So It Begins!

Day 1

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Little Yosemite Valley to Half Dome overlook on the way to Illilouette Falls
~4 miles

"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it!"

The day has finally come. I set my first foot on the John Muirr Trail at 8:50 AM. What great joy! Slept pretty good last night once I fell asleep. Anticipation of the day to come had my mind working overtime, making sleep hard to come by. I woke a few times during the night, but quickly fell back asleep. I was a little worried about bears, since I was in a campground but luckily none showed up. The temperature was warm most the night,  but I got a little chilled in the early morning hours.

I woke up around 5 AM as others started to break camp, but did not move for an hour or so. With it being a short day I saw no reason to rush getting up. After breaking camp I walked over Curry Village to grab one last soda before hitting the trail. I also looked at a topo to see how to get Illioute since it is not on my maps. I took the shuttle to Isles, the JMT Trailhead. On the bus I ran into Fiona and we decided to start the trail together. We took each other's photo at the "famous" JMT sign and hiked together for awhile.

Ten years has sure faded from my memory of the hike that Karen and I did up to Half Dome. I did not remember the trail being all uphill. But it is! I pulled ahead oh Fiona after 30 minutes and I did not see her again, as we are headed for different camps for the night. Hopefully I'll run into her on the trail again it has been fun talking with her.

At the JMT/Mist trail Junction I stayed true and followed the JMT, leaving the mist Trail for another day. Even though the trail continue to climb it was not too bad, the switchbacks were mostly gentle, enough not to feel like all you were doing was changing directions.  What I was most grateful about though with the trail was mostly in shade. Even this early in the day it was getting hot.

.2 miles before Nevada Falls the Illioute trail branched off. I was hoping to see the falls today, but will have to wait until tomorrow. From the turn off the trail continued to climb for nearly another mile. When it flattened I stopped for my morning break.  From there the trail started dropping. I really hated to lose any elevation as I knew I would have to re-climb this elevation loss in the morning. As I hiked onward and downward, I kept an eye out for places to camp. My thought was to hike to the falls area, restock water, relax, then do at least part of the climb back up today.

Finally reaching the bottom of the decent I sat in the shade of a conifer watching the river flow by, just below the bridge. Had a lunch a little, and took my first Sierra plunge,beneath the bridge. Not as cool as I feared; I managed to keep my breath and washed off the morning sweat. I decided to hang out a little while longer then tackle at least part of the climb out.

I decided that since I was in no hurry that I should take the time to do some fishing, with my new tenkara rod. I fished the large pool about 100 yards downstream from the bridge. Success on my first fishing attempt. I must've caught at least 40 fish, all on a #16 elk hair caddis. Most were very small 4 inches or so, but I still a lot of fun. I caught 2 or 3 the went isn 6-7 inch range.

The best lesson though was learned about the Sierra granite, and h the warning about wet granite being slick. As I fished I stayed on the edge of the dry/wet line from the water flowing down the river channel. One time my left left foot slipped over that line, as I was leaning to cast, and that was all took. Next thing I knew my feet were sliding down the pool and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I went completely in. I had a moment of panic as I frantically swam to the dry shore. The water was not more than 2 feet where I fell in. It was more from the fear of what could've happened that I panicked. I will be showing the wet rock here much more respect from now for sure! While my shirt and pants dried I finished a little more, wearing only my hat and undies. I can only imagine what a sight  it must have been.

Afterwards I hiked back uphill for about 25 minutes to make camp.  I found an amazing spot, directly across from Half Dome.  At the farthest edge of my site,  where one small step past it would have had me falling several hundred yards straight down, I found a USGS marker Scary, but way cool! My site for the night was like a 2 bedroom apartment, with a nice kitchen dining area and a separate area for sleeping.  With clear skies I decided that the first night on the trail would be cowboy camping.  After dinner I layed in my bag and wrote a little in my journal before turning into the night, my eyes closing with views of Half Dome.

Yesterday while eating lunch with the Connecticut guys a squirrel ate a dime size hole on one of my hip belt pockets in under 30 seconds, trying to get some of the sealed  GORP that I had in there. They are on my naughty list. I will be keeping a watchful eye out for them. And marmots!