Yosemite

Ah, California sunshine.  Fall was was just about upon us in AK when I took a jaunt down to Yosemite to meet up with Julia, her family, and her two Boston friends, Fitz and Kelley.  I got one last dose of summertime in before returning to full-fledged fall back at home. 





The blue team.  Kelley, me, Julz, and Fitz

We did a "break in" hike the first day.  Nine miles and 3,000' of elevation up to the tippy top of Yosemite Point, which is above Yosemite Falls.  We about lost Fitz that day...but he sucked it up and kept hiking with us for the next four days, albeit with a much smaller pack than the girls.  Which we gave him endless grief over...which was well deserved in my humble opinion.


Yosemite Falls...it's much bigger in the spring, but we weren't complaining.  We had lunch right there over the top while watching a guy in a peach speedo (I kid you not) play precariously close to the edge - could've been the proud owner of a Darwin Award.



Day two marked the start of our overnight hike.  It started out innocently enough from the Ten Lakes trail head.  It was sunny and warm, and totally beautiful.  But then we noticed some pesky storm clouds rolling off in the horizon.  Certainly, they wouldn't come any closer!



Near one of the ten lakes...with storm clouds starting to rain on our parade.  Literally.

 Then it began to rain on us.  Fitz, by the way, had the smallest backpack in the history of the world strapped to his back.  So I gave him my day pack to wear as an overnight pack, then he proceeded to strap more than half the crap he had to carry to the outside of the pack because there was no room on the inside...and well, here's what it looked like in his "rain" gear, aka trash bag.  As you can see, I could NOT stop laughing at him.

Who the hell hikes with a pack that looks like this?!  Beige Bob!



Uh, and then it began to HAIL.  Despite living in AK (and being hailed on last time I went backpacking, actually), this was the biggest hail I've ever seen.  It hurt!  But it was still a pretty hilarious situation...

Who loves hail?

 

Fitz does not lovehail.



  We camped next to a raging stream that night, which was lovely white noise for sleeping purposes.  Fitz didn't believe in my fire making abilities at first because he thought the downed wood would be too wet.  Bwahahahaha!!  Fitz, come kayaking in Prince William Sound...a little hail storm is NOTHING.  We fired up some dried wood and got ourselves all settled into a cozy camp.  We hiked out to the May Lake trail head the next day and made our way to the Tuolomne Meadows backpackers campground for the night.  Nothing too exciting to report there, other than that $5/person "lodging" is pretty sweet.

Pretty Indian Paint Brush along the trail to May Lake

 The next day was a "rest" day and we headed outside the park to explore a trail one of Julia's friends found in a guidebook.  W.O.W. was it awesome!  Fin Tail Lake...go there!

We conquered Cloud's Rest on our final hiking day.  Many doubted our ability to make the long hike in one day, but really, all the hiking we'd done in the previous days really prepared us for this one.  And the views were totally worth it.



No lack of energy here, people.



This was the view of North Dome from Cloud's Rest.  Mark my words, I will NEVER climb Half Dome.  Can you see the line of ant people climbing the cables?  NO THANK YOU.  I like my life too much to try something as crazy as that. 



Click the image to zoom in a bit.  You'll see more Darwin Award candidates in the making.





My recommendation: GO TO YOSEMITE!  I'll be going back there someday for sure.  If not for the hiking, for the nearly-free beer!

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOREN!!  My sister turns 30 today. :)