We set our alarms for 5:45 a.m this morning, but as it turned out it was unnecessary. Our son knocked on our door at 5:00 a.m. Our son and Uncle Dave were up early to see us off!
We showered, dressed and packed the final items in our packs. I packed my sandwich and we both filled our water bladders. I left a little bit of room in my hydration bladder and filled the rest of it with ice. That kept my water nice and cool for much of the day.
In doing all of this, I put my pack on my bed for a moment and when I picked it up a few minutes later, I noticed that there was some water on the bed. It turns out I had put the pack on the valve and released some of the water. I quickly cleaned it up while Duane gave me a hard time about doing this and reminded me to keep the valve closed. (He had done this at home about two months ago, emptying the entire remnants of his bladder onto our kitchen floor.) Duane meanwhile, had also put his pack down on the bed and, only moments later, noticed that he had a HUGE leak. (Uncle Dave named it "Lake Havasu".) Unfortunately, it wasn't just on his bed. The entire contents of his pack were soaked, including his spare socks. Apparently, the lid to the hydration pack had not threaded correctly. He quickly pulled the bedspread off the bed so that at least the mattress wouldn't get soaked, refilled his hydration bladder and this time put the lid on correctly.
Worse yet, he discovered this at 6:25 am, only five minutes before our shuttle was supposed to leave. We went downstairs, checked in for the shuttle and while we waited a few minutes for it to be ready, Duane unpacked his wet pack and dried the contents out and repacked, while I fetched him some dry spare liner socks from our suitcase. Fortunately, Duane didn't have his sandwich in his pack or that would have gotten soggy too.
We loaded our team, the Panorama #4 team, into two shuttles and headed off for Yosemite National Park and Glacier Point. About 40 minutes later, we arrived and, after some photos and an opportunity to use the bathroom, we headed off. Our son and Uncle Dave drove separately to Glacier Point to see us off. It was clear that they were going to have a really fun day together! Ten minutes and a few switchbacks down the side of the canyon and we heard two voices yelling "Bye" at us - our son and Uncle Dave waving at us from Glacier Point. That was really cool!
Almost immediately after we started our hike, we noticed a bush with white blossoms. Our guide Roddy told us that it was Whitethorn. I thought it looked an awful lot like Ceanothus, except that it wasn't blue. It turns out that Whitethorn IS a white Ceanothus.
The view of Half Dome, where several of our teammates were hiking, is much more imposing and intimidating from Glacier Point (seen above with Vernal and Nevada Falls to the right) than it is from the valley floor. I must admit to having mixed feelings about not making the team, especially after what happened last week. Fortunately for our teammates, the weather is perfect. Not too hot and no rain. They will have a good day.
The first stretch of our hike was mostly down switchbacks, not terribly steep. We made it to the first junction and the group was still mostly together. By the time we got to the junction of the Panorama and Buena Vista trails, about 2.6 miles into our hike, one of our teammates was falling seriously behind. We waited about half an hour at that junction for the group to come together before trekking on. This teammate apparently didn't participate in most of our training hikes - so much so that I didn't even realize this hiker was on our team. Apparently, this hiker had an issue with blisters and, to make things incredibly worse, had chosen not to wear the hiking boots that had been left in the car. Instead, this hiker wore ordinary tennis shoes. No hiking poles either.
On a short hike, this might not make much of a difference. But on a longer hike with a lot of downhill, this was a stupendously bad idea. The tennis shoes did not have enough room in them at the toes for all of the downhill we were doing. Consequently, this hiker was jamming toes into the end of the shoe and will probably lose both big toenails and perhaps others as well. This teammate hiked the last paved mile from the footbridge to Happy Isles in stocking feet.
Similar problems had happened to me earlier in the season and I was not unsympathetic towards this hiker. I was unable to finish our Windy Hill hike. That's when I discovered that my boots were too small and that I needed an orthotic to prevent problems with my metatarsal arch. As of today, I am on my fourth pair of hiking boots, but I sorted these issues out months ago and I kept at it until the problem was solved.
There is apparently a requirement that all Team in Training hike participants wear appropriate hiking boots for our last and longest two hikes and also for the event. So why this hiker was allowed to participate with inadequate gear doesn't make any sense to me. Where was our coach who was acting as the sweep on our hike? Didn't she notice? And what about the officials who were taking check ins? Tennis shoes would have been fine for the easy, level Valley Floor hike, but not for a 9.6 mile hike with a 3,179 ft. elevation drop!
The immediate consequence for the rest of the group was that we had longer and longer waits for this hiker to catch up at the trail junctions. By the time we got to the Vernal Fall footbridge, just past the junction of the Mist and the John Muir trails and nearly at the end of our hike, we were waiting about an hour. Our muscles started to cool down and tighten up and we had to keep stretching. Our hike, which should have taken between five and six hours, instead took about eight.
But even that couldn't ruin the glorious day that we had. The weather was perfect and the temperature never rose above 80 degrees. We hiked down to Illilouette Creek and crossed the bridge, reaching Illilouette Fall a few feet later. Illilouette Fall can not be seen from the bridge or even from just above the Fall - we had to view it on our way down to the bridge. We dawdled a bit at the bridge before hiking our one incline of the day (about 700 feet) out of Illilouette Canyon and on to Panorama Point. Panorama Point has incredible vistas of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley and the Merced River. Awesome!
After Panorama Point, we pressed on along mostly level terrain until the junction of the Panorama and Mono Meadow trails. From there we descended a series of switchbacks down to Nevada Fall. Wildflowers were in evidence throughout the day, with the best specimen being the wild azalea that we saw just before reaching Nevada Fall. They were wonderfully fragrant, reminding me of the perfume of star jasmine or wisteria.
We stopped at Nevada Fall for lunch (would someone please remind me NOT to put avocado on my sandwich when I order it the day before). There was also the opportunity to use the bathroom conveniently located slightly upriver from the Fall. We had wonderful views of Liberty Cap and the Merced River, while eating our lunch.
Roddy, our trail guide, had been given about five pounds of M&Ms and trail mix to carry in his pack. Why, I wasn't sure, since we all had our own food. Apparently, people didn't bring enough food last year, so this year the guides and everyone else over corrected. So poor Roddy had to carry all that extra weight the entire hike and, of course, he took every opportunity he had to offer us M&Ms. We obliged as we could, but refrained from giving any M&Ms to the two squirrels who befriended us during lunch.
Of all the trails we have hiked over the past several months, this one had the most bathrooms, located at Glacier Point, Nevada Fall and the Vernal Fall footbridge. I think there was one at Vernal Fall too. Ironically, I didn't need to use any of them, which was even odder considering that I nearly always need a bathroom about ten to fifteen minutes into a hike. Go figure. I must have calculated my liquid and electrolyte intake just right. I drank a 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade on the first half of the hike and another 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade on the second half of the hike. In between I sipped water out of my hydration pack. By the end of our hike, I had almost no fluids left. Perhaps, being at higher and drier elevations, my body also knew that it needed to use more fluid?
My equipment was also working well. My hiking boots were comfortable all the way to the end of our hike. My newly purchased sweatband worked wonderfully, keeping my forehead nice and cool while at the same time keeping my glasses dry. The water-laden neckerchief that I had purchased was refreshingly cool on my neck and I was glad to have it along.
Oddly, our group was composed of several teammates with injuries. Duane had a knee injury earlier in the season as did another of our teammates. A different teammate was recovering from a broken collarbone. And there was our hiker with toe issues. But most of us had been training for Half Dome and were in pretty good shape despite all, remaining at our near the front of the pack. Duane's knee didn't bother him the entire hike - his knee strap did its job.
After lunching at Nevada Fall, looking at the Fall from the observation point and taking several photos, we moved on. At this point, we made the decision to take the John Muir trail down to Happy Isles, rather than the Mist trail. The Mist trail goes right next to the waterfalls and is composed of two runs of large granite steps cut out of the side of the canyon. Going down the John Muir's more gradual switchbacks would be easier on the knees and feet than the Mist's granite staircases, despite the extra half mile, and we already had one hiker with serious feet problems.
As we descended down the John Muir Trail, we were passed by a few mule trains which left their smelly droppings along the trail. We hadn't encountered these during our April hike to Vernal Fall, most likely because portions of the trail were still covered with snow and it was too early in the season. Despite this odiferous portion of our hike we had a stunningly glorious view of Nevada Fall on the way down, hiking under an overhang dripping with snow melt. Very refreshing, but we had to watch out for our cameras!
By the time we got to Clark Point, all was beginning to look very familiar albeit with less snow than there was last April. Only 1.7 miles to go! We hiked down this last portion of the hike reaching the junction of the Mist and John Muir Trails. Our guide Roddy decided to wait at that junction for the rest to catch up and told the rest of us to proceed a short way down to the Vernal Fall footbridge. It was a nicer place to wait, complete with bathroom, drinking faucet and a place to wash off the dirt. We waited there for about an hour before hiking the last bit to Happy Isles.
At Happy Isles, we caught the shuttle bus to Yosemite Lodge, where we were to check in from our hike before catching our vans back to Tenaya Lodge. I stopped in at the general store and purchased a six-pack of Bud Light, which I shared with our teammates. Our hiker with the foot problems was very happy to be back and I was glad to offer my congratulations with a beer! On the way back to Tenaya Lodge, we stopped for a bathroom break and I finally had the desire to unleash what was left of the pent up fluids I had consumed earlier in the day. Ahhh!
We had an hour and a half to shower and change into fresh clothes, after reaching the lodge and reconnecting with our son and Uncle Dave. Felt so much better! I wasn't much sore this evening, despite the length - and duration - of our hike. This trail really wasn't very challenging. But, oh, what gorgeous vistas! At 8:00 p.m., we went to the Celebration Dinner, where we ate a pretty good meal and even had enough energy left over to dance some swing. After dinner, I soaked in the jacuzzi for an hour with some of our fellow hikers, sharing stories of the day, before turning in for the night.
What a wonderful day!
