Yosemite National Park aka Yo-se-mite
Trip Start
May 26, 2008
1
15
17
Trip End
May 2009
Yosemite National Park,
California,
United States
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Now for the real story....On the way to the MUNI to get to Powell ststion I realised that the new runners could cause more problems then i had thought and by the time i got to where we were meeting the bus both heels were bleeding :(
So the group gather for the tour to Yosemite and Tim the tour leader arrived..then the usual chit chat began and people were clicking, but wait a second there was someone missing...Kirsty?? So we circled and Jerry (wannabe the assistant :) ) started asking random strangers on the street if they were Kirsty...so no Kirsty.Later on she caught up with us by getting the BART to Dublin,California while we went and bought the all important supplies of snacks and beer (Pacifico..yum..and thats from a not often beer drinker)
So we continued and after a few hours we got out and found ourselves amongst the magnificant Giant Sequoias
Clothespin sequoia tree
. Plenty of photo ops...Beautiful trees of all different shapes, sizes, names and stories.Like the clothespin from what i remember the name is self explainitory (check out the pic) and was caused from a number of fires burning through it. The Bachelor and three graces - 3sequioas standing gracefully beside a great older sequoia. The tunnel sequoia, manmade tunnel thou or perhaps squirrel made..who really knows the true story!!Anyone hear of the squirrel olympics?? Anyway that forest was just out of this world and the Grisley bear tree....well we were told that one of its branches was as wide as the van we were travelling in...amazing!!! So we left there feeling rather young and slightly inadequate after those ancient huge trees and went to a veiw point over looking Yosemite valley i never seen a view like it before!Beautiful!!We then went and set up camp in a camp grounds on El Portal and once that was done we as a huge group effort by 14 of us managed to prepare,cook and clean after dinner. The rest of the night before bed was beers and with plenty of shooting stars.The next day we were looking forward to some hiking although my heels were still quite sore but with plenty of plasters and padding it was fine.So we set off entering Yosemite park and when we reached our destination realised that it would have been inteligent have taken some bug spray...the mosquito armys were out in full force!!we were all getting bitten from the start but you just had to keep moving.After a mile at a nice pace we came to the edge of Emerald lake where we took a short breakand had lunch before the ascent into the real wilderness....we went a hiking up past snow patches crossing over lush green meadows of marshy highland and then on up onto the stone switch backs with only the little kerns (manmade pile of stones) now and again.Earlier Tim had given us advice apart from HAGE (high alltitude gas emmission) advice to keep certain mountain top to our right so we would stay on the proper track while he went to helpthe others out behind us
makes you feel small eh!!
. So our little sub group hiking team had been created..Daphne,Jon,Brendan,Brian, Jerry and I.We continued up taking water and photo breaks...the views at every stop were phanominal!! To confirm we were still heading in the right direction Jerry asked a lady who sent us continuing on our path after she had made a mistake about Irish people being British and it wasnt long until she knew she was wrong :)We continued up to where it was just loose pebbles and horrible to walk on and once passing that we reached the last point we would have a rest before continuing onwards and upwards. I took a few snaps and had a water break and when Daphne decided to stay I left my bag with her but taking my camera. Brendan and I followed the other three up the big bolders pulling myself along getting close to the top we met Jerry and continued on together. It was the last few steps that Jon and Brian took that were a little scary so Brendan found a more less death threating way for the three of us. with a smile and racing lungs we got to the top...all that was on my mind was...WOW! It was worth every second and was just astonishing to be seeing such a panaramic view of Yosemite from 10850ft. There was a guy up there after hanging out with the locals (Marmots) who were trying to nibble at his bag that had previously held his lunch..there was a whole neighbourhood of them up there. We signed the register that was up there to say we had been there. Gradually people were making it up and was only delighted to see Daphne had changed her mind once she had had a short rest. Once all the snaps were taken we ventured downhill and went the easy way that we didnt know existed until it was too late. There was a few slip and slides on the way down (yes that included me...not surprisingly!!) and we gave a friendly standing novation for the guy who had been above on Mt Hoffman and had ran to another peak before coming down running passed us
little foot
. When we got back tp Emerald lake we all went for a well deserved swim granted the water was blooy freezing but a nice dip all the same..this is where my poor watch (sorry ails) died a very slow death! and the mosquitos had their final feast of the day!! (on final count following night 26bites on one arm and 23 on other...not including face and legs....poor me eh!!)We made the final trek back to the van and headed back to camp where everyone was so tired and yet again a lovely dinner was prepared. and for dessert (very posh) we had smores over the campfire and so the remaining beer needed to be drank and so Kirsty, Brendan, Brian, Lisa, Jerry and I sat around drinking after all the others had gone one by one to bed.Little did we know that our camping neighbours would be complaining about our noise level..we were like mice :) it was the car alarmand the snoring walrus next door that was making all the noise.
The next morning we broke camp, packed up everything and bundled ourselves into the van once again.We had a free day in Yosemite Valley to do what we wished. After the previous day and rather sore heels i decided to take it a little easier. Kirsty and i went to check out if we could go horseriding but it was booked out. Instead we rented a raft and did a lazy day rafting down the Merced river enjoying the water and sunshine and just generally lazing about getting nearly smacked in the head a few times with tree branches.We got back a little late to the van but not too late that they were gone :) We then drove along the valley floor and after a while we stopped and walked into a wide open meadow where stood in front of us was the great "El Capitan" standing 7569ft of shear cliff face.Tim had brought a telescope and binoculars and so we went searching for rock climbers
telescope tree
. It was just unreal to be able to barely see these people making their way up tp the summit. The record for climbing it had been broken the previous day by 10minutes...climb took 2hr 43minutes.but i beleive the average climber takes a few days to climb it.After taking photos and group photos and group photos we left Yosemite behind..We started our long journey back to SF.Lucy was resident IPOD DJ and belted out the numerous great choises and even had a van group YMCA dance..including tim who was driving. We got back to cold SF and parted ways with most but for those who could Lucy, Daphne, Kirsty, Jeanette, Jon and I we went a few drinks. it took a while to get into Foleys Irish pub because they wouldnt accept my Irish driving licence...i couldnt beleive he was telling me this so there on O'Farrell st in SF i had to rummage through my rucksack in persuit of my passport...success and so continued the night of Drag Queen entertainer...in need of a bra as some may have said followed by some air guitating and plenty of tasty vodka! 
