Yosemite - August, 2010

Stacy and I had each been previously in Yosemite individually and together.  When Stacy was in the Valley as an undergraduate she and some friends attempted the Half Dome hike.  Stacy did not make it.  She wanted to make it.

So, when CurryFest 2010 was one weekend and the next weekend was an IMPORTANT EVENT (Gordon and Caroline’s wedding), and both were in the Bay area, we thought this was our chance to spend a week in Yosemite.  In preparation for this 16 mile hike with 5000 ft. of elevation gain, we did some practice hikes.  We hiked the Phoneline Trail in Sabino Canyon (5.5 miles), we hiked to the top of Mt Wrightson twice (May 31^st was 12.3 miles and July 17^th for 13.6 miles) which involved 4000 ft. of elevation gain and we hiked to the highest point in Arizona, Mt. Humphreys (9.6 miles and 3400 ft. of elevation gain, but the mountain is 12633 ft. high, which was the highest Stacy had ever been hiking.)

We left CurryFest on Sunday afternoon and stayed in a cheap hotel near Yosemite. 

Monday morning we drove to Curry Village where we had reserved a tent.  We asked about where our friends the Ali’s were staying.  Not only did they tell us the location of their tent, but they put us next door.  As we were driving up the Valley we saw that several of the waterfalls were flowing.  This was unexpected, but happy news.  We drove to Bridalveil Falls and looked around the falls.  We then drove up to the Taft Point trailhead and hiked to Taft Point and then to Sentinel Dome.  After that short hike, we went to Glacier Point to see the view over the Valley.  We then went back to the campground, had dinner with the Ali’s and went to bed.

On Tuesday we hiked part-way up the Yosemite Falls trail until we got a good view of the falls, we then went to the base of the falls with LOTS of other people.  We then had dinner with the Ali’s.

Wednesday was the Big Day for Half Dome.  We started out of the campground at 6:15 am.  This was before the buses were running, so we added a mile to the hike by walking to the trail-head.  The day was beautiful and the weather perfect for the hike.  We both made it to the top and 45 min. before we had planned to make it!  There were lots of people on the trail, but most were very nice.  There was no line at The Cables, but the going was a bit slow.  We spent some time on top and then hiked back down.  For the next 2.5 hours we were passing people still going up — not sure they all made it.  The line for the buses was much too long, so we walked another mile back to our tent and to pizza and several drinks for dinner.  When it was bedtime, clearly some of the neighbors did not understand that canvas tents do not block sound.  After a long round of “good night John-boy” they needed to discuss where the quote came from.  After too long a time of keeping us awake, Stacy said “It’s from the Waltons, now GO TO SLEEP”.  That was the last we heard from them!

Thursday we did very little.  We went to El Cap Meadow and read our books.  David took a few pictures of people climbing The Nose route.  We then had dinner at the Ahwahnee, which is more expensive than normal for us, but was very nice and a good celebration of our surviving Half Dome.  As we walked back, the sun was setting and there were meteors falling.  We had forgotten that this was the night of the Perseid meteor shower.  David had brought the wrong camera gear for this, but he did manage to get one picture of a meteor.

On Friday we checked out of our tent and drove to Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias.  After a few hours there, we drove to San Francisco for The Wedding.