Creamsicle and the Beardless Woodsman: Day 11

Last day of Yosemite Hike!!

17 miles total including 2 miles up Half Dome and two miles back down

Today was the day we had been dreading and looking forward to the whole trip. We were gonna do about 7 miles to the trail split for Half Dome, climb about 2000 ft., the last 400 straight up while holding onto cables, come back down and then go another 6 or so down to the valley. The only good thing was that we thought we were gonna be going downhill the whole time other than the Half Dome part because we were losing about 4000 ft. total in elevation during the day. Of course, that wasn’t totally true. But anyways, we did start the morning off right. Scott, John and Michelle left before breakfast because they planned on doing Half Dome and needed the extra time. Maggie, Vaughn, and myself decided to eat breakfast because we were a little faster and figured we had the time to do so, along with doing Half Dome. Peter, Nancy and David were not doing Half Dome so they had the time to eat breakfast and relax on their whole hike down to the valley. So right at the end of breakfast we all saw Danger Rave walk in. David said we should get a picture with him so I asked him if we could do that. Of course he said yes because he is a gentleman in all meanings of the word. We all went outside and took the first picture, which we wanted to do poses to scare bears away (he talked about and demonstrated his at the fire talk the night before). After that, Danger said that we should take another one like old college buddies. That is where my breath cut short, my heart started beating real fast and, if it weren’t for Maggie, I would have fallen from my knees buckling. To be considered an old college buddy of Danger Raves could have been the most super exciting and flattering compliment I have ever gotten. So we took the picture, I caught my breath, and when my legs regained feeling we went to get our packs and began the hike. Like I said before, we were expecting downhill the whole way. So not true. Basically the whole trail to the Half Dome split was uphill, besides the last mile or so. But we were determined people on a mission, and nothing was gonna stop us from reaching our goals. So to get our minds of it, we sang. The songs we sang will remain unmentioned for the sake of my manly reputation. When we got to the split we met up with Scott, John and Michelle and hid our packs in the woods. We then headed up to Half Dome. The ranger that checked our permits did not warn us about steepness or loose rocks or falling off or edges or anything like that, all he said was “be careful of the squirrels and marmots”. That put my mind at ease about the steepness and cliffs and stuff, but all I could think of then was squirrels flying at my face and chewing at my ankles while going up the cables. Very reassuring. The first part was basically a straight up steep trail for about 20 minutes or so, which only got us to the top of the first hump. The view was spectacular from there, but we knew it was gonna be better from the real top. As we looked at the cables from the hump, they looked mighty daunting. I wasn’t too nervous about it because I knew it would be fun, but they did look very steep. But as we walked up to them, they looked a lot less steep and scary at the base of them. As we started heading up, the traffic was like Grand Central Station. It took us about 30-40 minutes to get up because people are people; that’s the only explanation I can think of that covers all the bases. But if there was no one on it, it would have taken Vaughn and I about 10 minutes to get up. When we made it to the top, we walked around and enjoyed the views. I’ll give props to Scott, who made it up while being very sick. He was breathing pretty hard on the way up, which worried me, but he made it and is still alive at the moment. Maggie and I did a victory “wop” (I guess it’s a new dance the kids are doing nowadays like the soldier boy) at the top, and Vaughn and I did some sort of attempt at a dance as well. As my age increases, the quality of my dance moves goes down…dramatically. Thank God I can sing. I also saw this girl getting video taped Dougying, and I started dancing next to her and then asked her to teach me how to Dougy. She said yes, but then we both got distracted and I never learned how to Dougy. I feel like I’m missing out on a whole important part of life now. The coolest part up there was that people left designs with rocks all over the place, and we found a design that was an NCSU symbol!! Woop Woop (gotta throw that in there for Woop)!!! The way down was so much fun, too. Maggie and I both slid down on our heels while holding onto the cables most of the way. As we got back down to our packs, we were in good spirit knowing that we were on the last leg of our trip and it had to go downhill from here. And it did. We went down the Mist Trail, which took us by Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls (the falls where 2 people had fallen off and died a couple weeks earlier), both quite spectacular. Vernal had a magnificent rainbow next to it, which Vaughn took about 59 pictures of (can’t say I took much less). On the way down the steps past Vernal, Maggie and I got caught behind this Spanish girl who took each step carefully and sideways, two feet on each step on the way down. That went on for about 150 steps or so, which was a little frustrating, and she kept teasing us like she was gonna pull off and let us pass, but then never did. Now I know how a cat feels when you dangle a ball of yarn over it. When we found our opening, we took it, and like Raji off the blocks during a race, we bolted past her with pure speed and ferocity. It was not far from Vernal to the road, where we caught the bus back to Curry Village and to the end of our hiking!! Bittersweet. When we got back, the first thing the three of us did was shower. We then went to the restaurant, where Ms. Creamer bought us pizza, and Peter treated Vaughn to a beer and me to a strawberry daiquiri. When people walked by, I tried to play it off like the strawberry daiquiri was for my girlfriend, but I don’t think it worked. Oh well, it was DELICIOUS!! And so was the pizza. And then right when I finished my first daiquiri, it thought to myself how good a second one would be. And what do ya know: out of nowhere, with impeccable timing yet again, my sunshine on a cloudy day, Peter, showed up with a second daiquiri. Wow. That’s all I have to say. After dinner we were all tired and hurting (I don’t think I had knees at that point) so we all went to bed, with a feeling of accomplishment in our minds and delicious pizza and manly drinks in our bellies. That was the end of an absolutely amazing trip, and Scott and David did a perfect job planning it all out and setting it all up. I don’t know how I could ever thank them for that. Maybe more naked man playing cards? Who knows. But it’s not just the scenery that makes a trip, but the people you can share it with. And I couldn’t think of anybody better to share it with than the 8 people I did.

"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it." – from Tuesdays with Morrie