Day 44, Friday, July 29

Bugle call at 4:30 this morning! This was definitely the earliest I’ve EVER gotten up for a hike. But then again the hike is Half Dome. 17 miles and a total climb of 4800 feet. Definitely the longest hike I’ve ever undertaken. I was still a bit frazzled by that big guy in the next tent site over who spoke yesterday of “conquering Half Dome”. I wasn’t sure I had any desire to conquer anything, but with that mindset, I decided I’d go as far as my legs would take me and if that wasn’t all the way, no big deal. I was doing the hike on a whim and hadn’t done anything to prepare for it. I was also going to be wearing a back pack I’d borrowed from Peter since I didn’t have my own and this back pack was about a dozen sizes too small. The cross strap that’s supposed to go across the middle of the wearer’s chest looked more like a chin strap on me. It was, however, the only thing available to carry all the provisions I’d be taking with me: 6 liters of water, two sandwiches, 2 bags of trail mix, and 3 bananas.
Breakfast was a combined effort between Peter and me. I made French toast and he made scrambled eggs and heated some spicy sausages. We’d initially planned to get to the trailhead by 6:00am and surprisingly made it there by 6:10. It didn’t do us much good, though, because as we were getting out of Peter’s car, I remembered that I’d left my motorcycle key on the rear hard case of the motorcycle and thus had to go back to the campsite. By the time we went back for my key and then drove back to the trail it was 6:30 before we ever got under way. I hiked for a mile two with Peter, but at his urging I took off at my long-legged pace.
Here’s where it gets a bit funny. Remember that big guy I mentioned from yesterday? Mister “I’m going to CONQUER Half Dome”? Mister “I’m going to start at 5:30 and am going to blast the trail”? Yeah, well, I caught up to him and passed him! When we compared what we were packing and he found that I’d caught up to him even though I’d started 45 minutes after he did and I was packing literally twice the amount of stuff he’d packed, he somewhat jokingly said “You bastard.” The way I look at it, if you’re going to talk big, isn’t it generally better to be able to back up your big words? Not only did I pass him, but he was actually out of water and low on food so I gave him a liter of my water and shared some of my trail mix with him. I figured the best way to rub in the fact that his big talk was all hot air was to over nice him!
The last several hundred yards of the trail up Half Dome are traversed up the steep granite expanse that is the “back side” of Half Dome. This is accomplished by pulling yourself up hand over hand along a set of braided steel cables that have been strung up the face. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for the first person to go up the face without those cables. You can see the cables in a few of my pictures. The view from the top of Half Dome is spectacular. There’s a drop of several thousand feet straight down off the face of Half Dome to the valley floor below. It’s enough to make your stomach a bit queasy if you get close to the edge!
I met up with Peter as I was coming back down from the top of the Dome. He’d done exactly what he said he’d do…simply take the trail at a more relaxed pace. He’d forgotten his camera but I had mine and took some pictures of him at the top so he could show his wife that he’d actually done it.
Heading down from the summit, I intentionally took a different trail to the valley floor to add some variety to my hike. This trail took me by Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls. Both of these water falls are stunningly beautiful. One of the things that makes the Yosemite Valley water falls so incredibly stunning is their precipice. Across the board, it’s like someone (actually the glacier) took a sharp knife and vertically sheared away the face of the cliff. The precipices are so sheer and the waters so swift that most of the rivers and creeks vault many yards out before falling downwards. The effect is stunning!
Tonight was an effort in seeing just how much I could get done before my eyes spontaneously closed. Thankfully, I didn’t have to make dinner. Peter insisted (without *any* argument from me) in cooking. Spaghetti, red sauce, hot sausages, wine, cheese, and some sort of incredibly dense multigrain bread. We sat and talked with the French family who are sharing a tent site with Peter until late in the night. The French family was actually on a one year trip around the Western US, Mexico, and some off Central America. I can’t fathom how they, with their two children, probably 3 and 1 yrs old, are financing their trip, but GOOD for them. I love talking with fellow travelers.