One Step at a Time: Day Hiking in Yosemite: Day 2

Day 2 of our Yosemite Trip was a comedy of errors. Our plan had been to hike up to Glacier Point on the 4 Mile Trail. Yeah sure, we can do that. Easy. Right? Heh.

So the day started off with us bumbling around Yosemite Valley. I wanted to get the Yosemite stamp for my National Park Passport, so we parked the car near the 4 Mile Trail and decided to walk over to the visitor center. Half way there, I realized two things. 1) I'd forgotten my passport in the car and 2) I'd forgotten to bring a lunch. Sigh. But we soldiered on. We were almost to Yosemite Village anyway. At the store, I picked up a Clif bar - just like the one I left at camp - and we perused the souvenirs a little. On the way back to the car, we decided to catch the shuttle, which supposedly would drop us "near" our car. I guess 1 mile from the car is "near." Anyway we finally got back to the car, grabbed our backpacks and made our way to the trailhead.

Our first inkling of trouble was when we got to the trailhead, which listed the mileage to Glacier Point at 4.6 miles not the 4 we had been expecting. Our next inkling came from gazing up at what we guessed was Glacier Point - waaaaaay up above us. Now, I knew it was going to be a crazy slog to get up there but I didn't realize just how crazy until I started climbing. The trail appears on maps as a death slog of switchbacks with a seemingly flattish spot in the middle with a second set of death by switchback. We made it past the first set of switchbacks and started the second set and then I just quit. My legs were shaking and I was totally out of gas - and we weren't even half way to our destination. I swallowed my pride and made a command decision, to stop where we were and go down. My friend is in better shape than me and probably could have gone on but she agreed. And I'm glad she did. We were WIPED for the rest of the day. But we did get to see some pretty awesome views from the trail. Had Yosemite Falls had any water in it, we would have gotten some really stunning views of it.

In the end, we drove up to Glacier Point (a surprisingly lengthy drive).

Our day continued to be a tad effed up all the way back to camp. After visiting Glacier Point, we drove back to Yosemite Valley because I was determined to get my passport stamp. We arrived 30 minutes after the visitor center closed. Sigh. But we trotted over to the store where we bought some souvenirs and I bought a Tasty Bite for dinner. Then we took off for our camp...and totally missed the turn to the Tioga Road and ended up at Hetch Hetchy. "Wait I don't remember there being a fee station on the Tioga Road..." Sigh. By this time we were fed up and tired. We got back to camp at about 8. But my Tasty Bite dinner made it all better. The microwaveable ones fit into my Jet Boil. Just plop the bag in a Jet Boil for a couple of minutes in boiling water and voila! Delicious Indian food for dinner. I recommend cutting the bag to vent and not filling the Jet Boil to the fill line to avoid overboiling.