Friends booked a place in August within Yosemite NP and invited my family along.
The rational pain-in-the-ass curmudgeon devil was telling me: "this is gonna be a diesel-fumed, crowded and hot waste of time"
The naïve good angel was saying: "Why not, free housing, good friends, possibilities for adventures?"
I'm glad I listened to the latter.
They got 6 permits to climb Half Dome, which is something that would have never remotely occurred to me. Obtaining permits that is, or even actually trying and do the hike. I'm not a big hiker, more due to family responsibilities. As I read more online about it, I realized it wasn't a day hike in an alpine meadow singing sort of deal, no Sound-of-Music frolic, but rather, a legit serious hike that would require an upped level of fitness + some new gear. So for a few months in advance, I did more stairs, more miles running and just in general long-duration sustained exercise, including upper body. The hike involves about 17 miles of walking, 4500 feet vertical gain, cable climb etc.
Anyway if you are looking for trout stories here, well, there are some. We spent one day walking around Tuolumne Meadows, and right by John Muir's Parsons Lodge and Pacific Crest Trail is a footbridge over the Tuolumne and you can see tons of these small guys. It's a 2-wt dream....
I deliberately didn't pack my gear figuring, but this lady did. What a gorgeous spot to fish! Sure I was a mite jealous but then again, it wasn't as though there was nothing else to do!
Back to the Half dome story....
The first night we got there, went out to Glacier Point for sunset and Perseid Meteors. The clouds thinned just enough to see maybe eight meteors or so, though better eyes saw more than me.
That's my climbing partner below, of the six permits only the two of us were comfortable actually giving it a shot.
And this is roughly the route we took, waking at 4 am, arriving at Happy Isle trailhead by 5, hiking first 45 minutes in the dark and arriving at subdome by about 10:30
We made good time and part of that is due to trekking poles. Man have I been dumb not to use those, they really save your knees and boost your speed and stability! (not to mention am now using one for river wading)
Nevada falls from Clark Point.
View up towards Olmstead point from Sub Dome
We gave away some of the permits en-route, a group of 4 were on the way to do the climb with harnesses and only 2 permits, so we made their day. Man that felt good!
Gloves on and ready to go, psyching myself up, people on the cables...
Made it to the top, me and my half dome hat
From up top the cables look pretty easy, though from below they are, frankly, intimidating. There's no way I would do this in rain, serious weather, thunder etc. Getting there so early meant there were very few people, which meant the cables were not packed. There's no way I would do it with packed cable lines...
The next day my family climbed Pothole dome, it's a way easier dome....That river in the background has a ton of small browns
And had a swim at Tenaya Lake.
On the edges of Polly Dome, saw a grove of super cool natural bonsai:
Anyway, not a lot of trout, sorry. But fun trip nonetheless, moreso as I was out of my comfort zone, in the best kind of way. maybe that's my take home from this one, now and then go a little to a lot out of the comfort zone.....
The rational pain-in-the-ass curmudgeon devil was telling me: "this is gonna be a diesel-fumed, crowded and hot waste of time"
The naïve good angel was saying: "Why not, free housing, good friends, possibilities for adventures?"
I'm glad I listened to the latter.
They got 6 permits to climb Half Dome, which is something that would have never remotely occurred to me. Obtaining permits that is, or even actually trying and do the hike. I'm not a big hiker, more due to family responsibilities. As I read more online about it, I realized it wasn't a day hike in an alpine meadow singing sort of deal, no Sound-of-Music frolic, but rather, a legit serious hike that would require an upped level of fitness + some new gear. So for a few months in advance, I did more stairs, more miles running and just in general long-duration sustained exercise, including upper body. The hike involves about 17 miles of walking, 4500 feet vertical gain, cable climb etc.
Anyway if you are looking for trout stories here, well, there are some. We spent one day walking around Tuolumne Meadows, and right by John Muir's Parsons Lodge and Pacific Crest Trail is a footbridge over the Tuolumne and you can see tons of these small guys. It's a 2-wt dream....
I deliberately didn't pack my gear figuring, but this lady did. What a gorgeous spot to fish! Sure I was a mite jealous but then again, it wasn't as though there was nothing else to do!
Back to the Half dome story....
The first night we got there, went out to Glacier Point for sunset and Perseid Meteors. The clouds thinned just enough to see maybe eight meteors or so, though better eyes saw more than me.
That's my climbing partner below, of the six permits only the two of us were comfortable actually giving it a shot.
And this is roughly the route we took, waking at 4 am, arriving at Happy Isle trailhead by 5, hiking first 45 minutes in the dark and arriving at subdome by about 10:30
We made good time and part of that is due to trekking poles. Man have I been dumb not to use those, they really save your knees and boost your speed and stability! (not to mention am now using one for river wading)
Nevada falls from Clark Point.
View up towards Olmstead point from Sub Dome
We gave away some of the permits en-route, a group of 4 were on the way to do the climb with harnesses and only 2 permits, so we made their day. Man that felt good!
Gloves on and ready to go, psyching myself up, people on the cables...
Made it to the top, me and my half dome hat
From up top the cables look pretty easy, though from below they are, frankly, intimidating. There's no way I would do this in rain, serious weather, thunder etc. Getting there so early meant there were very few people, which meant the cables were not packed. There's no way I would do it with packed cable lines...
The next day my family climbed Pothole dome, it's a way easier dome....That river in the background has a ton of small browns
And had a swim at Tenaya Lake.
On the edges of Polly Dome, saw a grove of super cool natural bonsai:
Anyway, not a lot of trout, sorry. But fun trip nonetheless, moreso as I was out of my comfort zone, in the best kind of way. maybe that's my take home from this one, now and then go a little to a lot out of the comfort zone.....
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