Yosemite Day 5 - The Valley

Day 5 - 12 September 2012

"The money goes. The money goes. The money goes. The money goes...up her nose..."

So says the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, preachin' and bellowing his message about the evils of doing drugs (on that particular song) in his backwoods rockin' blues style.  Mitch had brought their latest album with us and we found ourselves rockin' out to the grooves numerous times on this trip.  Funny how music can define so many things.  For me, I'll hear certain tunes and it brings back memories of trips.  I liked this band so much I bought the album when I got back.  Check 'em out: www.bigdamnband.com

Anyway, we quickly packed up on Tuesday morning and headed out.  I checked with the Rangers one last time to see if my Tuolumne SuperTopo book had been turned in...no dice.  Oh well.  The story on that is that I left it by the window next to the sink in the bathroom.  I forgot about it while brushing my teeth and walked out without it.  I came back like 5 min later and it was gone.  Later that day I checked at the Ranger Station for the campground.  They said some guy had come by with it and asked about it.  My name wasn't in it but they said that it indeed had red tabs on the pages so we knew it was mine.  But at the time the guy was asking about it, he said he would take it for the day, use it, and then bring it back later...which he obviously never did.  I hope the guy didn't get into trouble out there or something, but I have to scratch my head at the whole thing.  I mean, seriously? It's obviously not yours but you're going to take it anyway and bring it back when it's convenient for you?  Oh well...whatever.  Mitch had a guidebook too so it wasn't a huge deal.  Besides, we were leaving Tuolumne for the Valley.

Yosemite Day 4 - Cathedral Peak

Day 4 - 11 September 2012

The previous evening Mitch and I were hanging out at camp pondering just which dehydrated meal either of us wanted to brave.  Being gluten-free (aka a glutard) limits some of my options, but I had found some decent stuff at REI in Reno.  Mitch was quite decidedly 'glutening' it up.

As we were sitting there and to my pleasant surprise, a small white car came rolling up with none other than Arthur (aka ACK) and Matthew.  They explained they had made it a true road-trip from San Fran to Tuolumne by getting sidetracked with a few 'detours'.  It's just not a road-trip without at least one detour.  We still wondered what happened to Seth and Simone but figured we'd catch up with them at some point in the next day or two.

ACK and Matthew set up camp and broke out some beers.  We discussed plans for the next day and poured over the Tuolumne guidebooks.  Sleep came early as I was dead tired and knew we had a long day ahead of us.

Yosemite Day 3 - West Crack on DAFF Dome

Day 3 - 10 September 2012

DAFF Dome.  Mitch and I had talked about doing this route for a long time.  West Crack.  Not a huge, difficult route at all, but you have to be careful being on an exposed dome like DAFF with regards to the weather.  Clouds forming up in the early AM can be a bad sign.  Thankfully, it was nearly cloudless.  Once again, it was rather cold in the AM.  We got a move-on quicker though because we knew that West Crack is a popular route.  The last thing you want is to hike up there and see 3 parties waiting in line while a 4th starts up it.

Yosemite Part 2 - Guide Cracks on DAFF Dome

Day 1 - 09 September 2012 - Woke up. It was cold. Really cold compared to where I came from back East.  It was probably in the upper 30s or so.  I was glad I brought cold-weather gear.  However, the temp came up nicely after an hour or so in which Mitch and I ate breakfast and figured out where we would climb.  We were off by 0730 to explore.

Yosemite Part 1 - Getting there

Instead of telling, and re-telling, and re-telling the stories of my recent trip to Yosemite I decided to finally get up off my butt and just create a blog about it.  I've had the intention of doing this kinda thing since my friend Leah mentioned I should last year when I went on a ski trip.

Anyway, to this story and some cool pics from my latest adventure.

The Plan:

7 days of climbing (roughly) with my friend Mitch.  A day of travel on either end.  Starting with an early Saturday AM flight and ending with a slightly earlier Sunday AM flight the following weekend.