Me vs. The Mountain

We rose with the sun on Day 5, because we had a 5 mile hike to the next campsite followed by an 8 mile round trip to the top of Half Dome.

Thankfully, I got a good night's sleep because the boys withheld some information from me. Apparently they found bear scat and fresh bear tracks ALL OVER the area around our camp. They didn't tell me this until the next morning, and ignorance truly is bliss. Otherwise, I can guarantee I would have woken up everytime I heard a sound and convinced myself it was a bear that was coming to eat me and I'm going to die.

The 5 mile hike to Little Yosemite was a nice little trek over some rocks and then through the woods.







We had to step aside for some mules.



Once we reached camp, we took a little rest, dropped our packs so we only had to carry water, and began to conquer the mountain.

About a quarter of the way into the climb, Andy points out where we're going:



Halfway there:



The Welcoming Committee put up a sign:



It's not lying. Someone died on Half Dome in June.

More than 60 people have died attempting to reach the top.

Now, this was no easy climb. About 4 miles up and 3000 feet elevation gain, but luckily, my body seemed to be holding up physically. I fairly easily made it to the cables, which is where the real battle began. The mental battle.



A photo from the top of the cables, to give you some perspective on how steep this part is.



Basically, you hold on to the cables and pull yourself up the 60 degree incline. A pile of gloves lays at the start of the cables so the wire cables don't tear up your hands. I put on the gloves, without a second thought and latched onto the cables. I took about 2 steps.

I felt the sensation of my body falling backwards, the only thing preventing me from falling to my death were my hands gripping the cables. Around this time, a mixed tape of my voice began repeating in my head "YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. THIS IS IT. YOU'RE DEAD. YOU'RE FALLING. YOU'RE GOING TO DIE NOW. HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR LIFE BECAUSE NOW YOU'RE GOING TO DIE. DEATH. DEATH. DEATH. DIE. DIE. DIE."

That is when I turned around, curled into the fetal position, began crying and scooted my butt down to the start of the cables.

You win, mountain.

I don't regret my decision in the least and I was happy I was able to physically best the mountain. The boys made it up the cables and I happily watched from below. Well, semi-happily and semi-nervously as I watched for a body to plummet over the edge. Andy snapped photos above.







When they came back down, Dave appeared a bit shaken, and insisted that we "Get the *&#% off of this rock." I couldn't agree more.

As it turns out, the mountain beat 2 people that day, because as we were making our descent, this popped over our heads:



And then landed on Half Dome to rescue a freaked out hiker.



So, to end the day on a positive note, at least I didn't have to be rescued by a helicopter.

What Goes Up . . .

. . . must come down.

Day 4 marked our largest decline of the trip - from somewhere around 9,000 ft down to about 7,000 ft. I actually prefer ascents to descents, because I have a strange desire to still have functioning knees when I'm 40 years old.

I forgot to include one of my favorite pics from the trip of Day 3 - when the boys were horsing around on the mountain and using angles to their photo-taking advantage.



We were supposed to have a nice easy 4 mile day and stay at Lake Merced. SUPPOSED TO being the imperative phrase here.

So, we began our walk down. Now, adding to the difficulty of the day, was the trail itself. Silly me thought we'd have dirt to walk on. But the Yosemite Trail Crew figured it'd be fun to make people walk down pointy, jagged little rocks. My ankles hate you, Yosemite Trail Crew.



After awhile I could see our goal in site, Lake Merced:



I also admired a large pinecone along the way.



Finally, we made it down to the eastern edge of the lake, where the Merced Cabin stood.



This is where we met Jeanie. The first thing you need to know about Jeanie, is that she kindly offered us water from a faucet and took a group photo for us.



The second thing you need to know about Jeanie, is that I hate her because I'm insanely jealous of her job. She gets to stay in that cabin for varying amounts of time and cook for the rangers and trail crew. SHE GETS PAID TO DO THIS. But, the grass is always greener, right? She's probably totally jealous that I get to sit behind a computer for 8 hours every day, right? Jealous that I get to look at green cubicle walls while she's forced to look at impressive MOUNTAINS and CASCADING RIVERS and ALPINE LAKES, right? RIGHT?!??

Moving on, when we strolled into the Lake Merced campsite area, we were sorely disappointed. It was an organized camping area - much like you would see at any ol' campground. Now, part of the fun in open backcountry camping is finding your own beautiful campsites. We deemed Lake Merced campsites Lame (capital L) and trudged on to find somewhere better. I stopped to take a few pics of the lake of course.





This is where our short, easy 4 miles turned into an endless feeling 7 miles. The trail followed the river . . .



However, we were walking on cliffs, which are kind of difficult to set up camp upon. Especially considering the rule that tents need to be 100 yards from the trail. It looked pretty though.



We trudged on and on and on and on and on. Along the way, we made our 2nd bear sighting. A cub was playing in a dried up river bed. Unfortunately he scampered away before I had time to snap a photo.

Now, bear sightings may seem fun, but you must remember this equation: Cub = Nearby Protective Mama Bear. And we were trying to find somewhere to set up camp. Since none of us had a strong desire to get eaten by a bear, we moved on.

Finally, we found adequate housing over the river and set up camp.



A buck mule deer also set up camp nearby.



The boys swam and sunned on a rock.



My husband participated in a quick Senior picture photo shoot.



I promise he's wearing a bathing suit.

And finally the sunset on Day 4.



And as the sunset, we lit another campfire and Andy created a man chair with a back to it.



We went to bed early, because we needed to get up early - we planned to hike 13 miles tomorrow in our ascent of Half Dome. I say "planned," because once again, the next day didn't exactly go as we thought it would.

Simply the Best

I thought my birthday couldn't get any better.

Then we met up with my parents and bro and sis-in-law for a belated birthday celebration.

And my birthday suddenly got 8 times better.

Because my parents got me 8 bottles of Orange Hurricane Boone's Farm for my birthday.

The Luckiest.

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday.

It started out with Andy making me breakfast.

Then I awoke to many emails and FB birthday messages from my wonderful friends and family.

Then I got flowers at work. I tried to take a picture of these . . .



Then Wrigley Piggly got hungry . . .



Then Toby wondered why we were paying attention to the cat and not him.



Then I got a present from Andy - something I didn't know I wanted and needed but did - a new puffer light winter jacket in green.

"Look, it's green, so you can wear it when it gets cold for tailgating."

Then we went out for a lovely dinner in downtown GR.

And then, just when I thought my day couldn't get any better . . .

ICE CREAM CAKE.

Then I smiled forever.

The End.

Lake Crawl

Instead of visiting bar after bar for a day, we spent our 3rd day on a Lake Crawl. I'll admit, had a bar crawl been an option, we'd have probably taken it. But all we had to crawl to were gorgeous alpine lakes. POOR US. We began with sunrise at Fletcher Lake.



Then we trekked a bit out of our way to Booth Lake.



Then we went to lake whose name I can't remember, because I was so drunk at the time. Wait, I can't use that excuse because this isn't a bar crawl? Crap. I guess I'm just getting old and now I forget things from time to time then. That excuse actually makes me feel so old and pathetic that I'm going to consider being drunk for the rest of my life so I never have to use the excuse of "I'm getting old and forgetful" again. Good plan, right?



We stopped for lunch at Emeric Lake.





Then we hiked through a valley.



And then along what would be a raging waterfall in the spring.



Finally, we arrived at Babcock Lake which would be our campsite for the evening.





Then the boys climbed up and got a better view. I stayed back because I was way too wasted to even walk straight. DANG IT. Ok. I was SORE AND TIRED because I'm getting OLD and I took A GRANDMA NAP instead.





That's Eric Dennis, being a Mountain Menace.

In Yosemite, campfire are legal below 9600 ft. We have never been able to have a campfire while backcountry hiking, and since this was our first night below 9600 ft, we took the chance to have a campfire. Because, ya know, our clothes didn't smell bad enough from all the dirt, sweat, body odor, etc. we decided we'd add some campfire scent onto them too.



It was also around this time that Andy decided he hated not having a back on a chair when sitting. He then made it his mission to bulid himself a chair at the next campsite. You'll see how that turned out in the next entry.

After the campfire I was so drunk I totally had to go pass out for the night. Or it was after 8 o'clock PM and my inner Grandma Clock was telling me "Oh Heaven's to Bessie the day has drawn long! Time to put on my floor length floral nightgown and turn in!"

One of those two.

Orange Hurricane Toby

You know how, when you get your car washed, it always rains the next day?

Nobody told me something similar happens when you wash a dog.

We gave Toby a much needed bath last night. He smelled clean and fresh and his fur was extra soft and fluffy.

That lasted about 12 hours.

I came home from work this evening, and saw this on the floor:



My first thought, was "Toby peed? What the heck?!" because I can't remember the last time he had an accident.

Then I thought "Wait, what did he get off the counter?"

Then I remembered what we bought at the store last night.

A lotto ticket and 3 bottles of Orange Hurricane Boone's Farm. Which in and of itself is a pretty awesome purchase.

It was around this point that I realized my cheerful dog that normally greets me excitedly was laying on the ground trying to look innocent.



Notice the orangish stripe along the side of his mouth?



Yup. I caught him orange pawed.

I'm never giving him a bath again.

Peak-a-Boo

I woke up early and snapped the shots seen on the previous post. There was frost on the ground when I woke up, and it had been the coldest night we'd ever experienced hiking. Andy stayed bundled in his sleeping bag.



Then we set off for a 8 mile hike to our next campsite. We started in the meadow, then entered the woods and had to ascend 2000 feet over 2 miles - so it was a pretty steep uphill. When we reached the top, I reached into my pocket to grab out a delicious snack of Craisins. With altitude changes, comes air pressure change, comes a blown up package of Craisins.



A view from the top. We still had further to climb to reach our peak elevation, but this was the trail junction.



About a half mile after the junction, we reached our peak elevation not only for the day but also for the entire trip - somewhere around 10,700.



Notes on my husband's appearance:

- Number one, Andy has a large head. He has broke 3 pairs of sunglasses this summer because of his Toby-sized noggin. He used ahtletic tape to put this pair back together, which broke on the trail the first day.

- Number two, the wind caused Andy's bandana to blow upwards.

- Number three, he's still trying to figure out how to smile for pictures.

- Number four, I love him.

We then walked along a ridge for a few miles to settle into our campsite, hidden in the trees next to the waterfalls of Fletcher Lake. I mean, the Knight's Inn in downtown Kalamazoo next to the liquor store was probably the best scenery I've slept by, but I guess this takes a close second.

The boys climbed up to the snow and threw snowballs at marmots. Because they're 10 years old like that.

I snuck out at sunset to snap some pics of the changing colors.

We laid out on the rocks and watched a few falling stars before the cold overcame us and we cozied back into the tents to rest up for the next day's hike.