Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

Mr. Morris—the high school guidance counselor, schedule maker, and driver’s ed. Instructor—always had this saying, “Prior planning prevents poor performance.” Let’s just say that phrase kept kicking me in the butt today…

Let me start from the beginning. First of all, yesterday was my last official day as a roomskeeper! Whooooooooo :) The other lifeguard Shelby and I got ice cream after work to celebrate. We both had today off and tomorrow we start at the pool, which opens Friday.

So this morning I got up, did laundry, and read. I do a lot of reading out here—it’s great. Since we’re required to take a full 30 minutes for lunch and I eat in less than five, one of my coworkers suggested bringing a book. I’ve knocked out lots of books already, so many in fact that the one I’m reading right now I borrowed from one of my roommates and after this my friend RJ said I could borrow from his collection.

But anyways, a little before 11:00 I headed out to do the western portion of the Valley Loop Trail—really just wanting to go to Bridalveil Fall. Well I was looking at my trail map and I decided that it wasn’t too much further to do the entire loop rather than just cut across on a meadow trail over to Bridalveil. So I went that route. I passed The Three Brothers and El Capitan on the north side of the loop. El Capitan is the largest monolith in the world and all kinds of people try to climb it. There are tons of climbers at Yosemite and if you work here it’s a huge topic of conversation. Whenever anyone asks me about climbing I say, “I hike; I don’t climb,” and usually they say something to the effect of “yet.” Wrong. Do I look like I have the build of a climber? Not even close. In order for me to be a climber, I’d need a lot more of the muscle that’s in my legs to be in my arms. Not gonna happen.

 

El Capitan

 

The Three Brothers

 

El Cap

Back on topic—I pass El Cap and am still headed west for a ways until the trail comes back on the south side of the Merced River. The trail in this area is extremely muddy, and in one place I had to cross a creek by skedaddling my way over on a log. The water’s pretty high, but so far, so good. Good steeplechase practice. And then it starts sprinkling. While not the most fun thing ever, it’s not bad and I keep trekking along. Then the thunderstorm hits. And this moron forgot to bring her raincoat, so all she has is a sweatshirt and a backpack full of stuff. Prior planning prevents poor performance. Mr. Morris would be so ashamed.

So I get to cross a few more creeks that are really high and manage to make it over those also. (I’m getting pretty good at balancing on wet, slippery logs. Must be from Ants on a Log back at good ol’ Pilgrim Heights.) At this point in time, I meet two hikers (Amy and Rachel) that are much more prepared for this weather than me—backpacks under rain covers, raincoats, rain pants, etc. They also get to cross these lovely rivers with me. Then it starts hailing. Hailing I tell you—in May!!! It was like God was flinging frozen peas down at us. Crazy.

little pea-sized hail that decided to pelt me

A little bit later I got a view of Bridalveil Fall. I’m definitely going to have to go back and see it some other time though since it was raining/hailing so hard I could barely see.

Bridalveil Fall in the downpour

Then Rachel and Amy asked where the nearest bus stop was. I laughed. Probably 2-3 miles away. So on we went. They kinda walked slow though, so I lost them after a little bit. Self-preservation. From there the trail was entirely under water and I was up past my ankles in muddy running water coming down the trail from all angles. So much fun. Really glad I bothered not getting my feet wet earlier in those creeks. After another like 30 minutes on the crummy muddy trail, I decided that the road would be shorter and less muddy, even if it meant that I was slightly more out in the open and had to worry about vehicles.

Not ten minutes into my journey on the road and a car slowed down and asked if I wanted a ride. Nice looking people…I said that I was soaked though and didn’t want to get their car wet; however, they insisted it was fine. As soon as I got in the man said, “We’ve been hunting for hitchhikers,” and the woman goes, “He doesn’t mean it like that!” Great…I’m about to become a statistic in the hitchhiker fatality books. But I didn’t—they were super nice. She was from Germany and he was from California and I helped them get to the Visitor Center. So now I can check Unintentional Hitchhiking off my bucket list. :)

Back in Yosemite Village it was barely raining at all. Apparently the thunderstorm was currently only affecting the western portion of the valley. I walked back to my tent, took a shower to get the mud off, threw all my clothes in the dryer, and scattered my belongings from my backpack on the boards above our heater. It is all soaked. There were only a couple square centimeters on me that weren’t wet all the way through. My camera appears to still work for the time being; however, I think my phone may be toast. I took it apart and dried it off, but the battery has a red little spot instead of white. We’ll see if it turns on later. I doubt it. And I’m definitely going to have to replace my roommate’s book. The bottom quarter is all soaked. My deck of cards that was already in pretty rough shape might be a goner also—don’t want to peel them apart yet until they’re dry.

Life lesson—check the dang weather forecast before you go hiking. So dumb…so, so dumb…

Also, tonight was the Employee Welcome Back Feast at the Community Center, so naturally we went and ate free food. I had a delightful buttermilk chicken sandwich, fries, and a cookie. Hurray for not having to cook!

On Sunday I went to the evening church service, and the pastor invited me to bible study at his house on Tuesdays at 7:00, but I completely forgot to go yesterday. So now as I’m done writing this I’m going to head to church again to see if Wednesday evening services are the same as Sundays or not.

P.S. My phone turns on and gets messages, but the touch screen doesn’t work so I can’t view them or respond. Peachy. Don’t text me. :)