Well we had a relexing few days at Susan and Gus's in Cupertino with the children playing very well together. On the Sunday we all went to Monterey bay and canoed with the wildlife..
Two pairs of shoes, shorts, a long sleeve thermal and 2 x 15-foot climbing tape plus 2 carabiners later we headed into Yosemite valley. A lot later, after following an RV for an hour that was doing 30mph, we arrived at the Village.
The obvious place to head for was the Reservations Centre, but after getting to the front of that queue, no, we should go to Campsite Reservations, No, we should head to the Wilderness centre and it would be easy to take the shuttle....30 minutes later we arrived a quarter of a mile down the road to be told every campsite we were interested in was full, so we had to try Camp 4 - a 100m walk in campsite with no hot water & no showers...but it had a space. Wayne waited another 20 minutes for a 'Free Shuttle that runs every 10 minutes' to take him back to the car.
Next morning we woke the kids at 06.30 and headed to the trailhead. Up and up we hiked past beautiful but rather empty waterfalls, lots of rests and jelly beans later we headed out off the coolish forests onto the rocks of half dome. Samuel wilted quickly and we had to bribe him with a new Nintendo DS game if he got to the top. Beinn went strongly as he had already been bribed with a trophy. The climbing tape was really essential for a minimum level of security on the steep rock of the Half Dome itself for Samuel & Beinn. Wayne and Samuel summited at 12.30 who romped past most of the people struggling on the cables and Beinn & Julie half an hour later ( after descending a bit, then having another go). The views were fantastic, I nearly vomitted when Wayne started doing star jumps on the overhanging section of the dome though...the descent was long and hot and we were looking forward to celebrating in style in Curry Village...but the only 2 places that do food at 6.30 had queues a mile long, so we had to content ourselves with an ice cream and back to Camp 4 for pasta. The kids raced around the campsite like lunatics for about an hour, then fell asleep at 9'ish.
There followed a rest day of driving around the scenic spots to fill up the camera memory card & buying "I made it to the top" T shirts for the boys. Now it's down to the city tourism part of the trip ... off to San Francisco, Alcatraz & the Cupertino jazz festival!!
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3 comments:
Struck me when I did half-dome just how dangerous it was the way the Americans approach it, particularly for such a nanny-state culture.
I suppose they don't have any via-ferattas, so that way of doing things just doesn't come above the radar.
Simon
Yep!
it is dangerous with so many people on it and so many of them that are out of their depth..... going up is easier than coming down
see a soon ... just checked in and waiting for the flight home
Hi all,
I can't believe you have done so much. I thought you were just going to cycle all day every day. It loks fantastic and Kitty now wants to visit Yosemite; although I don't think climbing will be on the agenda.
Glad to see you are enjoying the challenges - not the climbing, the american and canadian queing systems, resevations and so forth.
Keep up the good work.
Chris and Kitty
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