don’t want to do that!  You are SOOOOO close!   You have MAYBE 20 more minutes and you will be there!  The view is awesome and there is a pool of water I bet your parents will let you cool off in!“  Dave hoped his little pep talk would help.

In usual Dave style, towards the end of the trail, where it became more “touristy” he perked up a bit and began running towards the trailhead.  When Alex met him there he bought them frozen fruit juice bars from a concession stand while Alex dumped gravel from her shoes… remembering why she usually doesn’t like to hike in shorts.  The bars were a fantastic, cold treat that helped make the walk back to where they parked in Curry Village a bit better.   In Curry Village, Dave ran into the store to buy some Gatorades while Alex saved them a table.  Dave returned shortly with 3 bottles of Gatorade… one almost empty.  Alex began drinking one, and before long all 3 disappeared.

Next, we headed to Glacier Point to see the views of The Valley from high above, before continuing out the Wawona Entrance to the park to find a place to sleep for the night.  Tomorrow, we headed to Fresno to get new brakes on the car.  Thoughts of Fresno are always a bit bitter to us.  On our first trip out West, after an epic climbing/backpacking outing with the infamous Doug, all we wanted was a big juicy cheeseburger and fries.  Fresno let us down… it seemed sketchy and we could not find anywhere open to eat but a place that proved to have nothing but chillie and cheese… chillie cheese fries, chillie cheese burgers, chillie cheese dogs,  chillie cheese french fries in a wrap.  After a few bites, none of us could stomach it… and we drove away hungry.   Needless to say, we were not looking forward to returning to Fresno.