#Clouds rest to half dome how to

Have I mentioned that I didn’t know these three guys all that well? It’s normal to go backpacking with three dudes you don’t really know super well, right? YOLO.

I got to sit next to Miles, who only proved himself to be just that perfect combination of chill, humble, and funny that I’d though the was. We ate some mediocre sandwiches and fries and then hopped aboard the YARTS bus up to Tuolumne. Thank u blessed ranger for letting us through!Īfter stashing the car, we did a final gear check and then caught a shuttle over to the main visitor center area of the valley. We finagled our way through some blocked off roads east of Curry Half Dome Village, telling the ranger we were backpacking and wanted to leave our car at the Happy Isles parking lot. We picked up our permit at the Big Oak Flat entrance before driving down into the valley proper. We drove from Oakland down to Yosemite Valley on a sunny Saturday, stopping for mango chili lollipops at a gas station in the central valley and encountering the usual high-season traffic driving into the park. I role-played bus driver skittering around Oakland picking up my three hiking companions and squeezing them into my little Honda Fit. Oakland to Yosemite Valley to Tuoulumne Meadows

#Clouds rest to half dome how to

We also visited my favorite campsite on Echo Creek, where we saw a pair of bears! I am still learning how to gauge how much people who aren’t used to backpacking can do comfortably, and this trip was a learning experience for me in that vein. This trip was the second trip of the summer with relative newbies who I’d met through DSA, and we took a classic route in Yosemite from Tuolomne to the Valley via Cathedral Lakes and Clouds Rest. In 2018 I vowed to introduce as many friends, acquaintances, and friends of friends as possible to backpacking, with the hope of spreading the gospel of Leave No Trace and helping it propagate.