Hiking is hard. I could stop there and leave the post at that, but
what fun would that be? We went to Yosemite for the long weekend. As I'm starting this post on Tuesday, I'm still so tired I can hardly think. Not sure how physical tiredness translates into mental tiredness, but somehow it does. Or at least that's what I'm going with.
Let me just give you a run down of our epic hike to the top of the highest waterfall in North America. First of all, when the little guide thing says "Strenuous to Very Strenuous" they are not joking around. At all. I consider myself to be in pretty good shape since I run 3-4 times a week and lift weights 2-3 times a week. Apparently that really doesn't translate into being in good shape for hiking.
The start of the trail is a bunch of zig-zags going up. Like a whole bunch. Then there's some not so zig-zaggy sections. Some of which have waterfalls going over them. I was wishing for some waterproof shoes, but with Hubs' help I managed to keep my feet dry by stepping on rocks that stuck out of the water.
Then more zig-zags, but this time with snow! At this point I'm realizing my narrative makes it sound much easier than it was. When
I was desperately hoping to be done we were getting close to the top we asked some people how close we were and these people were NOT being totally honest. I don't even know how many almost there's I heard before we actually made it. Seriously people, one more hour does not qualify as "almost there"!
Hubs was euphoric over the scenery and snow while I was still thinking about the lady that passed out on the trail and hoping I wouldn't be like her. The snowy landscape was very pretty, although I wasn't enjoying it quite as much at the time since we'd just hiked for over 3 hours. Near the end of the trail you have to walk across a ledge with no outside rail to get to the overlook point. I wish we had taken a picture, but as you can imagine we were pretty focused on not falling off. I attempted to create a paint rendition of the scene, but my paint skillz are even worse than normal right now so you'll just have to imagine. Here's a view from the top of the falls - right before it goes off the edge.
We headed back down, which was easier than going up but still took a long time.
By the time we finished we were completely out of food and water - yeah, didn't plan ahead very well. We headed to the little grocery in Yosemite village for some ridiculously overpriced snacks and water. Then we just had to find the car. And, oh yeah, it was completely dark outside by this point and we weren't 100% sure where we parked.
Maybe you can imagine my energy level at this point. Let's just say my tank was close to empty. Funny thing about that is, you can be totally revived with some good ole adrenaline. As we were walking to the car, Hubs noted that it was probably not the smartest choice to walk to the car in the dark with a bag full of food since bears like food and there are bears in the park. I think we could've won a power-walking race after that revelation.
Thankfully we didn't make any wrong turns and managed to find the car without a problem (or any bear attacks). We did pack multiple flashlights, so we weren't
that unprepared.
Even though I
almost died up there was really tired, it is really cool to be able to say I hiked to the top of the tallest waterfall in North America. In fact, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go update my resume...
Susan - expert hiker, totally owned the tallest waterfall in North America. Hiked uphill, in the snow (literally) both ways. Also skilled at avoiding bear attacks.
I have way too many pictures from the weekend to only share those, so here are a few more! And I can't take all of the credit for these, Hubs took some of them. : )
