Wednesday May 2, 2007

In the dialect of Granite, and an arborist’s accent, with a intonation of falling water, I hear that I am loved. That isn’t the only thing he said this weekend, but the rest is just for me.

Five guys drive to yosemite (yosa-might), with a truck load of stuff and no resevrvations prove God’s favor and love by us staying at the ledgendary camp 4. Hot dogs and chili to start the festivities off right.

Wake up in the morning early and get things cooking and ready to go. I went and “socialized” with strange strangers and secured our position with in the camp. We are 9. Us and a lady named Sammy. A hard-core lady – A tax consultant who takes three weeks off and hikes.

We walked to one of the coolest bus stops I’ve ever seen, sadly it wasn’t the closest one. We rode the bus to the trail head and plotted out our journey. We were going to walk to Emerald Pools  (which ended up being just one.)

We walked. Up hill. For what seemed like miles, but it really was only one or so. There was awesomeness with trees, rocks, and water.

After crossing a bridge we started what is called the Mist Trail. More up hill walking, then we reached stairs.

Flights of stairs, laid rocks of different rises and steps. There was a place that made caused flashbacks to the Great wall. It was just insane climbing, But I pressed on.

I stopped every once in a while to take pictures, but mostly I was trying to keep up with everyone.

After a while, it seemed to get greener. And wetter. But sadly the stairs were still there.

The mist was just epic.

Walking on rock steps on savage terrain with rainbows and grass all around. A line of weary refugees with packs, snaking along the canyon, soaked – but some how still hopeful.

A crazy ledge that people can’t pass eachother without one being pushed off the edge and falling to their death.

At the top there was rejoicing, sandwiches, Winky, and weed.

The quest for Emeralds Pools was ended buy some old large white guy in his chonies, jumping in and yelling like a mad man. I didn’t take pictures of it.

We went one to find the other pool.

We stood in awe of the waterslide, and talked about how twenty years ago they used to slide on it.

We led a group of ten people off the path, up a rock climb, and around a crazy bend.

Then we came to my favorite part of the hike. The flat part. It reminded me of backpacking, Being in the woods with nothing around but trees.

This is where I thought… “Why hurry and try to catch up? Take your time, take it in, and take pictures. Why else would you carry this thing so far?”
  So I did.

I walked alone and found one of the coolest spots ever and sat with a good friend, then Andrew came and sit with me.

Climbing up The next part was not something I wanted to do, but our friends left us. We were in no rush, Andrew became an attraction. This adorable little french girl was fascinated by him, a troop leader gave a lesson on his shoes, and a photographer said what an awesome shot.

At the top of Nevada Falls, it was a long way down and you could see forever. SO what else happened, but rocks and logs and anything small enough to be picked up was thrown over. I had no part in it.

The hike down was supposed to be easy, but it still hurt the same muscle groups as the hike up.

That night we cooked like men, and played with fire. Our fire building skills are quite impressive.

And I slept.

A quite a nice sleeping in and an uneventful/crazy morning, we went to fulfill one of Andrew’s dreams, climb El Capitan. We found a place to park and just made for the base. It was a hard hike, it was like a 1.9 2.1, somewhere around there. It was all boulders and rocks that moved when you walked on them. I took pictures up all the way and a really awesome shot at the top.

We hiked back down, which was scarier than going up.

The rest is a different story. And here are the photos.

Bridal Veil Falls

Yosemite

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