Todd-Fest and Yosemite

My rugby buddy Todd Phillips was killed in a motorcycle accident on March 31 of this year while he was on his way to a rugby game.  Todd-Fest was organized as a proper memorial for the rugby community, and to help establish a trust-fund for his 3-year old son Zealand.  The event was held up in Sonoma County, so I thought it was only fitting that I ride my Harley up to the event.  Figuring that I'd either explore the coast or some mountains on my way up or back, I bought a new, smaller tent, strapped it onto the bike, and headed North.  In Sonoma, we did wine tours on Friday, played a rugby match on Saturday, and had a banquet that night which was followed by a pub-crawl.  I did 1,400 miles over 6 days, and stopped at Yosemite for a few days on the way home.

Bridalveil Falls on the right. 620 feet high, and had lots of water flowing this year.

  The following week, three people got swept over a different falls and died.

I've been to Yosemite several times, but never in the middle of the summer.  No campsites were listed as "available" at the campground office when I arrived, but some people do leave early and others just don't show up.  They take names on a waiting-list every morning, and at 3:00 pm, they parcel out the unclaimed spaces.  But, you have to be there at 3:00 to win - they call your name twice, and if you don't answer they go right to the next name.

Looking across Yosemite Valley

at Columbia Rock.

It was about 10:00 am when I signed up, and I was number 24 on the list.  Since I had 5 hours, I decided to just cruise around and see what I could see.  If  I got a spot, I'd stay, and if not, I'd leave.  Well, it didn't take long before I confirmed for myself that summer is not the time to come here.  The place was overrun with cars and pudgy, loud people wearing Rainforest Cafe t-shirts.  Within a few hours I had almost decided that I didn't even want to stay here.  With the motorcycle, though, I can always find a place to park, and eventually, the scenic beauty calmed my nerves.

My bike, in front of El Capitan.

I'm really not parked in a handicap zone here. I slipped into a small gap between a parked car (which is now gone) and the blue line.  There's always room for motorcycle parking.

El Capitan seems to be everyone's favorite for climbing.  The sheer face is about 3,000 feet from top to bottom, and the first ascent took place until 1958.  It took a team of  4 climbers 47 days to do it!  Today, fit climbers have a 60% success rate and get it done in 4 to 5 days.  The record, however, is just over 2 1/2 hours, and some people have done it more than once a 24 hour period.  If you enlarge the picture below, you may be able to see the climber in this picture.  About a third of the way up, in the middle of the picture, there's a shadow that looks like a "7".  If you start at about a third of the way up from the bottom of the "7", and move left to the next vertical shadow, there he is - that little dot.  Or, maybe it's a she.  Either way, the climber still has a bit of work to do.

At 3:00, I was part of a suprisingly large crowd that had gathered outside the campground office.  A ranger came out and said that they had 16 spaces to allocate.  I knew that I was number 24 on the list, but there had to be at least 50 people in the crowd.  Luckily, enough people infront of me didn't show and I was the next to last person to get a spot for the night.  The campground was circus-like, but by now I had already conceeded that, while on family camping trips so many years ago, my brothers and I had surely offended more people than were currently offending me, so it was all OK.

My new tent from REI.

Packs small, and weighs less than 5 lbs.

On the way to Half Dome, you hike by Mirror Lake.  I can't remember the name of this formaiton, but it makes up the other side of the valley across from Half Dome.  A glacier slid through this valley and carved the sheer face of Half Dome.  Think about the Ruth Glacier example above, a mile wide, 3,800 feet thick, 10 miles long, and moving at 3 feet per day - that will scrub out a lot of rock.

Half Dome.

The peak is about 4,800 feet above where I'm standing.

Inspiration Point

This picture is taken from Inspiration Point.  El Capitan is on the left, Half Dome is in the middle, and Bridalveil Falls is on the right.  In person, it looks absolutely surreal.  Unfortunately, from here on out, I've got something on my camera lens.

Half Dome from Glacier Point

This is Half Dome, as seen from Glacier Point.  In all my trips to Yosemite, I never made it up here before.  But I have to say that this is probably one of the most spectacular views in the World.  Glacier Point is directly on top of Curry Village and most of the campgrounds, and there are two ways to get here.  Either a challenging 6 to 8-hour hike with 3,200 feet of elevation gain, or a 35-mile drive.  The road, however, is closed for 7 months of the year, and there is still snow up here, even in July.  The top of Half Dome is at an elevation of 8,800 feet, but some of the peaks on the horizon behind it are over 13,000 feet.  You can climb to the top of Half Dome from the back.  It's strenuous, but not technicaly challenging.  There's a set of cable rails to help you get over the steep hump.  I've done it on previous trips, but now you need a permit, and figured that it would be too much of a hassle to try and do it this time.  It's obviously slippery when wet, and I read that someone fell about 600 feet to their death just the other day.  About 60 people have killed themselves on or around Half Dome.

Curry Village from Glacier Point

The picture above is also from Glacier Point, looking  straight down on Curry Village and the some of the surrounding campgrounds.  It's a sheer drop of about 3,200 feet.  That little circle is actually a parking lot with about 150 cars in it.

Yosemite Falls from Glacier Point

Looking across the valley from Glacier Point to Yosemite Falls.  Yosemite Falls is over 2,400 feet high in three stages.  It's the highest waterfall in North America, and the 7th highest in the Word.  Yosemite has 8 different waterfalls that are over 1,000 feet high (4 of them are over 1,500 ft).  There was a huge snowfall this past winter, and the melt has made this one of the best waterfall seasons in years.



Comparing Denali to Yosemite?

It's apples and oranges.    Stunning beauty in both, but different kinds of beauty.  Both are vast, but in different dimensions. Denali is hard to get to, so you really have to want to go there.  But you'll be rewarded with a feeling that you almost have the place all to yourself.  Yosemite is closer and more compact (at least in the popular valley area), but you have to compete with the rest of civilization to see it.  They're both awesome though.