Beginning at the beginning: we woke up around 7am and only really started moving around 8am. Due to thunderstorm warnings from the ranger, we decided to bypass Clouds Rest, which, for those who don't know, is Half Dome's taller, much less fussed-over neighbor. So we packed up, ate our cold oatmeal breakfast (at least, we attempted to. Liam and Maddie are, for very understandable reasons, utterly repulsed by my oatmeal concoction--a mixture of numerous grains, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, dried fruit, and protein powder), and moved on our way.
It was a moderate pace for that first thousand feet or so up to the Half Dome junction, where we were greeted with some of many nice views for the day.
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| Hopefully I'll get to climb Half Dome one day! |
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| Such a neat footpath |
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| My one selfie for the day, I promise! |
From there we continued along our hiking theme for the day: up, Up, and UP! It was scenic, but there were some ominous clouds brewing over the adjacent mountains, keeping me slightly on edge.
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| Storm brewing? Nah, those clouds are all the way over on that side of the valley.... |
Onward we hiked, passing a fair number of JMT hikers along the way. It always inspires confidence to pass people. Everytime I pass someone, though, I feel obligated to hike faster so as not to be leapfrogged again. But today passing people was pretty common and we felt strong.
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| My attempt at being an artsy photographer |
Snacks today consisted of 4 bars, jerky, dried fruit, and a shared cold couscous salad.
Around 2 hours into our day of hiking, thunder began rolling across the valley. Hiking with thunder resonating all around you is one of the most wonderful feelings. So long as the lightning is nowhere close and rain is absent, I really can't think of a better soundtrack to our walk. And so began the development of our collectively misguided sense of confidence about our weather fortunes. You see, when thunder sounds but it's miles and miles away across a valley, it's not that scary. When a light drizzle found it's way across our path, we felt wary at first. But when that failed to produce a downpour, we felt even more confident that we were hiking around the storm. Because we couldn't see out from under the tree cover, though, we couldn't be sure what the clouds looked like. So we pressed on, with our goal being to make it to Cathedral Lakes.
As we climbed further and further, the thunder continued to rumble. We eventually made it up and over 9,700 feet to see beautiful vistas and some of the darkest daytime skies I have ever seen. But again, those clouds are all the way over therrree....
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| Maddie hiking down toward Sunrise High Sierra Camp after a long and tough 3500 foot climb |
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| At this point, we figured our good fortunes would hold out until Cathedral Lakes...we could not have been more wrong |
So we climbed up to the high sierra camp and were greeted with the most beautiful sight of the day, gorgeous Long Meadow. We saw other hikers nearby at the nice, established campsite, and in retrospect we should have joined them. But we were on a mission, and besides, we felt we had LUCK on our side...
As we pressed on, the mile or so beyond high sierra camp became a rainy trudge uphill. It was beautiful meadow after beautiful meadow, and we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves despite the drizzle. But 45 minutes or so after leaving the comfortable-looking campsite, it began to really come down hard, and the thunder/lightning got more and more intense. It was at this point, when all hail broke loose. Really though, hail began to descend upon us, and I had to call it quits. We found an empty campsite nearby, hastily pitched our tents, and hopped right in. I was soaked to the bone and got myself warm as fast as I could. It was a long hour and a half later until the rain subsided. Exhausted from our day of climbing, we skipped a cooked dinner and opted to snack instead. For me: a pouch of fish with bbq sauce wrapped in a tortilla, a bar, wasabi crackers, and jerky. For Maddie and Liam, jerky, pop tarts, and crackers. We ate through the "golden hour" (I was too tired to go to my tent to grab my phone/camera, which was also low on battery) and enjoyed some good conversation. I'm really glad Liam was able to join us for this leg of the trip. As wonderful as it is spending time alone with Maddie, it's great to have the company of someone so enthusiastic and fun to hike with.
All in all this was a wonderful day of garnering experience and pushing our limits. Everyone is in fantastic spirits and proud of ourselves for a grunt of a day. Tomorrow we're planning an early departure so we can jump in Cathedral Lake and make it to Tuolemne Meadow Lodge to hopefully meet Anne. We're already talking about what we're going to eat when we get there...burgerrrrrrrrr pleaseeee!!! Next time, we'll quit while we're ahead and set up camp earlier.
looks like fun
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