Misadventures on Upper Yosemite Falls Trail

Another summer has come and gone. As has been the custom for the last few years, we got together with our friends from Santa Rosa for a lovely 5 day vacation in the Loveliest Place on Earth!

The Hike

Each year, a large group partakes of "the hike." In the past "the hike" has been either a well planned group event, or a spontaneous explosion of foolishness.

This year, "the hike" occurred on the fabled slopes of the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail.

Those of you familiar with Yosemite, may know that the Upper Falls Trail is a bit of a challenge. Not quite a "Half Dome", but certainly more than a "Nevada Falls." This is due to the fact that virtually the entire trail consists of switchbacks that allow one to move from the Valley Floor to the rim of the valley, all within the relatively short distance of 3 miles.

On Fiday morning, a group of us (all the Dads, boys and some of the girls) took off from our campsites, jumped on the free Valley Bus and got off at the Camp 4 bus stop. We began, what was to be a great adventure at about 10:20 AM.

I recalled seeing some descriptions of this hike as "moderate", or words to that effect. However, since this was "only" a hike of about 7 miles round-trip I didn't put enough emphasis on starting early. That was a mistake, to say the least.

As we sauntered across the Camp 4 parking lot and started on the trail, I looked over the map that was provided to use by the rangers at the entrance to the park. I could see that the first half of the hike appeared to be a series of swithcbacks, while the second part of the hike seemed a relatively straight section of trail. To say that the map was inaccurate is an understatement. I would come to regret not heeding our bus driver's warning, "this hike is tougher than Half Dome; at least it was for me."

In fact, the first part of the hike was a series of switchbacks through some oaks along the North side of the valley floor, just West of the Lower Falls tourist area discussed in an earlier version of this page.

Being fresh to the trail, this section seemed to go by at a reasonable pace. In fact, I hardly recall much about this portion of the hike at all. Relatively tame, in retrospect.

On this lower part of the trail, our moderately sized group broke into a couple of smaller groups, based on youth and fitness. Those of you who know me, know that I'm neither young, nor a paragon of fitness. So I was in the last group, along with one of the Dads, Jonathon. A fine group of two, were we.

As we worked up our way up the lower part of the trail, we came across several intesting people and sights. As we reached what I assume was Columbia Rock, we came across a group of tourists from Germany. At the same time, we also came across a small rattlesnake that was resting alongside the trail. The snake was resting in the shadow of a small oak tree shrub that was no more than 18 inches tall. I'm fairly confident that the snake thought that his hiding place was secure enough. In fact, it probably was, since I didn't see the snake until some other hiker pointed it out. Some pictures and video were grabbed, and off we went.

Just a few hundred yards up the trail, we caught back up to the German gentleman (who passed us up while we admired the view from Columbia Rock). He was resting in the shade of an oak tree when he informed us that there was yet another snake to be seen. He told us that the snake had just gon under the tree and that he had lost sight of the snake. This tree was on a small back alongside the trail and was actually sitting at a level about even with my shoulders.

As I came up to the tree for a closer look, my eye immediately rested on a moving band of colors. Red, yellow, black and white bands of colors moved in and out of the roots of the tree, as my mind tried to recall the old Boy Scout rhyme,

   "Red neck to yellow will kill a fellow, Red neck to black is a friend of Jack."

My mind raced, "Red, black, white... No, yellow... Red to black... friendly snake." It sems that this was a variety of King snake. King snakes are friendly. So off we continued.

It was bout this point that I caught my first sight of my daughter Annabel. She had fallen back a bit from the first group, but had decided to continue up the hill. Off she went.

At this point of the trail, we through we'd finished with the switchbacks. Indeed, the trail was relatively level, as we proceeded East along the valley wall, heading towards Yosemite Falls. I struck up a conversation with a young man from Holland named Stevan (I'm not sure of the spelling, but perhaps some nice dutch reader can forward a correction to me). We discussed his stay in the 'States. It seemed that he was enjoying a nice five week vacation across the US. After a few minutes of conversation, he went on ahead on the trail.

As the day went on, our trail was illuminated fully by the August sun. As the temperature reached the neighborhood of 92 degrees (F), I started to notice that I was reaching the bottom of my home-made backpack water bag. To make things worse, we had reached the second set of switchbacks. You know, the ones that were rendered as a faily straight line on our friendly, ranger-provided map.

"I'm sure this will only last for a short stretch," I told myself initially. But as I moved to a point where I could get a look up the side of the mountain, I could see that there would be many switchbacks to come.

It was at this point that we ran into our second Dutch freind. A lovely lady walked past Jonathon and me, stopped by a little dribble of a spring, got her hat wet, took a drink and proceeded up the trail as if it was a nice day at the park. Which it was.

More switchbacks. More stopping to catch my breath.

I appreciated Jonathon waiting and encouraging me up this part of the trail. My complete lack of conditioning was bginning to take its toll. We'd go up one leg of a switchback, take a couple of breaths and then go up the next leg. After two or three complete switchbacks, we'd take a two-to-three minute break.

About two thirds of the way up, we noticed our friend Stevan sitting, talking to some of his friends. He was getting tired and had decided to go back down the trail.

After a few more switchbacks, I saw Annabel coming down the trail.

"This trail is boring and just goes on forever," she stated, quite matter-of-factly. We spoke shortly, and we decided that she should go back down the trail and head to camp. I told her to keep an eye out for Stevan and his friends, and I saw her head down the trail.

A quiet man dressed in an orange shirt passed us going up the trail. What struck both Jonathan and me was that this man had nothing with him, in terms of water, food or any other trail supplies.

"I hope he makes it," I thought to myself.

About this time, I experienced the one thing that I dreaded the most: cramps.

About tree-fourths of the way up the trail, I ran out of water. I've often said that when I sweat, I'm practically taking a salt-water shower. When excercising, I sweat PROFUSELY. Knowing this, I was pretty good about taking in plenty of water. But by the three-fourths point, I'd gone through my 2 liters of water in the backpack pouch, and I'd gone through the water in my Lexan water bottle. In fact, earlier, I'd given some water to a stranded couple who looked a bit worse off than I, at the time. So as I stepped up the granite steps, my left quadricep began cramping up. My thoughts leapt to those sports drink commercials that feature the Iron Man competitor failing a few mere yards from the finish.

In addition to the water that I'd taken with me, I had also thrown in a couple of Granola bars and two apples. The Boy Scout hikes that I'd been on, were often apple-heavy for snacks since apples provide moisture and energy.

So I ate my second apple and took another two-minute break. I also began thinking about turning back. Fortunately, Jonathon gave a copious amount of encouragement and off we went. It turns out that the encouragement could not have been better placed nor timed. For after just two or three more switchbacks, we ran into a couple who were going down the hill. As Jonathon and I wondered when we'd see the rest of party coming down the hill, the lady we encountered, told us that our group was disussing whether to wait for us, or just head on down the hill. One more turn and there they were: our gang.

After a very short discussion, it was decided that the gang would head on down the moutain, except for our friend Larry. Larry volunteered to show us to the swimming hole atop the falls. We walked the last few hundred yards and came upon a beautful bridge that spanned the river that feeds Yosemite Falls.

We crossed the bridge and joined the various Dutch folks that we'd come across on our way up the trail. As we saw these people interact, the puzzle pieces began to fall into place.

Stevan had mentioned that he was spending his vacation with some other people from Holland. These were those people. The lady who passed us earlier, was sitting next to the man in the orange shirt. And two young people that we'd seen earlier were there two. The youngsters carried the bulk of the supplies, including the gentleman's water supplies.

After speaking with them, I found out that the gentleman and his children were the Wissink family and that they were being joined by Miss Jannsen (I hope I rememberd then names correctly).

The one thing that struck me was just how well these young kids (about 14-16 years old) spoke English. I was reminded of some recent war footage from Lebanon where a 5-7 year old girl was recounting the horrors and frustration of war in near perfect English. I'm often left wondering just why so few Americans ever even bother to attempt to learn a second language. Where's our sense of wonder and curiosity?

Our Dutch friends were enjoying the pools/ swimming hole, as was Larry. It seems that Larry just can't resist a pool of water, and so jumped right in. Jonathon followed, and I went to the water's edge and began filtering some drinking water. I'd brought my filter knowing that I'd have to opportunity to "make" water at some point or another. This was that point. So I pumped a liter into the lexan container and began to drink it down.

I passed the filter to the Wissinks and they refilled their water containers, while I finally jumped in the pool. After a few minutes, I got out and fought off a chipmunk for my last Granola bar.

After a few more minutes of frolicking in the water, we began to pack up and headed back across the bridge to the lookout point atop Yosemite Falls.

So, far I've refrained from discussing the vistas and scenery that I encountered along the way. I could take hundreds of photos and hours of video and not be able to convey the beauty, grandeur and majesty of the Yosemite Valley. Most people have seen various Ansel Adams photographic masterpieces of Yosemite. I would only like to say, that as beautiful as those images are, they don't do justice to the beauty which nature has so graciously provided. So, although you may see some images on this site, the locations from which the images were taken must be visited in person to truly appreciate the beauty they try to capture.

After a few minutes atop the lookout point, our friend Larry decided he was going to take off for camp at a rapid rate. It was Larry's night to cook dinner, and Larry is not one to disappoint. I later heard that when Larry arrived back at camp, he was sweating as much as I was on this hike. It sems that he literally ran down the trail in order to prepare what was a pretty good dinner. Sorry I missed it.

Our trek down the mountain had a different challenge. Jonathon's knee suffers from many years of atheltic abuse: football, rugby and basketball. Common injuries for a tall man such as Jonathon.

A second problem is that, over the years, this trail has been "improved" by the addition of granite steps and cobblestones. Generally, they allow for more stable footing. But they bring additional challenges and drawbacks of their own.

On the way up the trail, these steps contributed greatly to my cramping. Imaging climbing the steps of a 2300 foot tall building. That's about 230 flights of stairs. Discouting the portions of the trail that did not have true steps installed, there were still over 50 flights of true steps that were to be climbed.

On the portions of the trail where granite was used as cobblestones, a different challenge was encountered: sand. The walls of the Yosemite Valley are made of granite. As nature wears down the granite, it crushes down to sand which covers the granite steps and cobbles. Where sand covers granite, one expereinces something similar to a sheet of rough ice. Although some traction is available, generally, one has to tread carefully to avoid slipping.

Lastly, while the steps and cobbles provide for a relatively even, if slippery surface, the granite is harder on joints than good ole dirt. So, for Jonathon, walking down the steps and cobbles put a great deal of pressure and pain on his knee. The trail down proved to be slow going.

On the way down, I had set some points on the trail as milestones. The first was the end of the upper set of switchbacks. The second was Columbia Rock. As we came to these points, our morale improved, since we knew that we were making progress down the hill.

As we worked our way down, we began to lose our daylight. Still we plugged along down the upper set of switchbacks until we came to the short, but relatively level portion of the trail. Here, the trail was, in fact, mostly soil and we were able to make good time, until we reached Columbia Rock.

As we left Columbia Rock, the sun passed below the horizon. We continued, and came to the lower set of switchbacks. Combined with the diminishing light, these switchbacks proved one last challenge.

I always try to take the Scout motto, "Be Prepared" seriously. But today, I let overconfidence get in the way of common sense. As I had assembled my daypack, I left out my flashlight. In camp, I'd been using one of those large, square battery, runs forever flashlights. I figured to save the weight, since this was to be a "short" hike.

So as we walked down the swithbacks, I mentioned to Jonathon that I did not look forward to climbing down the mountain "by braille."

   "Why? You have a flashlight, dont you?" asked Jonathon. As we had passed late starters coming UP the trail as we were going down, I asked hikers if they'd planned for the darkness. Now, that question, was coming back to haunt me.

Just as our prospects seemed as dim as the ambient light, I noticed that the slope of the swithcbacks began to ease. We couldn't see the Camp 4 parking lot any longer and we couldn't see any more switchbacks.

Finally, we reached the trail that runs along the base of the Valley wall, and we moved, gingerly across the parking lot to the bus stop, where we'd catch a ride back to camp.

We had begun our hike about 10:20 AM and we'd finished about 8:20 PM. Ten hours. I'm sure that's a record for the longest one-day traversing of the Upper Yosemite Falls trail.

I had considered standing on the bus, since standing up after resting on the trail had become a bit of a chore. But as I got on the bus, the empty seat I saw proved too inviting. I did, however, pity the tourists who grabbed the seats next to me. I'm sure ten hours of sweat didn't smell quite as sweet as some of the flowers and plants we'd come across on the trail.

As we got back to camp, I tried to eat something, but couldn't. It's ironic that my love of epicurean delights, which had led to some of my troubles that day, was, in fact, supressed by the effects of the hike, itself.

Having had a few days to think about things, I'm determined to make this hike again. But, this time I'll be ready.

Stay tuned.....