My avenue of the vines run did not go well and i thought of mixing my activities with something else and that is how i found my trainer Tim for half dome hike.
The hike pre-requisites were a good smile :), two conditioning hikes to Mission peak fremont, CA and the huge checklist for hiking gear..for me it was more like a new venture and i truly enjoyed shopping and looking around each gear from hiking poles to gloves, to carabiner to night head light and everything.
Tim was cool in explaining everything nicely and following up on every minute details alongwith his down to earth nice personal attitude.......Suresh, Rick, Trinh joined us for half dome hike as well and the weather did good justice to us.
We started our hike from curry village around 10Pm in the night with hour 8-10 pounds bags and hiking poles and gazing at stars and moon during the night hik was blissful :)
i can not explain the verity of night hike specially as there are very less people and you feel like exploring the untouched trails all by yourself.....it's completely different experience.
We took the hike slowly and all sharing our experiences, discussing life and things in general alongwith notice of Deers, snails, coyote, plants, stars, water falls here and there...... reached near the stairs around 5:00am ..was about morning when we decided to unwind a little and take an hour nap with our emergency blankets on for one hour.
After we woke up, it was a great clear dawn with spectacular, multi million dollar views of yosemite valley, glacier falls and every thing around..this is where we decided to click snaps up in every direction :)
Stairs towards the end and the cables was the most difficult part of half dome hike but was the most admiring, amusing, appreciative as well......this is where i felt for a moment that nature is just too powerful since the views from stairs were wonderful and i was getting all the kicks/energy [natural gatorade] looking those views :)
Cables are approximately 400 feet and were tough because of the lunges and constant push n pull one has to do for all 400ft distance at steep elevation of 70 degrees....but all of it is truly worht it coz there are no words to explain how you feel when you actually do it......well "you just feel like a rock star" :)
We reached up and we went well prepared with our food, hot chocolate/tea stuff as guided by Tim and we unwinded once again for our food break at the top of half dome...yeah right beautiful morning at the top of half dome, good food alongwith hot chocolate, tea..what else you want :-))
thanks to propane stove for heating up stuff.....we met more folks there chit chatted little bit, enjoyed views in each and every direction, took photographs in every angle and stayed there at the top for about 2 hours before we took the plunge to head back down to the curry village.
We came back at our own pace and enjoyed the high water levels at falls at different places, the water level was just spectacular and mist trail felt like canadian side of Niagara falls that day, all the other falls like vernal etc were just great.
The most difficult part while coming back was a flat walk from Happy Isle to curry village as it seemed too far...maybe coz the body and legs were tired and it looked like someone has increased this distance overnight...what a humbling experience :)
i took hot shower at curry village and commemorated my hike with beer and pizza :-)
Tim, Rick, Suresh, Trinh ...all were a wonderful people and a great group......and i enjoyed my half dome hike with them and looking forward for more.
Cheers
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