Tuesday, Aug. 3
Tuesday morning we had our only scheduled excursion/activity of our time at Yosemite. A half-day private guided hike. We met our guide, Nick, and reviewed options for our hikes.
We settled on a four- to five-mile hike with “a steep section” to a waterfall. Now, Nick was super nice and I enjoyed talking to him a lot. But Nick is a big fat liar.
Our final tally was 7.8 miles and 17,615 steps and, I swear on Rob Lowe, that it was uphill both ways.
It wasn’t until after we got back that I read a description of our hike: “Difficult. 1,000 foot elevation gain. Climb a paved but steep-and we mean steep-trail to Vernal Falls. If you’re up to it, you can continue to the Mist portion of the trail which is straight uphill and includes many carved granite steps.”
Vernal Falls They’re smiling because they don’t know the next part of the hike is also all uphill You’d think this would be the top of the hike, but it’s not.
The views were amazing, and it was definitely worth it even though at one point I thought I might have to just live on this mountain permanently because I could not walk uphill anymore. Nick told us some great stories and trivia that will be incorporated into CARV21 trivia (note: Alcatraz trivia has been rolled over to all-CARV trivia). He also introduced me to the term Type 2 fun. That is fun that is not fun during but fun when you are done and have the memory and story of it. So this hike was some serious Type 2 fun.
Afterward, we crawled back to our campsite. Literally the girls were so tired they laid down in the dirt. Eventually, we made our way over to the Merced River, which is adjacent to our campground, and the kids swam a bit. We celebrated taco Tuesday with campfire tacos, and then Casey and I tried to use a star map to find some constellations. All we could find was the Big Dipper. It’s so much easier in a planetarium when they connect the dots for you.
Peace. XO.
