Waking up, I realized we’d pulled it off. Due to the bullshit permit system, it was sort of illegal for us to camp at the main backpacking campground. But no one caught us, so there’s that. IPA got back to us late in the evening after climbing Half Dome, his face aglow from the experience. From his photos it looked pretty scary, so I’m not really sore I missed out on it.
Early in the morning we did the Upper Nevada Falls hike, with our food in a bear bin at the trailhead. It felt great to hike with such a light pack and watching the waterfalls was absolutely worth it. On the way down though, hordes of people started going up. Because the trail was hewn into the rock and very steep and narrow, we often had to let big groups of 10 people pass by. If the hike wasn’t so pretty, it would have got to me more I think.
At lunch, the other half of our group arrived, consisting of Spice, Mouse, Stinger, Fitz and Andy (I’ll keep calling him Andy, even though he has 2 trail names at this point). Finally, we were back to hiking together. I missed them, even Andy and his terrible dad jokes at my expense. I worry slightly our wants and needs will split us up again in NorCal, but hopefully that’s unfounded.
Lunch was at the Valley’s pizza place. Orders were placed at the counter where you got a receipt, to be redeemed for pizza at the pick up point, a few meters further. For some reason though, they didn’t take Half ‘n Halfs receipt, meaning we could reuse it to go get more pizza. We ended up going back 4 times, a different person with the same receipt each time, basically netting us a full free pizza. Hiker ingenuity at its finest.
Due to time constraints (we had to catch the last bus out of the Valley back to the trail) we didn’t do that much more. I spent some time with Andy, Stinger and Fitz lying on the grass, looking out at Yosemite Falls. Sometimes that’s all you need.
In the end I’m glad we took this sidetrip, even with all the logistical issues. I do feel I only scratched the surface though and there is a ton more to explore. Even after being inundated in some of the best natural landscapes in the world, Yosemite’s granite mountains effortlessly filled me with wonder. I’ll have to come back at some point for a longer trip, preferably by car. Contrarily enough, this park is clearly not designed for hikers, even though that’s the main activity. Walking and using the bus was slow and exhausting. I don’t know what it is, but walking with a pack off trail is always much harder both phsyically and mentally.
Now we’re back on trail. I’m starting to get a real feeling of belonging out here, with all the other pct hikers, something I’ve only ever had in Australia. Camping in the wild feels so much more natural than on the big backpacker’s campground.
