Liberty Cap

Half Dome, from Little Yosemite Valley

Liberty Cap Hike

I woke up this morning, so sore that I didn't want to move.  The thought of putting even a daypack on my shoulders and hiking anywhere was simply not appealing.  But to the resounding chorus of my body's "No's", Chris very wisely urged me to get up and get moving.  I could stay in camp, he said, but if I did, it would be even worse tomorrow, the day we were scheduled to hike Half Dome.  Chris has done this backpacking trip about 19 times before, so when Chris talks, I listen.  I got out of my sleeping bag and got moving, brushed my teeth, got dressed, and made my breakfast of Cream of Wheat with raisins and nuts, and caffe latte.
Today's hike is unusual in that much of it is off trail.  There is no trail to Liberty Cap, the giant granite dome that sits in between Half Dome and Nevada Fall.  Perhaps for that reason, almost no one hikes there.  But it is worth it, not just as a conditioning hike, but also for the great views of Yosemite Valley and Tenaya Canyon.

Chris Swartout leading the way to Liberty Cap

In spite of my soreness, it felt great to leave behind my huge backpack, and take along my tiny day pack.  All I carried today was my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, one liter of electrolyte, some trail mix, and ~2 liters of water.  It probably weighed about 10 pounds - so much less than yesterday!

We set out back the way we came, towards Nevada Fall, except that half way there, we left the trail and started climbing up to the ridgeline.  From there we followed the ridgeline until we found "canoe rock". 


Canoe Rock

So far the hiking was relatively easy.   The trick is to not go too far or you wind up at Lost Lake, which can have lots of mosquitos.  Given the amount of rain this year, we didn't want to go there!  In fact, there was so much rain, so late in the season, that I have never seen the waterfalls running this fast and strong in the middle of July.  Usually by this time, they are down to a trickle.  Not this year.



Pussy Paws

Many wildflowers in evidence again today.  Indian paintbrush was in bloom, and also this fuzzy little pink flower, that is apparently called Pussy Paws.   This really is the strangest flower I have ever seen.  Very tiny leaves and the whole thing stays close to the granite.  I've never seen it anywhere else before.  My favorite, however, is the Mariposa Lily, truly beautiful!

Indian Paintbrush

I do not see the Mariposa Lily very often when I hike.  A few times in the Santa Cruz mountains and up in Yosemite.  So it is always a pleasure when I stumble across one.  About a third of all varieties are endemic to California, though apparently, early Mormon settlers in Utah ate the bulbs when their crops failed.  Perhaps for this reason, settlers made the local variety of Calochortus, the Sego Lily, the state flower.


Mariposa Lily

From Canoe Rock, the hiking got more difficult.  The abundance of rain this past winter grew a lot of waist high brush, that we had to walk through, much of it being very thorny.  At times, there was so much brush, we couldn't see all of our hiking companions, but they were always within earshot.  I was very glad for my long pants and my hiking gloves!  The hiking poles were less than useful at this point, so I put them away. 


The cleft on the backside of Liberty Cap

We could see the cleft in the back side of Liberty Cap that we would climb up - the trick was getting to it. We perservered. It looked rather steep, but there were ways to approach it that were less steep.

Another interesting find today was a damaged tree trunk that was oozing sap, which had dried in droplets as it fell of the trunk.  Cool!  Future amber?  I suppose it would have to be petrified...



Future Amber?

Once we reached the cleft, the climbing got more difficult.  We were clambering over giant granite boulders.  I was not always sure of myself, so I slowed down and picked my way through the boulders, interspersed with thorny bush, very carefully.  Little by little, we made progress.  The hiking here was more technical, less easy, and I was very glad to have padded hiking gloves on, which also served to soften the blows as my hands landed on immovable granite.  I wondered how I would get down, but decided to delay wondering about that until later.

Hiking up the cleft of Liberty Cap

At last, we reached the summit of Liberty Cap, and an expanse of granite warmed by the sun.  We sat down, and beheld the incredibly scenic vistas.  After a while, we unpacked and ate our lunch.  It was a beautiful day, about 76° F, mild and warm and, thus far, not too windy.

We could hear, but not quite see, the Merced River roaring over Nevada Fall.  Chris hiked down to an overlook, but it was so steep I chickened out.  All of us found comfortable places to rest and several of us took naps.  It was a really blissful time, with no one to disturb.


Mount Clark, from the summit of Liberty Cap

From the summit, we could see Mount Clark, named for Galen Clark, the man who came to Yosemite to die and wound up living until he was 96 years old.  We also had spectacularly clear views of Clouds Rest, which can be reached from a junction off the Half Dome Trail.  Clouds Rest is a much more difficult and strenuous hike than Half Dome, reaching a total elevation of 9,930 feet above sea level, much of the trail above the tree line and completely exposed to the sun and other elements.

Clouds Rest, from the summit of Liberty Cap


We would not do that hike on this trip.  Neither I nor Chris were conditioned enough to do it.  Another mutual friend did this hike with Chris in a previous year and wrote in his journal that "Today Chris tried to kill me."  Half Dome is enough for me, at least for the moment.  There are also other, easier trails to Clouds Rest.

After we were all well rested, we began the trek down the way we came.  Climbing over the boulders proved to be a bit more difficult on the way down, and I managed to put a few small holes in my brand new pants on a slab of granite over which I was sliding.

Funny that, even though I started out the day so sore, half way through the hike I was fine.  The soreness from yesterday's hike had vanished!




Half Dome from the summit of Liberty Cap

It never ceases to amaze me how many different views of Half Dome can be seen while hiking.  Trom the summit of Liberty Cap, we had another completely different view of Half Dome, tomorrow's hike, and the centerpiece of our backpacking trip.