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Today the plan was to drive from Madera, CA to Yosemite National Park, and then get a hotel in Mammoth Lakes, CA. At Yosemite the plan was to hike up the Half Dome Trail.

The half dome trail is something I first saw on the Travel Channel and it looked like something fun to do, however it was much more difficult that I could have ever imagined. After a quick shuttle ride to the trailhead I started up the Mist Trail, which is the first leg of the trip. The distance wasn’t a problem, however the elevation was. I wasn’t prepared in the least for this, and hiking uphill was taking its toll. I made it to the first waterfall, which I think I incorrectly tweeted that this was the Nevada Falls, however I think that was much later.

The first major waterfall had stairs going up to the right. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stairs. The stairs seemed to be of random length and most were quite steep, which made it difficult to get a good rhythm going. Additionally I saw people coming back down wearing ponchos, but I thought since it wasn’t raining I didn’t need to use mine. Wrong. The water fall produced a massive amount of mist (hence the Mist Trail), and by the time I made it to the top I was pretty wet. This was kind of nice at the time, but later the temperature dropped and I was wishing I would have used the poncho.

The next leg was I think the Nevada Falls. These had a trail up to the left that was far enough away to keep me dry (or at least not any more wet). This trail didn’t exactly have stairs, but it was still a very steep and rocky incline. After ascending this part of the trail I had gone about 2.6 miles along the trail and 2000 feet up.

The next part of the trail was mostly flat, which was great. I passed the Little Yosemite Village and the ranger station and started to head up the next incline when my leg started to cramp up after about another miles and a half. I tried to tough it out but every few steps it just got worse. I didn’t want to risk being injured and not being able to finish the rest of the road trip, but most importantly I didn’t want to be “that guy” who had to be carried down by the rangers. So, I decided to head back.

Heading back was pretty rough. My leg was killing me and I was absolutely exhausted. I did manage to make it off the trail under my own power (just barely), however I could hardly stand near the end of the route. While waiting for the shuttle back from the trailhead to my car I stopped for 2 hotdogs and a cookie at a little stand. The person operating the stand had her register crash while she was trying to ring up my order. So I said can I just give you the money and you can ring it up later? She replied that she had no way to add up the prices… are you kidding? This wasn’t advanced calculus, so I added it up for her, and not convinced she called out for someone to add it up for her (and of course I can do 1st grade math). I should point out that she was an adult. Then she realized she couldn’t open the register to give me change, so I just gave her enough money going over a little and told her to keep the change, I was starving!

I’d really like to avoid walking for the remained of the trip after this experience, so if anyone has a Rascal that I could borrow that would be awesome I think I’ll try this again sometime, but I’ll be sure to be in better shape first.

Tags: Big Road Trip