Fischertrails Yosemite Trip Day 4 and A Tale of the Half Dome Adventure, and The Mama BEAR!!!

An excerpt from the Journal!

Thursday June 20, 2013

We woke up early this morning and closed up our tent and headed out to hike up to half dome. The morning was chilly and we thought we would be the only one on the trail, but into our hike we met a family who had started hiking from Yosemite Valley at 3am. We took our time until we saw more people coming up the trail then; we made it our goal to get up there before it was too crowded. The hike was a bit strenuous at the start; along the way we saw a large group of young boys we found out once we got to the top that they were a group of boy scouts. We began to make our way over the sub dome and I began to have that woozy feeling it was pretty scary climbing over the first dome. Then we finally got to the cables of half dome, and that is where I froze I looked up at the cables that led straight over the face of the dome, and I sat there quietly contemplating the torture I would endure climbing over (not because it was too physically difficult but to emotionally difficult) my palms began to sweat and I looked into Tim’s eyes, and I could tell that he saw the fear I was feeling, and then I just began to tear up (again it might have been the PMS). I asked him to go up without me, it was never a dream of mine to climb up half dome, it was one of Tim’s for years, so I didn’t want to have him miss out but I

Fischertrails Yosemite Trip Day 3 and A Tale of a Journey to Cloud's Rest

Day 3 journal excerpt

Wednesday June 19, 2013

This morning we woke up early to get a head start on hiking while we were fresh. We cooked breakfast by the lake and as we began packing up our tent we were shocked to find ice on the fly of our tent, it was so cold that ice had formed on our tent overnight. It all made sense why we couldn’t sleep that night. We finished packing and headed out, we felt good today our packs didn’t feel as heavy I think because we were now getting stronger so we had a much faster pace. We walked on this trail that I think was my favorite trail of the trip it was so scenic in the forest over this beautiful stream and up hill. We could see our destination (cloud’s rest) far off in the distance and were in good spirits feeling fresh on this trek. We saw some frost on the ground cover and passed by trees that looked like little Christmas trees it kind of gave me that warm fuzzy Christmastime feeling, even though we were in the middle of June.

We kept seeing cloud’s rest off in the distance and it seriously seemed so far away I couldn’t believe that we would make it there eventually. As we got closer to the hike got much steeper and our morning freshness was quickly wearing off. We were beginning to feel very tired and weary, but there was only one choice, to keep walking, so that’s exactly what we did. When we finally made it to the incline of cloud’s rest it was extremely hard to see over the peak it was nothing but giant granite rocks piled up higher and higher on each other all you could see was a narrow pile of rocks paving the way toward the endless sky and nothing but sheer cliff drops on the left and right. The wind was blowing so hard and my balance was not it’s best due to my heavy pack so I began feeling a fear building. I tried to crawl over a few of the rocks but it was difficult and I couldn’t figure out how there could be a trail leading us down at the end of this nothing rock piled trail that looked like it dropped off the mountain to the large valley below. I started to get that woozy feeling you know the one where your heart drops to your stomach I shakily walked forward then tripped and got down on my hands and knees and just began to cry silently to myself (I do have to add that during this time I was experiencing some pre menstrual syndrome) just as I was sitting on my hands and knees a few bees started to circle around my head throwing my balance off even more (it was obviously the wrong choice to wear a bright yellow hat on this trip, I was the only thing on those rocks that was bright and colorful). Tim became concerned and

Fischertrails Yosemite trip Day 2 and A Tale of too Many Skeeters

Here is an excerpt from Tuesday's Journal!

Tuesday June 18, 2013

We slept in a little in the morning and cooked breakfast beside the lake we had a beautiful lakeside view while we enjoyed our oatmeal. We quickly packed up our packs and were so excited to be on out way. We started out on our trail and were hiking along this hill then made our way into this beautiful meadow and along this stream where we saw this little marmot that seemed so curious about us. As we continued walking we found ourselves walking beside this marsh that was covered with mosquitoes which was complete torture for me at one point I began running with my heavy pack to get away from all the skeeters. (and if you think that your bug spray, pants and long sleeve shirt will keep the skeeters from biting you, think again because they bit right through all of that) By the end of the day I was covered in bites. 

Fischertrails Yosemite Trip Day1 and A Tale of Beginnings!

The next few days I will be posting little blurbs from our Journal on our awesome backpacking trip through Yosemite! Tim and I had such a fun trip together and got hooked on backpacking hoping to do many more trips in the future!!

Monday, June 17, 2013

We arrived in Tuolomne Meadows around 2:30 after the long 7 hour drive from San Elijo, Encinitas. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to get a wilderness pass for the next day but we were hopeful, and we were even going to try to get it for that  day. We stopped at the ranger station, and Tim went in to see if he could get the permit while I stayed out in the car. Next to our car a huge family was organizing and packing up their gear for their back packing trip. The family took turns weighing their bags and each one weighed about 20 lbs except for the dad’s his weighed 45. I perked up when I heard them exclaim that was too much for the dad to carry and they should each take a pound from him. Dad was insistent that he carry it and they all went on their way. I began to worry that Tim and I were carrying too much. We didn’t even think to ask our expert Laurie how much our packs should weigh, but now I began to second guess if we were really ready for this my pack was between 30-40 lbs while Tim’s was 50 lbs. We were definitely the backpacking rookies (for those seasoned backpackers feel free to laugh at us when you read this) 

 A few minutes later Tim came back to the car so excited, as he was able to get our wilderness permit for that day! So we went to the little market in town bought a postcard to send home charged up our phones for the last time and went to find our trailhead. I couldn’t help but laugh at Tim he was like a little kid in a candy store he was so excited to begin the journey. 

We parked at the Cathedral Lakes trailhead and began hiking right away. About 30 minutes in to our grueling up hill hike I began to realize that backpacking is pretty hard. I think we arrogantly assumed we were in the right shape and could take on this short 4-mile hike with no problem but we didn’t factor in how heavy our packs were and how much they would slow us down. With the altitude gain and the heavy pack we found ourselves needing plenty of breaks to catch our breath and hydrate. I looked at Tim with concern as our week was just beginning and we had around 30 miles to go to get to our final destination. I looked at him and said I’m not sure if I can do this it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be, and we were under the impression we were going mostly down hill, but this first trail was definitely not down hill. We had no choice but to put our heads down and power through nothing to do but keep walking forward it was the most fantastic physical and mental challenge. After a long hike we arrived to our destination of Cathedral lakes along the trail we passed incredible landscapes including cathedral peak. I can't really describe the feeling of accomplishment I felt when we reached our destination a little feeling a pride welled up inside me and I knew not only could I do this week trip but I couldn't wait to see more of this little wilderness adventure we were on! 

That night we set up our tent made dinner and crawled into our tent early to warm up and rest. We were so exhausted that first night that we fell asleep shortly after the sun went down to the sound of the croaking frogs along the lake. 

our total trek was 4.1 miles that day!

Enjoy the Weekend!!!