Yosemite

Posted by Christine Published in Family

John surprised me by taking me away for a lovely 3 day weekend to Yosemite. We got into the car and started our adventure around 6 on Friday. He had been really good about keeping the destination a secret, but a few clues slipped out. Around 11:30 we arrived at John (most of his friends are named John) and Rebecca’s apartment. They have four lovely cats and I got to meet them all. (And a dog but I am a cat person)

~~Rebel~~ Reb, a grey and white kitty slept next to us no matter how much we wiggled. The others just stared all night. Next day we were off to the park. Drove in, popped the car into Day Use and just wandered around. We signed up for a tour at 3. Called the “Green Dragon” by locals, this open-air tram is used for the Two-hour Valley Floor Tour. Ranger Mike then spent the next few hours telling us about the park. One stop was the grand view of El Capitan, a 3ooo tall granite monolith. Considered the standard for Big-Wall climbing, it takes experienced hikers 3-7 days to make the climb up the mountain. When it gets dark, climbers will find a ledge and stay the night, making sure they leave nothing behind. I will leave it to the gentle readers to guess what that entails.

However when there is no ledge available, they make their own with a device called a portaledge. A portaledge is a deployable hanging tent system designed for rock climbers who spend multiple days and nights on a big wall climb. Once we got home I did a google image search to see examples of portaledges in actions. They are suspended Thousands of feet, sometimes its just a hammock. I just could not grok that idea.

Next thing Ranger Mike talked about was visitors. Only 2% of Yosemite visitors actually walk around. Most just drive to spot to spot, walk out and take pictures. It was ironic cause we were in a tram driving around as he informed people of this. Both John and I were determined to be in that 2%. We didn’t count the little walking we had done so far.

After the tour we made our way to the hotel, then to the correct hotel. The room was interesting, large, with a kitchet on one side. On the other side was a curly stairs that led to a loft and another bed and tv. A perfect room for a family. We liked it. John and Rebbecca joined us for dinner at the hotels pizza joint. The Johns then talked gamer geek for several hours.

Next day we got up when the hell we wanted to. Quick breakfast and we were off! Enter the park, drop off the car and we were on our way to Mirror Lake. The lake was dry but still pretty. Saw lots of squirrels, a few birds and even a pair of snakes. A few times people asked us for directions suggestions (bad idea folks) but we didn’t get lost and it was nice.

John climbed a rock! We stayed on one part, got off it, followed some dirt trails, found another path, ran into a hell lot of Germans and finally completed the loop.