This is from a trip Mary and I took to Yosemite.
We camped in Little Yosemite Valley in the backcountry. We had one of the park’s bear resistant food containers but the bear decided that dropping by unannounced for dessert was just easier for all parties involved. Naturally, when we reported the bear to the backcountry ranger she made us feel like dumb tenderfoots. “Yell, throw rocks, shoo the bear away,” I think were her pearls of wisdom. NO WAY am I going to annoy a wild animal larger than a slavering mastiff. Hunger pangs beat real fangs in me.
This picture on the right is of Mary and me in front of the ascension cables on Half Dome.
This is looking down from the cables to the saddle on the north side of Half Dome.
Looks fantastic, Norm. I was lucky enough to visit Yosemite a few years ago and loved every minute I spent there. I stayed in a motel just outside the park though, so was untroubled by bears…
K
It is fantastic. It’s a great hike along the Mist Trail to Little Yosemite Valley and from there on to Half Dome. The hike can be done in a day. It’s about a 20 mile round trip hike. Worth the blisters.
I’d much rather look at your photos of bears and scary climbs than see them first hand. Thank you for letting me experience them by proxy. I dread to think what’s at the top of the ascension cables – I guess a truly frightening view.
Lexi,
You’ll just have to wait until next weekend to see the view form the top.
The first time I hiked to Half Dome I saw those cables and decided that while I could go up, I would not like coming down. My companions went up and I stayed down in the saddle. I sat about 15-20 minutes just resting and taking in the scenery when a stoop-shouldered elderly couple came down the cables and tottered past me. That did it. If they could do it. I could do it. Up I went. I met my open-mouthed friends and said, “Better take my picture now, I figure it’ll take me an hour to get down those things.”
Of course, I slipped and fell to my death and they laughed uproariously.