Yosemite Trip
This past weekend I went on a trip to Yosemite National Park with five other interns working at Sun Microsystems. Read more to find out about the trip and see pictures.
Yosemite Falls and Half Dome We drove to our hotel Thursday night. Friday morning we got on the road a little late and drove about 2 hours to Yosemite. When we got there, we all went on the Upper Yosemite Falls hike, the same hike I did last year. Although not everyone was as hardcore as I was with respect to hiking, 6 was a manageable number and we made it to the top in pretty good time, about 8 hours round trip. We couldn’t stay too long because it started raining, so we scooted down the mountain and hightailed it back to our hotel.
Saturday we stayed around our hotel, which was on a lake. We rented a pontoon boat (top speed: 20 mph!) and a double-tube and went out on the lake. We had a barbecue on board the boat, did some tubing, and had an all-around good time. After dinner, we went to a drug store to buy (what else?) Monopoly and alcohol. They got drunk, we all played Monopoly, and I learned that though country boys like to think they don’t get drunk, they do indeed become sloshed. I didn’t have anything to drink, because Sunday was the big day.
Half Dome, from 'Base Camp 8' I got up early (6 am) and we headed off to Yosemite, arriving by 8:45. I started my Half Dome hike. Before going on, let me tell you that Half Dome is an ambitious day hike. Some 18 miles long and 4400 feet vertical, it ended up taking me nearly 10 hours. After just under 3 hours, I reached what I like to call “Base Camp 8″ (Everest has Camps 1 through 9, and then the summit; so this was the second last camp), and saw for the first time, the rock I’d be climbing.
Let me skip forward a moment and tell you that climbing Half Dome was by far the scariest thing I have ever done in my entire life. We’re not talking scary-the-rollercoaster-is-going-upside-down-fast, we’re talking scary-one-missed-step-and-I-fall-4400-feet-to-my-doom.
Cables to the top of Half Dome, from 'Base Camp 9' As you can see from the picture, to get from Base Camp 9 to the top of Half Dome, you have to go up a series of cables. The pair of cables are about 3 feet apart, with wooden planks every 10 feet or so to let you rest. Everything else is smooth rock, at about a 45 degree angle, sloping off to the sides. It’s about 400 feet vertical up the cables, and took about 20 minutes to go up.
When I got to the top, the first thing I did was find an enclosure of rocks, where I could sit in the middle and not roll down in any direction. Then I slowly looked around, and it was a pretty darn cool view – at the top of the world, so to speak; unfortunately, pictures don’t do it justice.
If I thought going up was hard, coming down was even harder. Going up, you can look down at your feet, watch where you put them, and never have to look at the drop just a few feet to either side of you. But going down, you need to place your feet, and to do that, you have to look down. And to make things even better, my hands were tired, I didn’t have gloves, and we got stopped a couple of times. I was in pretty rough shape, but I finally made it to the bottom and back to Base Camp 9. When I arrived, my hiking stick was even still there!
A small creek on the John Muir Trail The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful. I ate some peanut butter granola oat bar thingies, had lunch, drank a bunch of water, and took some pictures along the way. All in all, a magnificent hike, one that I’m proud to have made. Next stop, Everest!
Comment by Cecilia
Excellent. Your pictures are beautiful. But I guess the threats of pictures of your gross callused hands were empty.
