yosemite saga

i’ve been meaning to write this damn post about going to yosemite for 2 weeks now. fuck, i lag.

…

ever since i was a little kid, it’s been my dream to hike to the top of half dome. ok, maybe that’s exaggerating a little. it’s actually only been for the last 3 or 4 years, but nevertheless, i’ve hella wanted to do it for quite a while. climbing half dome is no easy task though… it’s a grueling 12 hour 17 mile round trip hike and the uphill is friggin insane (you gain about 1 mile in elevation). not to mention, that the last part is so steep that you have to hold on to a cable to pull yourself up at a 45 degree angle.

i’ve never actually done the hike cause i pretty much figured i wasn’t in shape enough to be able to handle it. each summer i’d promise myself that i’d do a bunch of practice hikes, and go for it, but never did. finally, a month ago, my brother did the hike and came back all ecstatic, saying that it was the best thing ever and that i really had to go do it. according to him, although it’s long and tiring, i should be able to do it. so fuck it, why not try?

finally, two weekends ago, caryn and i drove up to half dome. we bought a bunch of trail mix, power bars, water etc, and stayed in a tent cabin. did i mention that the hike takes 12 hours? we woke up at 6 in the morning and staggered outside. we were both sleepy as hell, but at the same time really excited to go out and do the hike. one of the cool things about the trail to half dome, is that there are two *huge* waterfalls on the way. not only that, but one part of the trail is called the mist trail and you spend a good part of it being sprayed by mist from one of the falls till you are really drenched. walking next to this thundering waterfall with water splashing and spraying all over and filling the air with tons of rainbows was such a beautiful experience. wayyy cool!

as we hiked on and on, we got pretty tired, but surprisingly, we weren’t completely exhausted. we totally felt like we had the energy to do the whole hike… but unfortunately there was a problem. i think that for some reason we slept in some weird fucked up position. i remember in the middle of the night waking up cause my right hip was hellza hurting. then in the morning, only about 20 minutes into the hike, my hip started to kinda hurt. wtf? it definitely wasn’t hurting from hiking seeing as we only had just begun. anyways, as the hike went on and on, it was hurting more and more till eventually, every single step i took was extremely painful. oddly enough, caryn had the exact same problem w/ her right hip.

what to do? i was *very* determined to make it to the top. i soooo didnt want to turn back. but hiking hurt so bad… and the farther we went, the farther we would have to hike back. giving up seemed so lame!! especially after making it so far. i felt like some old person, as i sat there complaining about my hip. sheez. but we finally conceded that the only thing we could do was to turn back. we had hiked 5 miles by that point.

so then we turned back… and started the 5 mile hike back down. unfortunately, i was so frustrated by turning around, that i took the hike down fairly quickly, often jumping from step to step. Bad Idea. by the bottom, my left knee was starting to hurt. when we finished the 12 mile hike (10 miles round trip plus 2 miles to/from trailhead), we were both exhausted, and we laid down on the bed to rest.

15 minutes later, i could barely get up. both of my knees throbbed with pain whenever i tried to bend them. i could barely walk. my knees were completely shot and i limped around like a loser. at this point we started to worry. usually when you work out, you feel twice as sore the next day… what if the next day we’d be even more jacked than before? i was in no state to drive that night, but caryn could drive.. but what if she couldn’t drive the next morning! we decided to leave while we still could. heh. so pathetic!

anyways, all in all, it was an incredible weekend. the hike was beautiful, the falls were breath taking, caryn got to see yosemite for the first time, and we had a lot of fun. 12 miles is pretty damn good for us. it really sucks that we didnt make it to the top… but oh well… hopefully next time.