I think I just took a shower while walking...

The next morning we woke up to a full campground. We gained more travelers after going to bed the night before, including the following:

1. A family (we think?) of 8 or so that brought in several trips worth of food, duffel bags, camp chairs, firewood, air mattresses, and jugs of juice (again, I THINK it was juice!). Father and son were prone to the wheezy cough - and the accompanying inhaler. Really? How in the heck do they expect to hike this anywhere!? We never did see what happened to them...
2. Mom, Dad and family of two teenage boys who had just climbed straight up Yosemite Falls to the very top - then day tripped for a few days from there. They were on their way back to their cars after what sounded like a great trip. Very cool, though a little intense, family. The two boys seemed happy, adventurous, and appeared to even like their parents. Key to success, maybe?
3. Two young men who had just rock climbed the face of Half Dome. They hired a guide and made it to the top. They were making an incredible breakfast (jealous!) in order to use up their supplies and fuel, etc. According to them they were also basking in the "coolness" of climbing the face. "We feel like big shots, but we're really not." I liked them - they were fun. They also told us that just that day a Japanese/Swedish/I can't remember hiker tried to rock climb the sheer face in one day without any gear or guide, only made it half-way up before dark and had to sleep in the harness in biker shorts with no food, other clothing, etc. OMG - crazy! How do you sleep halfway up the sheer face of Half Dome? I suppose the bears aren't any problem there, huh?!

We headed out and made our way to Happy Isles trail-head. Deep breath, and off we go on the Mist Trail. :) The Mist Trail is named as such because of the instant shower you receive making your way up past Vernal Falls. Check out the pictures - I can't even describe it! I'm sure that later in the season you can sneak past without a complete drenching, but not in June. It can be a dangerous trail if you're tired or distracted, since at the wettest part you are walking up cliff-like steps along the side of Vernal Falls. The only casualty - my Oakleys. I took them off since I couldn't see with them on, hooked them into my pocket (all the while thinking, "That's probably not a good spot for them."). Next time I thought of them, at the top of Nevada Falls a few miles later, they were nowhere to be found. Anyways, I hope someone found them and is enjoying them!

The hike up to the top of Vernal was a tough one - about 1,000 uphill in total - and I was feeling it a little. My first mini meltdown came after the shower, just before the top of the fall. I looked up all the sudden and thought, "I can't do that!". I was having doubts... We took a minute break, and then one step at a time I just kept going. At the top I was a pretty proud girl. And then I saw a 5-year old in flip flops on her way back down. Seriously? Two things. One - you made it up here and you're not tired? Two - where are your parents who let you wear flip flops!?

Let's throw a few more pictures in...

Can we get rid of the heaviest thing first, please!?

After successfully getting our permit we went to set up camp in the backpacker's campground behind North Pines. We walked through the car and camper parking spots to get there - all the while with our big packs on our backs. We felt like the cool kids as everyone checked us out. That's right, we're backpackin' it! We didn't bring everything AND the kitchen sink with us... :) I know we used to car camp as kids, too, but it just seems like sooo much stuff now that I look at it!

We set up camp, unloaded our packs a little and took off for a short day hike in the valley. A warm-up, if you will. With our packs about 1/2 full we headed out for Lower Yosemite Falls. A couple of miles, 100 pictures or so, and 2 sore necks later (you can't help but check out the scenery WAY UP THERE when you first get to the valley) we found the falls. Beautiful!

That night we tried out the bear canister, and since I was the one who would be carrying it, promptly made the heaviest thing in there for dinner (so as NOT to have to carry it any farther). Velveeta Shells and Cheese in the JetBoil. Yum! We snickered as the Rangers came by and handed out warning and fines to those who hadn't checked in and paid for their site (we're such rule-followers - of course we checked in!). Relaxed and ready, we headed to bed amongst all the people we'd beat for our prized permit. Guilt, much!?

"You mean you left your wife here overnight in a sleeping bag?"

No, not me. Don't worry!

So we arrived in Yosemite National Park on Saturday morning around 6am and headed intuitively (we didn't really check out the signs, but Drew just manages to always find himself in the right place - it's a little scary) to the Park Ranger's office. Once there we found ourselves about 8th in line for a trailhead permit. Or we thought we were 8th in line, until we found out that the very first two people in line were actually going for 8 permits each. Awesome...not. That should be a rule, you have to be present to pick up your permit, people!

The first woman in line was in a sleeping bag, mid-40's, and we soon found out (when her husband arrived freshly shaven with hot coffee) that she had spent the night there. Alone. He left his wife in a sleeping bag at 3am and went and found himself a nice cozy hotel bed!! Geez... Tough cookie! She got the first permits of the morning, all 8 of them, and headed out. I suppose she deserved them after that performance.

The second pair in sleeping bags (of girls, again! what is this!?) were trying for 8 more permits out of Happy Isles, the most popular trailhead leading out from the valley. They were out of luck as the first woman had snagged the first 8, and there are only 12 per day. Lucky for us, since we were trying for Happy Isles, too. They headed out to Glacier Point to keep their group intact and we were that much closer to our permit...

Inside the Ranger station we were divided into two lines, those who had permit reservations and those who were picking up last minute, first-come, first-serve permits. We stealthily snuck over to the "I already reserved a permit" line since, hey, we had one, at first! The head ranger gave us the thumbs up. So, one step closer to our trailhead, we inched up in line until we were finally HOVERING over the guy in front of us to make our point. WE NEED THIS PERMIT BEFORE THOSE PEOPLE OVER THERE! It worked - maybe the head ranger took pity on us. He stepped in to "ease the line" and took us next (as the ranger next to us was getting an earful from a very rude woman - I hate to call her a hiker with that kind of ungrateful attitude!). We got the last two permits out of Happy Isles. All those behind us had to head out elsewhere. Success! Oh, and can we rent a bear canister, please!?

Whew. We walked out and realized that both of us had more or less been holding our breath, and that our hearts were going a mile a minute. You had to be there to understand...but it just felt like things were going our way. Karma, baby.

And then...

A quick overnight stop in Modesto, California (George's Steakhouse - home of the monster meat combo). We were kind of looking forward to the nice breakfast they had, but then quickly realized that we would be leaving around 4am from the hotel. My guess? They wouldn't have breakfast out yet, and I was right.

We loaded up at the grocery store for some last minute preparations - and I spent the evening making trail mix, organizing the rest of our meals, and packing it all in to our backpacks. We were trying to eyeball how much food we had and what would fit in the bear canister. Drew was optimistic; I had my doubts.

The next morning we got on the road bright and early, headed to Yosemite and the elusive trailhead permit we were looking for. We had to change our trail route once we heard the shuttles weren't running up to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, which meant that we had to stand in line at the Park Ranger's office and fight over backcountry permits on a first come, first serve basis. But that's a whole story in itself...for another blog post.

From the beginning...

Where to begin!? I suppose with a flight across country to San Fran, rental car madness, one-way streets that never end, and finally crashing at The Opal around midnight. We woke up the next morning early to check out a little bit of San Francisco before heading on to Modesto and our grand adventure.

We booked a tour over to Alcatraz, first celebrating honeymoon-ing with some really expensive roadside vendor breakfast churros (yum!). Cool and cloudy, but really a great morning. Alcatraz was ablaze with flowers and playing host to dozens of baby seagulls, little gray puffballs hunkered down everywhere! We even snagged our first National Parks passport stamp! Oh, and we found that the folks at Alcatraz spell National Parks Service with no "r" - as in, "Sevice". I find misspelled words all the time - but this might take the cake. Check it out - proof is in the picture. After a few hours we headed back in time for lunch at the Sea Lion Cafe - a front row seat for sea lion antics at the pier.

A quick trip to REI before hitting the road and then we were off to Modesto, California!

We're baaaaack! : )

Happy 4th of July, everyone! We've got some 4th festivities planned for the weekend and I'll share later next week - but right now I know everyone is wondering how "IT" went.

We're back from a most excellent adventure! :) Got back almost a week ago, and I haven't even touched the blog until now. To be honest I've been catching up on sleep! Now I get when Jason says he's still on West Coast time...

So, you've probably guessed since you're reading this, we survived a week or more in the great outdoors. See, it's not so dangerous! Sure, Drew and I took some risks,but in doing so we shared some great memories and took over 1000 pictures. All part of a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

1000 pictures, you say!? Don't worry, I'll post what I can without overwhelming everyone. Perhaps there's a YouTube video/slideshow in our future, who knows. Right now the blog is having issues uploading pictures (great timing, right?) so when I can figure out what's up and fix it, I'll post some teasers...

Where do I start in re-telling our tale? From the beginning I suppose...