El Cap

This 3000ft granite monolith needs no intro. While exploring the valley, it is hard to miss. Weston sized it up from the base the day before and after some thoughtful questions and deliberation, decided he was up to the challenge so we set the alarm for 2:45 am to allow enough time to get to the famous Camp 4 trailhead and get on the trail before 5am. The reason for the early start is that the most strenuous section of the trail is the first 3.5 miles and ideally you can get through a lot of that before the sun comes up and heats up the trail.

In the dark it was hard to see the drops on the outside edge of the trail so we trudged up the steep trail at a good clip. We came upon a skunk sipping from a trickle that briefly challenged us for ground, we backed down twice before he got bored and let us by. As the sun came up we started to get a sense of the scale of the cliffs around us, with views of half dome under the stars across the valley.

We felt pretty confident after the initial pitch and ventured off to find Yosemite Falls. It was a bit out of the way unfortunately it was very dry, but the sketchy ladders and sheer drops to the valley below made the views feel hard earned. We still had a lot of miles to cover to make El Cap though. Along that way we found a variety of pine forest, sandy trail and exposed rock. During a snack break, we could see a fierce looking forest fire burning in the distance. As we approached the summit, the trail opened up and we followed cairns until we started to descend toward the famous nose. We didn't venture too close though. It was very hot and we were tired so we had a rest and ate some lunch (Weston was very impressed with the raw Ramen) under a tree before starting the long journey back. The view was hard to leave, especially knowing we had sick a long way to go.

Shortly after starting back we met a couple guys who had run out of water. They asked about a stream that we had passed and were happy to hear it was still trickling through the mud. We offered them a drink since we still had plenty of water. Hopefully they were able to filter and fill up.

We were pretty exhausted by the time we made it back to the steepest descent and we knew it was about to get much worse. Weston powered through sore legs and aching feet. We passed quite a few other hikers along the trail but most hadn't traveled all the way to the summit. At one point I heard Weston whimper a bit and I looked back to see teary eyes, but as soon as I looked back he quickly wiped them away and insisted he was fine. I think he handled it better than me, we were both totally spent.

12 hours and 27km later we made it to camp 4 and shuffled across the road to the parking lot. Sitting in the truck felt pretty good. Weston crashed a few minutes into the drive back to the campground and my legs cramped up so bad that I had to pull over and get out, a good opportunity to recline Westons seat for him so he could rest comfortably. Czytaj więcej