Day 74 : Yosemite National Park

2nd July 2013
Lyell Canyon to Yosemite Valley
Mileage : 0 + 20
None of us slept well last night, although asleep in minutes after going to bed, we didn't manage to stay that way for long as at about 1am it started raining. As i usually cowboy camp this required a lightning setting up ofhe tent in the dark, which thankfully didnt take too long. Back in my maggot a few minutes later i tried unsuccessfully to go back to sleep. For a long while i could hear something rustling in the dark near my tent. I had no idea what it was but had little inclination to stick my nose out to investigate. Although probably the smallest mouse of all time, my imagination got the better of me and i expected a bear to rip through my tent any second. All of this excitement meant i didnt really go back to sleep, and so at 6am we all got up to get an early lead on the day's hiking.
The day's objective was Yosemite Valley, a very long way down the Merced river valley as it would turn out. The 3 of us stuck together until we hit the first signposted junction and Ranger Station. Onwards from there Starfox and i, itching to make miles and get to Yosemite Valley left Chick-Check plodding along behind safe in the knowledge that she couldn't get lost. The hike down to the valley floor was about 20 miles dropping almost 7000ft in the process. While the hiking itself was easy enough, what wasn't easy was adjusting to the hordes of tourists that we began to encounter as we got closer and closer to the valley floor. Over the previous 2 days, the proof of human existence, obviously excepting ourselves, amounted to : a discarded glove, a small piece of wire, a deflated balloon, and a foot print. That was it, no other trace of mankind at all. I don't think i have a memory of going 2 days without seeing another human being. To go from that to tourist central in the heart of one America's most famous national parks was a massively overwhelming to put it mildly. At first, there were dribs and drabs, one or two hardy hikers and ranger types, but by the time Starfox and I reached Nevada falls just above the valley floor the trickle had turned into a torrent rivaling the majestic waterfall in scale. Heavily make-uped young women with designer handbags, and designer dogs to go in them. Morbidly obese people in unfortunate figure-hugging jeans looking like this was the most exercise they'd had in years. Mums carrying babies, and Dads dutifully pulling the pushchairs up the steep steep trail. I wonder what they must have thought of us bedraggled hikers turning up in their midst. The granite benches that i mentioned in the last post were present throughout all of the descent today, and the most impressive of them all was right at the end going from Little Yosemite Valley down to the main Yosemite Valley itself. The bench drop off is near vertical, and had produced two roaring waterfalls, Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls, and to get between all these stunning geological features was the Mist Trail which winds its way between them all via slippery steps each almost a foot high. Descending this was nervewracking, not because of the terrain, i have encountered much worse on the trail, but because of the myriad people on it. The are posters all along the trail warning people not to become one of the several hundred that suffer serious injury on the park trails. I saw the man directly in front of me lose his footing and slip  off the step he was on, and only avoid a broken (insert bone of choice here) or worse thanks to the presence of a large lady two steps below him who broke his fall. I was glad to get down it with all my limbs intact.
Once down in the valley i set about trying to find something to eat and organise a permit for possible summit of Half-Dome the next morning. The park is well laid out, with lots of free shuttle buses to encourage people to shun their cars whilenin the park, but it definitely had a Disneyland feel to it. I enquired in the wilderness centre, an implausibly small office given the size of the park and the number of visitors every year, but aptly illustrating how few tourists leave the sanctity of the well manicured main sites, and asked where i might find other PCT hikers.in the park. I was dutifully pointed to the  backpacker campsite, but the unusually helpful ranger (more about that in two posts time) seemed doubtful.that i would find anyone there as she explained that most PCT hikers and co are usually to weirded by the main park area to stay. I could well believe it. After staking a claim, ie dumping my rucksack unceremoniously on a free patch of dirt, i went off in search of food and other hikers. I found Chick-Check with Starfox, whom had left at Nevada Falls, outside the general store. Between us we deduced that the cheapest  high calorie meal.was a couple of the largest pizzas possible split 3 ways. While Starfox and I stood in line waiting to place an order for an overpriced, PRT showed up. I hadn't seen them since they had headed to the trail before me in Mammoth and they had driven to the valley from Tuolumne Meadows in Aloha's car thinking would be there but being unable to check due to the lack of mobile phone reception. With Aloha at the wheel, Peter Pan, Discloth, Kat and I went back up to the relative calm of Tuolumne Meadows with me thankful for a speedy getaway from the savage hordes of tourists in the main valley.

My first glimpse of Half-Dome

Nevada Falls

Vernal Falls