Half Dome: To top of Nevada Falls

[cjsmith]

Waking up was not easy. I took the last of my glucosamine/chondroitin vities, rolled on my torture device one last time, took two painkillers for the cramping, and we were off. Hotel checkout was mercifully quick. Gassed up the car in the chilly dark. Boy was I glad I'd gotten lots of sleep Thursday night. I could only imagine what I'd have felt like at this point if I hadn't. I started eating a package of cheese-and-peanut-butter crackers.

We watched the stars disappear slowly on our drive into the valley. By the time we hit the tunnel-with-the-great-view, it was light enough for a predawn photo, so I gave it a try.

Parked at Curry Village and cached all extra food in the bear lockers there. Walked maybe a half mile to the trailhead. I set the timestamp function on my camera, so as soon as I get my pictures developed I'll have good time checks on how long a lot of this took. 6:20 or so: "Before" photo at the trail sign. :-) Lots of people were up at this hour. Many of them were clearly equipped for the long hike. I felt good about getting an early start and about being prepared.

Noticed it had been an hour already. More food. I could tell this was going to get tiresome.

Felt very good on the early portions of the uphill trail. Energetic. Ready. At the base of the falls, chose the Mist Trail instead of the longer, less strenuous alternative, because this late in the summer there's less water in the falls and no mist. Definitely started panting on the Mist Trail beside Vernal Falls, but hey, it's like that: it's basically a very long stairway. Not much mist this time of year. More food again. It's annoying to eat when you're panting and climbing a stairway. At the top of Vernal Falls I took a couple of photos looking down over the edge. I love looking down off the edge of stuff, especially waterfalls. The pictures never do it justice but I take them anyway.

Just past the top of Vernal is the Emerald Pool, a deep beautiful green pool feeding the falls, and the Silver Apron, a wide smooth section of rock with water sheeting and burbling down it. I'm sure my photos won't do those justice either. We saw two deer on the other side, clearly looking to take a drink but unwilling to do so while we were visible on the trail. A couple more clicks of the shutter and we moved along.

Sunlight actually touched us for the first time up past the top of Vernal Falls. We'd had ample light before, but had been in the shadow of lots of big rock formations (including, I suppose, the Sierras). More stairs beside Nevada Falls. I had been pretty sure I'd hiked up this far before, but when I saw the trail and the falls I began to doubt. It was all unfamiliar to me. I am now certain that I had never before hiked any higher than the top of Vernal.

My hiking buddy isn't comfortable with heights, so he handed me his video camera to take a shot down Nevada Falls from the top. It's truly gorgeous. I love seeing waterfalls. He'll see that view for the first time when he watches the video. Hope he likes it. :-)

Waited in a long line for the pit toilet. Realized I might not have brought enough tampons for this trip. I will try to say this delicately: packing out feminine supplies is yucky. I was glad I had a Ziploc bag, separate from my "regular trash" bag, for this.

First application of sunscreen here.

A little farther along the trail the river is smooth and still. Signs nearby warn strongly against getting into the water. "There is a waterfall ahead," they say in several languages. "If you go over the falls, you will die." I took this opportunity to fill up one now-empty water bottle and dump some iodine into it. I also applied some moleskin to a hot spot on my right heel. Uphill = heel blisters; downhill = toe blisters.

Past the top of Nevada Falls the trail becomes much more flat and somewhat wooded. There's a backpackers' campground near there, and the last pit stop. Do not screw up and take the wrong path. Trails go out to oblivion from there! While Chris availed himself of the last opportunity, I took a look at the moleskin. Yup - all folded up. Grr. I cut a much bigger piece and plastered first aid tape all over it. Also dumped my cute little neutralizer tablets into my very yellowy-orange iodized water. I was impressed! By the time I had my boot back on, the water was clear. It didn't taste the best I've ever had, but it sure wasn't bad.

On the road again...

Comments

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

A little farther along the trail the river is smooth and still. Signs nearby warn strongly against getting into the water. "There is a waterfall ahead," they say in several languages. "If you go over the falls, you will die.

I've always loved that sign. :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It's great. Short, sweet, and very to the point.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

picture of one such sign (http://radified.com/HalfDome/uwilldie.htm)

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

It's good to see evidence that the US does not completely cotton-swaddle us, but we're still pretty darned wimpy compared to New Zealand, for which such risks are pervasive (http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=oddhack&itemid=11158)
(warning, about 230K of JPEGs in this link).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I wanna go there! I wanna!

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

I wanna go back (actually looked into immigration requirements - basically the only way is to have a bonafide job there, though).

NZ is cheap as a tourist destination. The exchange rate has worsened a bit since my visit last fall but is still nice. Friendly people, beautiful scenery everywhere, little US-style bureaucratic nonsense (their response to 9/11 was to institute domestic passenger screening - on flights over 90 people). Very sparsely populated, too, especially the South Island.