A Week in Yosemite

Still recovering from running the Wasatch Back Ragnar on Friday and Saturday (and then driving back from Utah on Sunday), Parker and I got up early Monday morning to head to our High Adventure trip with the Priests and Teachers.  Day 1 was rafting down the Middle Fork of the American River.  As luck would have it, this ended up being one of the coldest days in several months.  It rained pretty much the whole day.  Fortunately, our guides brought each of us wet suits so that helped considerably but it was still very cold.

We had a blast despite the rain and even dove into the river a couple times.  Everyone came through the rapids and falls unharmed and, after changing into our regular clothes, we started the drive down to Yosemite.

We struggled to find the turn off for our campground for a while but eventually found the spot and then put up a couple tents in the dark. I decided to just sleep in the van that night.  It wasn't comfortable but at least it wasn't wet.  We spent the next day at the campground and played some volleyball and miniature golf (on the oldest and most worn out miniature golf course of all time).  We then went to Rainbow Falls and spent a couple hours hiking up the river.  Eventually, we came back to the falls themselves, hiked a rock and started jumping off from about 25-30 feet into the water.  It was a long time in the air but pretty fun.  Brother Martin lost both his glasses and his watch since he forgot to take them off before jumping in.

The next morning we cleaned up camp and headed to the trail head (a beautiful river was right at the trail head).  We got our backpacks on and hiked several miles uphill.  One of the boys was really struggling so we had to do quite a bit of waiting, even after we took most of his weight from his pack.  Eventually, he wasn't carrying anything and we finally got him to the lake where we were going to camp.  The last couple miles were full of mosquitoes.  And I do mean full.  We spent the whole time rubbing our arms to try to get the mosquitoes off of us.  We started a fire and prayed that night for relief from the mosquitoes.  Most of us slept with our sleeping bags completely mummified.  Amazingly, the next morning the mosquitoes had diminished considerably and while we still had some the rest of the trip, we were tremendously blessed to not have to endure the swarms from the previous day.

Here we are getting ready to take off the first day of the hike.

Parker seems pretty happy but he hasn't started hiking yet!

My backpack -- ready to go.

A quick stop along the trail.

Looking back at what we had just hiked.

The beautiful mountains ahead.

These guys were everywhere.

The view from our campground the first night.

Amazing scenery!

Half dome in the distance (more on that later)

The crew

The other leaders (Mike and Mike)

The boys stopped here to throw a few rocks.  You can't really tell from the picture but after about 50 yards, it goes straight down.

Some exhausted boys on our last night before half dome.

A few of us decided to make a hike up to Cloud's Rest the afternoon before Half Dome.  This is Parker and I with Half Dome actually below us.  Parker, Isaac, and I were hiking ahead of the others and some people coming down the mountain said they saw a huge snake up above so be careful.  It gave Parker and I a huge burst of energy since we were frightened a snake was going to jump out at any time.  We made it the next couple miles up the hill in record time.

Poor Isaac was with us and kept telling us to slow down but we couldn't.

Here are some views from the top of Cloud's Rest.  It's actually quite a bit higher than Half Dome and was worth the hike.

The next morning we got up about 5 am to head to Half Dome (to beat the crowds and the heat).  Everyone made it this far (to the cables) and all but one made it to the top.  You can see the cables in the picture below.  You basically have to pull yourself up by using the cables which are bolted into the rock.  A pretty frightening experience but not as bad as I was expecting.

Some views from the top -- amazing.

One final look at the cables before taking off.  It's a crazy experience but I would recommend giving it a shot (and I'm afraid of heights!)

We then hiked the rest of the way out of Yosemite and drove home.  One of the leaders had to stop and hurl a ways into our drive but was ok after that.  We ordered a ton of pizzas (and ate about half of them) and then finally made it home and had a much needed shower.

Truly, this was High Adventure.  Great times with great people.  Great memories.