HALF DOME!!!

You want to know what’s challenging? Half Dome.

You want to know what’s challenging when you wake up with legs like Bambi? Everything…including Half Dome.

But let’s start from the beginning. After going to the Visitor Center on my second day in the park, acquiring all of the brochures the guy could find, and also using Yosemitehikes.com, I compiled a Yosemite Bucket List of hikes to do during the three months I was here. I progressed through these things on my weekends until finally, only one remained. Now if you read the title and the first two statements—you should know what that one thing is. However, if you weren’t paying attention…it was Half Dome. Now hiking Half Dome is tricky—and by that I mean both extremely strenuous and permit-wise. After deciding in 2011 that the route was too crowded and unsafe, NPS began a permit system to hike Half Dome.

Don’t quote me on some of this, but if you’ve planned over 6 months in advance, you can try to make a reservation for a day-use permit. Otherwise, in order to get a day-use permit, you have to enter a lottery online or by phone two days in advance, and you’ll be notified that night whether or not you were chosen. Note: you have to pay each time you enter. My days off are Friday/Saturday…good luck Bethany. I was told by basically everyone (Rangers included) that the odds of me getting a day-use Half Dome permit on either of these days were awful and I probably wouldn’t get one. Which leads me to the other kind of Half Dome permit—a wilderness permit.

Half Dome can be added to wilderness permits out of certain trailheads. Happy Isles, Glacier Point, and Sunrise are the three most common that I know of. In fact, I can’t think of another one off the top of my head that you can get one from unless you’re doing the JMT (John Muir Trail…or John Manure Trail). Wilderness permits for these trailheads go very quickly, so when the Wilderness Center opens at 8:00, there is a gigantic line. Some people sleep there overnight so that they’re at the front of the line. No joke. This is a big deal! You have to go the day before you want to leave, show up in the 8:00 line, put your name down, and then return at 11:00 to see where you’re actually going to get placed.

Knowing that the line on Thursday for Friday would be nuts, I decided to try to leave after work on Thursday night, so on Wednesday morning, I went and waited in line—getting there around 7:00. I was fourth in line (which is really good), but the first guy needed twelve for his scout troop. 12 happens to be the number of permits from Happy Isles to LYV (Little Yosemite Valley) that they give each day. Lots of the people behind me were upset, but hey, he waited there fair and square, and who can be mad at a Boy Scout troop? When the person taking names got to me, he circled my name as a park employee and said they would try to work something out for me. People are so nice. :) I also had to work from 10:00-6:30, so they were going to try to work with me on that too. But, since the majority of my coworkers owe me favors, they were fine with me taking an extended fifteen (we get two paid 15s and our mandatory 30 min. clock out lunch break) to bike to the Wilderness Center as soon as I finished cleaning the pool to make it back a little after 11:00. Long story short, I got there at 11:03, they gave me the pass-through option, which means I needed to hike until I passed the Cloud’s Rest/Morraine Dome trail junction—adding about 2 miles to my Thursday night, but ultimately being closer to Half Dome than LYV actually. Coincidentally, I dealt with the same ranger who sent me on the crummy trails, predicting I’d get lost…but this time he did me a big favor instead. Sweet.

So after another extremely toasty day at work (it’s been in the hundreds all week and absolutely miserable), I set out at 7:00 from Half Dome Village, headed over to Happy Isles, and went up the Mist Trail during sunset.

 Sunset from trail to Nevada Fall

Nevada Fall at sunset

After that, I had to use my head lamp because I barely got to the top of Nevada Fall before I was out of light. I passed LYV and continued along the trail, trying to make it to my junction so that I could set up camp for the night. Somewhere around 9:45, maybe ½ a mile to a mile before my junction, I encountered a trio of bears. One cub was up in the tree, one was to the right, and the mama bear was dead center of the trail. I waited for a while and turned my headlight to full power just to see if they’d go away. They didn’t. At this point, I turned around and went the other way. Messing with a mama bear would be stupid, she clearly didn’t realize/care she was in my way. :P So I made a phone call and played, “What would Shelby do?” ;) I ended up going to the LYV Ranger Station, intentionally/unintentionally waking them up, and telling them about the bears on the trail to where my permit allowed me to camp. They weren’t upset at all because apparently that’s their job or something—and they told me just to stay in the LYV campground for the night. So I set up my borrowed hammock (from Peggy…of course), stashed my bear canister, and went to sleep.

I decided to try hammock camping for a few reasons.

1) It's been incredibly warm lately. 2) It is SO MUCH LIGHTER than a tent!

I slept terrible, but not because of the hammock—because my muscles decided to cease working. Cool. Perks of having HYPP. I woke up in the morning walking like Bambi does at first. Naturally…the day I finally get to hike Half Dome. After taking extra medicine, I decided to see whether this was going to happen or whether I would need to try again next week. Well, as usual, it gets better with “light” exercise, food, medicine, and time. So basically, I was burning a million calories as I went up the switchbacks with crummy leg muscles. At the turnoff to the Half Dome trail, I stashed my pack and my bear canister (separately), and only took a drawstring with water, food, and my camera. Going up the cables with a full pack would seriously be insane (and really dangerous) and I didn’t see anyone do it the entire time I was there. That doesn’t mean people don’t—I’m just saying it’s strongly not recommended.

You know what else isn’t recommended? Wearing tennis shoes…aka the only shoes I have left, even though they have a hole in them. Why, you might ask? Because you need shoes that have actual grip/traction for the smooth granite that you’ll be going up. And how much traction do my shoes have left? None. Literally none.

So as I’m approaching the cables, I decide my legs are doing well enough for me to try them because my arms were fine this time, so I could use them to pull myself up. (Which is exactly what I did since my shoes just slid everywhere.) I seriously pulled myself up the series of cables. Talk about an arm workout! Because I had left LYV at 6:15, even in my crappy state, I got to the cables around 8:30—well before the rush for the day would start. Since people have to go up and down the same cable route, you have to take turns, so if you get there when it’s crowded, it’ll take you forever! I got to the summit by 9:00 and was very, very happy! I mean, all ya gotta do is slide down, right? ;)

Now this next statement might surprise some of you. The view from Half Dome is not the best view in the valley. It really isn’t. It’s not the highest, it’s not most people’s favorite—it’s really just impressive because of what you have to do to get there. (Half Dome is 8844 ft. in elevation, compared to Cloud’s Rest at 9930 ft.) Nonetheless, I was enjoying myself up there, especially given the circumstances. Oh, but I did happen to witness four guys that decided to take a nude picture…scarred for life. Even though it was only 9:30ish, I ate my PB&J that I brought for lunch because I was basically starving.

 Getting closer to Subdome and growing semi-nervous

 Seeing the ants on the cables.

 Oh, I guess they're people.

 View east from summit

 

View west from summit

 

Me out on "The Visor" :D

 Screw you muscle disease--I can do whatever I want!!! #Can'tStopMe

Coming down, I turned my feet sideways, grabbed both cables, and slid down. No joke. In a couple places there were crevices that I could find a toehold in, but otherwise…I had nothing. I got stuck behind the same slow couple (the female was really struggling) that I was behind going up. It took about half an hour to get down also. I only slipped once when I was really close to the bottom of the cables, but my right armpit took the only damage with a nice cable abrasion. By the time I got to Subdome, there were tons and tons of people going up! I do not envy any of them on that route when it’s that crowded. I was extremely fortunate (and intelligent) that I went up as early as I did so that I could avoid the crowds and the heat!

I kind of moseyed back down, and being the social butterfly that I am (NOT), talked to lots of people on their way up. The way back is always so much more fun than the way there! No two-legged or four-legged creatures stole my pack or my bear can, so I was in business for the ~6.5 mile return to the valley. Arriving at the top of Nevada Fall around 11:30 is terribly packed, so instead of dealing with the clogged Mist Trail and all those tourons, I decided to add a couple miles to my journey and take the JMT down. Usually I like to jog down the paved decline from the Vernal Fall footbridge back to the trailhead, but that proved much more difficult with my backpack than my usual daypack. :P I did it anyways. Then I took the bus back to Half Dome Village and got my post-hike ice cream.

The end of every good hike is ice cream!

(I believe this was a Cookies & Cream/Mint Chocolate Chip shake--thick, of course so that I get four scoops and a little milk.) ;)

YOSEMITE BUCKET LIST COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!

(And just in time because I had to put in my two weeks notice this Wednesday, and it was painful. Except I’m totally ready to be done lifeguarding.)