Yosemite Part 2: The Grand Hike

Okay, I admit, I kind of dropped the ball on this one. I was supposed to post this sequel 3 months ago and then…I forgot. I promise to be better at this, scout’s honor! So for those of you who remember, (if not, go here!) I started telling you all about my slightly unfortunate camping trip to Yosemite National Park for the 4th of July weekend and all the minor mishaps we had there. I ended my last post with curling up by the campfire, so this one is going to be about what happened next. 

We had a surprisingly good night’s rest in our tent that night, with the exception of Neels croaking like a bullfrog at some point and Cece and I bursting into a fit of giggles trying to shush her back to sleep. The next morning, I was up at the crack of dawn and proceeded to drag everyone out and bully them into getting ready for the day.

Fun fact about me: I love hiking. One of the things I wanted to do at Yosemite was hike the Four Mile Trail. The trail really is about 4.8 miles one way, making it nearly a 10 miler round trip and about 3200 ft of elevation gain. At the time of this trip, it would’ve been the hardest hike I’d have attempted. The reward at the top? An ice cream store and stunning views of Glacier Point. 

But my friends weren’t that excited about this challenge as I was, so only after a lot of coaxing and pleading did everyone agree to attempt it. We loaded up on food and water and started up. 5 mins into the hike, Neels and Roy decided to turn back. It is possible to drive up to Glacier Point so they decided to do a smaller hike and meet us up at the top so we can all drive down together. Cece and I took the extra water and food from them (more for us, yay!) and headed up. This was Cece’s first hike and my 10th (I think) and despite my alleged expertise, we started tiring out pretty soon. The trail is basically a series of switchbacks cut onto the side of a cliff, so for almost all of the hike, there’s no cover from the sun. It was hot and we were already tired from travelling and running low on energy. Of course, much fitter people were bouncing past us in tiny shorts and crop tops carrying only little bottles of water, while we potato-ed up the trail, huffing and puffing and promising ourselves a rest for every 15 feet that we walked. Talk about being out of shape, yeesh. The main thing that kept us going was the thought that Neels and Roy were going to meet us at the top with the car, yay. And ice cream. But, the best part about the trail, probably the reason why despite my complaining, I would do this hike over and over again was the view. We could see the Upper Yosemite Falls throughout the hike, so much so that we joked that the falls were now permanently imprinted on our retinas. But as we progressed around the side of the mountain, we were heading closer towards Half Dome and the perspective changed. We could see down the entire length of the valley and it was a sight I will never forget. It was impossible to take a bad picture, everything looked like stock photos. 

Anyway, we reach the top in about 3.5 hours, refill our water, grab ice creams and find a spot under a tree. We had no cell service but we figured it’d take them another hour to reach the top given the terrible traffic. I took a short nap under the tree only to be rudely awakened by some ants who decided to bite my butt. And these were not regular teeny ants, oh no, these were the kind that leave angry red marks and make it hard for you to sit down. Oh well, I was going to be relaxing in a car soon. 

Cece and I headed near the parking lot to wait for our friends and were entertaining each other with lame dad jokes when Roy came bouncing up to us. Oh the relief! We could finally sit on comfy seats!

Me: Yay, you guys are here! Let’s drive back!

Roy: Finally, yes! What do you mean drive back? We walked here.

Me: …

**Cece and I looked at each other**

Cece: Funny, haha, seriously, super tired, lets drive back. 

**Neels comes into view, dusty and limping. That’s when I realized Roy wasn’t joking**

Me: What happened?? Why didn’t you drive up??!

Neels: Because we didn’t have the car keys! It’s in your bag!

Me: But you drove the car! Why’d it be in my bag? 

**….opens the side pocket…’oh..it is in my bag’**

Turns out, Neels after locking the car, had slipped the keys in a waterproof pocket in my daypack. When we decided to part ways at the beginning of the hike, she forgot about it. They didn’t realize this until after a small hike almost an hour later when they were ready to drive up to Glacier Point. Without car keys, they had no access to the money, food and water stowed in the car. And without cell service, they had no way to tell us. Cece and I had agreed to wait at the top for them, so their only option was to climb up after us and hope we found the keys and turned back, or wait for nighttime and risk us walking down in the dark. 

They decided to climb up. 3200 feet and nearly 5 miles in scorching heat without food or water. If you’re not sure how high 3200 feet is, here’s a comparison – The Eiffel tower is 1063 feet high. Stack 3 of them together one over the other and that’s how high the mountain was. I have no idea how they managed to make it up without passing out from dehydration and I can only imagine how bad it was when they told us about how they had to beg for food and water from passing hikers. 

Despite our initial confusion and amazement that they had hiked up, tensions were running high. Neels and Roy were just exhausted and thought we’d be happy to know that they’d made it up safe and alive. While Cece and I were happy they hadn’t died, we had spent the last 5 hours fantasizing about driving down in a car, but on hearing their story, we realized we have another 4 hrs of downhill hiking ahead of us, all because we forgot the car keys. We were pissed. They were pissed. In stony silence we started descending. This time, the cheery conversation died. Our knees and ankles hurt. The soles of our feet hurt. I could feel the layer of grime I was covered in. Also, my butt hurt from the ant bites.

Eventually, after a lot of whining, groaning and dire predictions of dying on the trail, we reached our car. Sitting down on the cushioned seats was the sweetest thing in the world. We made our way back to the village store, picked up firewood and meat again and headed back to camp. We built a big roaring fire, cooked and ate spicy spanish rice with sausages, sat back in our camping chairs with beers and only then, did we feel like breathing freely. It was a day I am never going to forget.

The rest of the trip passed relatively normally. The next morning, we drove around to see some waterfalls in the valley. At this point, we hadn’t showered for 4 days, so we were quite grimy and stinky and all our pictures have us looking super greasy faced and greasy haired. Neels took her glasses off to wash her face, perched them on the hood of the car parked next to us and forgot about it. We drove off and only when she realized her vision was blurry did we frantically drive back and find the glasses where she’d left them. #ClassicNeels. 

We spent the long drive back to SF fantasizing about the showers we would take when we reached home. My friends were all heading to different places in the Bay Area but I still had a flight back to Seattle. A person at the security line saw my sleeping bag and asked if I had gone to Yosemite. We chatted about camping for a bit while I hoped that he couldn’t smell how much I stank. 3 hours later when I finally walked through my apartment door and headed straight for the shower, I watched the grime wash off as my skin turned a couple of shades lighter. Smelling of my favorite lavender soap and strawberry shampoo, I slept like a baby that night. 

Well, that’s it folks, my Yosemite trip in a nutshell, er..two blog posts and 3 months in between. Hope you enjoyed it and as usual, I’ve linked some cool stuff below. Don’t forget to share with your friends!

Kat.

PS: None of the pictures are edited, I promise Yosemite really is that grand 😉

Cool things:

Half Dome

4 Mile Trail

Iconic facts about Yosemite