Day 25: Half Dome

Today instead of resting another day, we are going to hike all day.  When we arrived I was considering skipping the hike but after yesterday I was feeling pretty good And I had already gone through the trouble to mail boots here for the hike.

We left camp at 6 to start. The estimates we have are that it will take 10-12 hours to do the round trip to half dome via the cables route.  It is about 10 miles each way from our campground and will take us up a bit more than 4500 vertical feet.

We packed light and headed off to meet up with the others in the valley above the two waterfalls (Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls).

Very shortly we started to see some great scenery.  The first several miles we followed the river and took the mist trail to the top of bother falls.  It is shorter but steeper than the alternate route and got us very close to the action.

Early views of Vernal Falls

Getting a morning shower with my hike

Sometimes after biking for ages, parts of your brain stop working (personal theory).  I am blaming this for my ah ha moment as we climbed past Vernal falls getting quite wet from all the spray.  I actually said (out loud even) "Oh, this is why they call it the mist trail". Duh!

We got to the top if the upper falls and headed off to the valley wondering if we would find the others still asleep.  We were making good time and it was still early.

Still a very long 4.5 miles

Little Yosemite Valley was a flat oasis

We found them and waited a bit for them to get packed up before heading up for the larger climb.  We were not yet to the halfway point of vertical gain.

As we got closer to the sub dome we were treated to great views and a few peeks at where we were headed.

I wonder if the folks in those planes know what is below them

There it is...still a long way up

Eventually we made it to the sub dome where things start to get more exposed.  We were climbing on bare granite at this point following a trail that had been cut into parts of the rock and must have required tremendous effort.

Starting to look like a dome

A crazy amount of work went into this trail

Once clearing the sub dome, the main event comes into view.  I have to admit to having questions at this point about whether another rest day might have been a good idea after all.

Well, I'm here. I guess I have to go.

No turning back at this point and just like the bike, the top comes if you just keep moving your feet.  In this case it was arms and feet as hands on the cables were necessary to help on the way up.  That is why gloves were in the box with the boots.

Up, up, and up

The views at the top were pretty spectacular and I stopped for a few photos before deciding that I would head down before the cables became crowded (we were still among the early arrivals).  

The view up the valley we entered

Pretty spectacular and worth the climb

Going down shares the same route as going up so it was a bit tight on the way down as quite a crowd had built up while I was in top.  Down was a bit trickier than up and the crowd complicated it even more.  I was happy when I was again at the bottom of the cables.  Great view, interesting story to tell but I probably won't need to repeat it.

The rest of the hike down was pretty straightforward.  We took a slightly different route down from the waterfalls so that we could see the top of Nevada falls.  It was nice to see the new views as well.

Nevada Falls is not a swimming hole

By the bottom my legs and especially my feet were noticing the days work.  I had worked up a blister on one heel that was a bit uncomfortable.  After making it back to camp we headed over to our favorite rocking chair porch to try the wifi for uploading some pictures.  I was able to call home for a nice chat and we packed up our boots for sending back to Seattle.

We also decided to mail the stove back to Seattle.  We haven't been using it much and losing it means losing the fuel bottle and pots as well.  More space for food and water.

We are leaving the valley tomorrow but we will hang around until the post office opens.  The original plan was to take tomorrow as a rest day but we have decided to move part of the way up Tioga pass to a campground about 20 miles down the road and a couple thousand feet higher.  That should make the trip to the top of the pass a bit easier on Saturday and give us a chance to stretch our legs after today's hike.