CA (Yosemite part 2)

When I returned from the GT getaway cruise, I started to feel a cold coming on.  By the end of the day on Tuesday, I had a sore throat and was not feeling great.  Ralphie and I stayed home and didn't do too much.  We fed the blue birds on the porch some peanuts.  They would come about a foot away from you, take the peanut, and then fly to the tree to eat it.

We went to the store to pick up water, power bars, apples, and Gatorade for the trip.  Also picked up some cough drops and medicine for my cold.  In preparation for the long hike I'd be doing the next day, I used Ralphie's backpack, and filled it with a compass, maps and trail notes, extra batteries, a first aid kit, a head flashlight, bug spray, body and face sun screen, a cap, a fleece, Ibuprofen, cough drops, food, Gatorade, and water.

The bag was rather heavy from all the drinks, but it would have to do.  I wasn't sure how much water I'd need for 23 miles of hiking, and wanted to err on the side of too much.

For all of my other hikes, I used running shoes.  I thought it would be better to use hiking boots for this one, so I found my old boots, tried them on the night before, and used them.  This was a big mistake as you will soon see...

So at 5:30 am the next morning, Ralphie and I took off in my Focus for Yosemite.  On the way I noticed that I forgot the walking stick.  Darn.  Ralphie offered to turn around, but I told him I'd find one along the way.  At 7:15 am, we arrived at the the entrance to the Tamarack Flats campground road off of 120 but it was closed.  Time to say goodbye to Ralphie and start the hike from here.

I walked the 3.1 miles from 120 to the campground, which is where the trailhead started.

I reached the campground at 8:15 am, on schedule.  However, the top of my feet were hurting as they were rubbing against the shoes.  I loosened the tops a little bit but that didn't help.  My throat was also burning with every breath due to my sore throat and cold.  I stopped at the campsite to use the bathroom and drink something.  There were 2 options - I could turn around and hitch a ride to the valley bottom or I could persevere.  Pride had me continuing on...

From the campground, I found the start of the trailhead and it was 2.8 miles to the Cascade Creek Bridge.  I made it there by 9:10 am.  This trail was still paved (in part), but not kept up since the winter.  There were large trees and branches fallen over it, rocks, and large areas where there was a foot or more hole where cement had broken.  The trail was still fairly easy without a lot of up or down hills.  I saw a deer, but other than that, no animals.  There was also a section where a creek passed through and there was no bridge.

On this trail, I saw many snow plants.  Some were starting to get flowers and others were even smaller than this one.  They were so red that they looked like mushrooms or something fake and plastic.

At the Cascade Creek Bridge, I stopped to eat an apple and drink some water.  I wasn't physically tired, but the tops of my feet were really hurting from my boots.

It was 0.5 miles from the bridge to the Big Oak Flat Road, which is where the path became much more primitive.  I reached this area by 9:20 am and was still moving at a fairly brisk pace.

The next milestone would be the Ribbon Creek crossing, which was about 4.5 miles away.  The first 1.5 miles was a steep uphill climb in the forest.  For the most part, the trail was easy to see, but there were a few times it disappeared and took some effort and walking around to make sure I was still on it.

According to my schedule, I was supposed to reach Ribbon Creek by 10:45 am.  However, I didn't realize how much my feet would be hurting from my shoes or that there would be so much uphill climbing.  After the forest part, I reached an opening with rocks.  I think there were supposed to be cairns on it, but winter must have destroyed most of them.  It was hot out and I reapplied my sunscreen.  I could see El Capitan and knew I was getting closer but still had at least 1000 more feet up to reach the top.

The next surprise was when I re-entered the forest.  There was a tree with a red flag on it, indicating I was still on the path. :)  I thought there would be red flags visible from each one, but they only showed up every quarter mile or so.  The other obstacle is that there was snow covering the trail - several feet of it.  There were about 20 times over the next 2 miles that I completely lost my way and had to keep looking for the next tree with the red flag.  Despite the snow, it wasn't cold.  This actually made it worse, because the snow was a little bit slushy, so there were places I sank into it up to my knees.  In addition to the snow, there were a lot of areas where the trail was covered in pine branches, making it tough to know whether or not I was still on the trail.

Then there was more climbing, and within 0.5 miles of the creek crossing there was a lot of swamp water covering the trail and ground that I had to wade through.  Even where there was grass showing up, I would sink down about 3-4 inches in the mud and water.  Lovely!  LOL

The good news is that I continued to see red flags in the trees, so I had somehow managed to stay on the trail. :)  The bad news is that the snow and everything else was hurting my ankles - particularly  my left one.  Every step hurt, and the tops of my feet were still hurting pretty badly.  I didn't dare take my shoes off because I didn't think I'd be able to get them back on.

Instead of crossing Ribbon Creek, seeing and hearing it was just a tease.  The trail led up a short but steep incline to a clearing.  From there I could see Half Dome, and also El Capitan.  Getting close!! :)

 
Then the trail went back down into the forest area where I crossed the creek, and then over the next 2 miles, it swung around, came up onto the rocky El Capitan gully, and then went on to El Capitan.  There was no sign indicating this was it.  There were also very few cairns on the rock, so I had no idea how far to go.  It started to go down on all sides and after walking along there for a bit, I came back up and saw a tree with a bunch of rocks by it, and I'm calling that the center of El Capitan. :)

From here I had to find the Yosemite Falls trail.  It was supposed to have connected with my other trail, but didn't.  As usual, there were no signs and no evidence of another trail.  I had lost a lot of time on that last part and was supposed to leave the summit by noon.  It was 12:30 and I still needed to eat and drink.  I took out my map and noted the direction of the Yosemite Falls trail, as well as the forest, and decided to start walking that direction until I met up with the trail.  It worked!  I found a trail - still not marked - but assuming it was the right one, I followed it back into the forest.  No more snow!!!

There was a small creek with water rushing down and over the cliff below.  As is par for the course at this point, there was no evidence of a trail on the other side.  I crossed the water and looked on both sides.  Finally, I heard a sound and saw someone coming to El Capitan from the Yosemite Falls trail.  He worked better than a cairn and we chatted a bit.  From there, there were a decent amount of cairns and the path was okay.

Below is a picture of Eagle Point, my next destination.  I was not in any condition physically to go up there, but since it was on my "to do" list, I did it.  Following the Yosemite Falls trail I thought would be all downhill or at least even to the Eagle Point fork.  Ha!  I went up about 400 feet with my ankles and feet killing me.  I had already gone through 3 walking sticks (broke my best one) and was getting blisters on my hands from them.  They were helping with the pain in my feet a little bit.

It was only 2.4 miles from El Capitan until I saw the sign (yes, a sign!) for Eagle Point.  Although the sign said 0.3 miles, it was more like 1.3 miles and took about 25 minutes of steep climbing to get there.  I saw a deer.  This was the 3rd on on the trail, but he stopped when I stopped and came closer to get a good look at me.  He didn't seem afraid of me and got closer than any other deer I've ever seen.  Then I started moving and he ran off.  A few minutes later, I saw a few people that looked college-aged coming down.

From Eagle Point, you could see a different angle of Half Dome, Nevada Falls, and the valley floor with cars at the bottom.  It was a nice view, and a good place to stop for more food and water.

Usually I love the downhill part and can jog down, passing everyone up.  I noticed how much my ankles were bothering me, as well as the tops of my feet, on the way down from Eagle Point to the main trailhead.  It was getting to the point there I was completely relying on my walking stick, and limping, while trying not to put much pressure on my left ankle.

Only 5.7 miles left.  I wasn't physically that tired, but my feet were shooting pain up my leg with each step.  I tried to block it out, cursing myself for wanting to do this and for the heavy backpack weighing my down, and most of all for the idiot (that would be me) who convinced me to wear the hiking boots instead of my regular shoes.

The trail was mostly in the forest, which was nice as it was shaded.  I usually wouldn't mind trees to climb over, but these were about 4 feet high and with my ankles, took a lot of effort to get over them.  There was also a lot of flooding in this area and water and mud was all over the trail for the next couple of miles.

I then made it to the top of the falls.  The guy I had met up with earlier caught up with me.  Only 3.5 miles to go!  It was 3:35 pm and I was supposed to be at the bottom between 4-5 pm.  Normally, especially since it was all downhill from here, I would have been passing everyone up and got down in 30-45 minutes.  However, this trail was slippery rock, all uneven (not steps), and it made it incredibly challenging to go down.  My left ankle had a piercing pain shooting through my leg with every step and the walking stick didn't seem to do much good.  After an hour (and a bunch of people passing me) I tried to figure out how I was going to get down.

I talked to everyone I could along the way in case they ran into Ralphie, so he'd know I'm fine, but slow as I injured my ankle.  Ralphie had actually gotten there at 3:00 pm to wait for me as he figured I might be faster than anticipated.

That was the bottom of upper Yosemite falls.  Still had to swing around, climb another couple hundred feet, and then go down the rest of the way to the valley.

A total of 3 miles of downhill on the rocks and switchbacks and I finally made it down.  It was 6 PM and I couldn't have bee more happy to see Ralphie.  I was not physically tired, but I could hardly put pressure on my feet.

We drove home and I took off my shoes.  I was full of bruises on the tops of my feet (lower legs where it was hurting from my shoes) and my ankle.  Ralphie put ice water in a big bucket and I soaked my feet for about 15 minutes while Ralphie cooked dinner - grilled cheese and soup.

I woke up with chills and a fever several times during the night, and my throat was still hurting.  I was sore and feeling very sick, but with hot tea and medicine it helped a little bit.  Not sure if the long hike made me sicker or not, but I'm still glad I did it. :)  Tomorrow I leave for a couple days in South CA with the GT.  I am determined to feel better by then!