The weekend started off by loading up two cars full of backpacking equipment and five people and driving off to Yosemite. We got there after dark, and we wandered around trying to find the backpacker's camp, but we couldn't find it. After walking down a bike path, we saw some lights coming towards us, which ended up being a Ranger who gave us some directions, but I'm sure he thought we were just troublemakers. We finally got back on the road heading towards where the ranger told us to go, and just as we got there, we got pulled over. Apparently we had been going the wrong way on a one-way road, though the lines were very confusing. I ended up being able to talk us out of a ticket and explain why we were doing that, so everything ended up okay. We finally got into our campsite and slept as soon as we got the tents set up.
The next morning, we headed out kind of late and drove up to Glacier Point w
here we would start the hike. We hiked a couple miles downhill and stopped by the river to eat lunch. It was nice to lay out in the sun and relax for a bit before we headed out again. Next, we had to hike uphill for what seemed like forever before it was downhill again. We ended up hiking about six miles the first day before we got to the next backpackers camp and went to sleep.The morning after that, we woke up at 8 so we could head out by 9 am and get to the top of Half Dome by 1 pm. The next part of the hike was killer. It was only three and a half miles to Half Dome, but we gained a ton of elevation. I doubted myself a lot that morning, but I knew I had to do it at that point. When we got to where it turned to granite, I was really scared. The steps were tiny and went straight up. I knew things weren't going to get any better so I just kept walking. Once we got to the bottom of the cables, I was really happy to have a bit of a break before I started up the cables.
I knew that the section with the cables was going to be hard, but I had no idea how hard that was going to be. It was way steeper than I thought anyone could go up without being harnessed in. There were just two metal cables that you hold on to to pull yourself up to the top. I was shaking the entire time I was going up these, but I wasn't going to turn around after all that work to get to the top. When we finally got to the top, I knew there were even more scary times ahead for me. Going down was even scarier than when I went up. My feet would slip the whole time and all of my weight was being held by my hands. After some coaxing, I made it down without getting hurt. I was so happy to get to the bottom, but then we started to rush to get to our campsite to take everything down and get to the car and out of the park before 10 pm, when the road we needed to take would close.
After we got everything
packed up, we headed towards the Mist Trail, which went by two big waterfalls and was very steep and wet. This was my favorite part of the trip because I wasn't scared anymore and it was all downhill. It was so pretty that I didn't even mind getting soaked from the mist that came from the bottom of the falls. At the very bottom of the last falls, we started running because it was getting too late and we knew we weren't going to make it.We ended up driving way out of the way and just hoping that we had enough gas to get out of the park. We had just enough to get to the next gas station and fill up, but we were too late and the road that we wanted was closed, so we ended up taking a different route that was a bit out of our way. We got home at 5:15 in the morning, but it was all worth it to go on the awesome trip and climb Half Dome.
