Fresno and Cloud's Rest

So not too much to report from the pool this past week. They thought we would be busy Memorial Day weekend, but honestly we had way more people on Tuesday and Wednesday than any of the rest of the days. The afternoon is always the craziest. I always hate “yelling” at the adults…I mean, come on people—you’re supposed to be leading by example. Maybe putting your kid in a chokehold and holding him underwater isn’t the greatest idea? There were three girls there a couple days, we guessed age 12-14, that were positively drooling at one of my coworkers (Conor—age 23 haha). I died laughing; it was so funny. The third time they came in, he put a tshirt on. ;)

Yesterday, I went on one of the Wellness Center’s trips to Fresno. There was the employee driver, me, and three other people on the way there. I ran a bunch of errands beforehand because we didn’t leave until 10:00. Check out my spiffy new shoes that I ordered that came in the mail! (Don’t mind my disgusting feet.) Both sandal-like pairs of shoes that I brought were wearing down (one was already worn down when I brought it), so I invested in a pair of Teva’s. Good thing too because my shoes broke on the way from work to church on Wednesday night.

Anyways, it’s a 2.5 hour drive to Fresno, so I was basically starving on the way there—I think I wound up eating 3 granola bars and a bag of beef jerky…so by the time we got to Fresno, I ordered a sandwich and took the other half home. I got “The Ultimate” from Uncle Harry’s New York Bagelry. It had scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, and cheese on a Bacon Cheddar Bagel. Delightful!

The people at Best Buy said that my phone battery isn’t damaged, and the inner workings of the phone aren’t damaged—but the screen is, so it has to be replaced. I’ll just keep finagling with the arrow keys and OK button until I get back to Iowa in August.

Then there wasn’t a Wal Mart around, so I went into Target to ask them if they cashed checks (all the rest are direct deposit, but our first paycheck is paper). The lady at customer service sent me a few blocks away to a liquor store. Cool, I’m in Fresno wandering around by myself and now I’m going into a liquor store. Perfect. Well, they didn’t want to cash that much, so they sent me somewhere else. That place cashed it. Item #2—done.

Then I went to this really cool store called Sprout’s Farmers Market. It was basically and indoor grocery store that focused on fruits, vegetables, organic foods, and bulk foods. Most of the food you scooped yourself and paid by the pound, so I got a bunch of rice and oats, as well as grapes and apples. Sweet store. I got the rest of my groceries at Target—not too exciting. At about 4:15, the WC employee (Jennifer) came back to the place she dropped us off. She had warned us that she had left people behind for being late before…so DON’T be late! I’m too scared of being late to be late though, so I was waiting for the van when it got there. I had so much time that she recommend a frozen yogurt place across the street and I went and got a ton of froyo from Yogurtland. It was 102^o in Fresno. Yuck. We waited until almost 4:50 (4:30 meet time) and then we left. We came with five people and left with two. Good retention rate. So that was my Fresno experience. :) Nothing like RJ and Sabas had warned me about, thank goodness. RJ grew up there so he hates it. Sabas went there and was reading a book outside one time and these two guys walk by him, start laughing, and one of them says, “Who reads books?” Morons.

So now for the exciting part—today! I wanted to get kind of a long hike in off my to-do list, so I decided that if I woke up and was feeling good, I would knock out Cloud’s Rest. From my tent cabin, it’s 24 miles round trip with almost a 6000 ft. elevation gain from the valley floor. I wanted to get started early today so that I’d be back by supper time, so I set my alarm for 5:20. Unfortunately, my alarm clock only picked up static for my radio so I didn’t hear it until almost 5:50. Oh well—still had everything to go and left a little before 6:30 and made it to the trailhead a little after 7:00. No worries.

To get to Cloud’s Rest you have a couple options. The more common option is to come from the Tenaya Lake area and start at the Sunrise trailhead. The much less common option is to come from the valley and start at the Happy Isles trailhead. Why don’t people come from the valley? 1) It’s at least 3 miles further, one-way. 2) Instead of an elevation gain of 1775 feet, the elevation gain is just under 6000 ft. Regardless, I figured I could handle it. Andi said if I didn’t come back by 9:00, she’d send SAR out for me. :)

At the beginning of the trail at Happy Isles, there’s a sign that tells you how much water you should take with you. Apparently you’re supposed to use 2 quarts just to the top of Nevada Fall and a minimum of 4 quarts for the Half Dome Trail…well Cloud’s Rest veers off and is past Half Dome and I only brought 80 oz. instead of 128 oz. Oh well, I decided to drink the untreated river water if I needed to. (P.S. I didn’t need to.) Bottom line, bring more water than you think, even if you think 3 bottles (2x24, 1x32) is going to be enough.

I made it to the top of Nevada Fall from the trailhead in just over an hour. There weren’t a ton of people on the trail, so I got really lucky being able to pass the ones that were. Heavy traffic on all those stairs is brutal, so at least I got to avoid it once today. Then about a mile later, you come to Little Yosemite Valley. What’s the best part about Yosemite Valley? That’s right—the two story outhouse with solar composting toilets! Yes, I thought the toilets were cool. They use the solar panels on the roof and microorganisms to compost the waste and then horses take it away. (I didn’t use it til the way back…but whatever, I’ll talk about it now.)

As I passed different signs, I was calculating how fast I was going and how long it would take me to get to the top. I set a goal of making it to the top by 11:30. The trail was pretty tough and I wasn’t breathing the greatest. This altitude stuff really throws and Iowa person for a loop! I took a 10:00 break (like Habitat!) so I could eat grapes/drink water/pee. I conveniently, and unknowingly, did this right before my last set of awful switchbacks before all the rock stairs to the top. Once you get to the rock part, you really have to keep your eyes peeled for the trail. There are a couple cairns to help you, but otherwise everything just looks like rocks everywhere. Right before the stone stairs, I encountered my first people on the trail! They had come from Tenaya Lake and said there was still a lot of snow that way. I made it to the top at 11:22—goal met. Bam. It was so amazing up there. A full 360^o view of everything, including the opposite side of Half Dome! I loved it. I ate my lunch up there and took a bunch of pictures.

 

 

 

Hurray for timer buttons on cameras :)

 

This is where I was in relation to the valley...just keep scrolling...then look for the "little path"

 

I was so high there was SNOW at the summit!

I left there around 12:00, but didn’t set a time goal for the way down because I knew I’d be hitting the Vernal/Nevada/Mist Trail area around rush hour, and that can take forever. Good thing “patience” and self-control” are both fruits of the spirit and my coworker Kevin and I made songs for just that kind of circumstance last summer at work. It’s not that slow people bother me—it’s that people that are oblivious to how much they’re holding everyone else up bother me. People that walk 2-4 people wide on trails and don’t let you pass. People that zig zag when they walk so that you can’t pass. People that don’t understand golf etiquette about letting faster people play through!

So today my hiking companions were none other than Billy Joel, Elton John, Styx, Journey…etc. :) The thing about hiking by yourself is that hiking groups are similar to that phrase, “A team is only as strong as its weakest player.” Well, a hiking group is only as fast as its slowest member. Therefore, when I hike by myself, I can go whatever pace I darn well please. Works great.

I ended up getting back around 4:10, 9.7 hours after I began. So Andi doesn’t have to call SAR. I met tons of people on the way down! Almost all of them asked me how far away they were from the top and how long it would take them to get there. I used my watch to roughly guesstimate for them, and one guy was so happy that he was only about another 40 minutes away that he gave me a high-five and said I gave him hope and now he was optimistic to continue. :) I had to talk a guy up that was a little less than a mile from the top. He was seriously considering turning around, even though he was so close! He said he made the mistake of trying to do it all in one day. Yes…that is why the trail information says, “Only feasible for the hardiest of day hikers.” I encouraged/persuaded him to continue, so I hope he made it!

Also, huge shoutout to my parents, not only for growing my appreciation of national parks, teaching me how to read (and memorize) maps, and how not to be one of the tourons that frustrates me as an employee and park resident—but also for having such dang long legs that I always had to run to keep up so I learned to walk really fast! ;)

Now that I’m back, I think I’m going to go jump in the pool before I try to upload all these pictures.