The HIKE

As I packed up all of my gear I began thinking about what an amazing journey I had had with Team in Training. I trained 5 months for the hike I was about to embark on and as it turns out hiked more than 125 miles during that time. I discovered amazing State Parks that are within an hours distance from my home, which I probably never would have ventured to if not for Team in Training. Most importantly, I discovered what I was really in this for. It wasn't about the prestige of hiking half dome, as it was for some. For me, it was about the commitment to the cause. I joined a team to do something good for someone else. This was not about me, which is partly why I chose not to hike half dome.

While I know I could have hiked half dome, I felt it was best left for me to do on my own someday rather than potentially slow down a team of people who had worked so hard. That, and midway through the season my friend and hiking buddy, Chryssa, discovered she was pregnant! Excellent news, but her doctor did not want her climbing half dome! So, we ended up choosing Dewey Point, which is about 10 miles, with an elevation change of 1300 feet up and then 2000 feet down.

And now for the hike weekend itself!

Friday, June 19

Friday morning I gathered all of my gear and headed down the Peninsula via public transit to the now very familiar San Bruno BART Station, where Chryssa picked me up. After about a 4 hour drive in blazing heat and a few bathroom stops along a mostly deserted "highway," we arrived out our hotel, which was just outside of Yosemite. We got checked in and then decided to do a nice short hike near the hotel. We did the "nature" trail and then some, about 4 miles total. We definitely noticed the elevation difference, so we were glad we were not hiking Dewey Point on the day of our arrival. We definitely needed some time to acclimate.

After returning from our hike, we washed up and headed to Inspiration Dinner, where all the teams throughout the country gathered and we heard from some of our honorees. One story in particular brought me back to why we were all really there. The honoree told the story of how her sister had died from blood cancer when she was little and how several years later she herself was diagnosed with the exact same form of blood cancer. Frightening indeed, but it is amazing how far research has come. I'm proud to say that she had just finished up her 12th round of chemotherapy, graduated from college, and was actually doing a hike with the team!!

After dinner we met our hike guide, Colby, (who incidentally has the exact same first and middle name as my nephew, and looked like a grown up version of him), and the rest of our hike group, which consisted of 7 people – one of the smallest hike groups for the event, and the only one hiking Dewey Point.
Saturday, June 20

We awoke at around 4:45 am on Saturday, early, yes, but not 2 am early, which is the time the half dome group had to get up. Another sigh of relief for not doing half dome! We met our guide and group in the lobby at 5:45 am, piled in the van and an hour later arrived at the trailhead on Glacier Point Road. There were still some patches of snow on the ground, but fortunately we had great weather that day. It had been stormy for three weeks straight; our hike weekend was perfect weather mid-70's.

We set off at a brisk pace that quickly took us through meadows of wildflowers. The first mile or so was relatively flat and we breezed through it, but after that the trail began to quickly ascend into a more forested area. We followed rolling hills up for about three miles or so and as we went our guide told us stories about the early days of Yosemite and gave us a customary biology lesson. We were fortunate that our guide was a trained biologist and gave us great insight into the flowers and trees of Yosemite. Not only did he point out flowers such as the bright red snow flower, but he knew so much about the flower. We kept walking along through the forest for sometime then it seemed so suddenly that the forest gave way and we were standing on the edge of a cliff looking down at the entire Yosemite Valley. We had made it to Dewey Point, the first of three points.

As we looked out straight ahead of us we could see El Capitan, further to our right we could see Half Dome, so very small from where we stood. Bridalveil Falls cascaded below and snow capped mountains soared in the distance. The world seemed so very large and I felt so very small overlooking the Valley. After taking many photos and snaking on our guide's M&Ms, we moved onward and upward to Crocker Point. Crocker Point was just as amazing as Dewey Point and afforded us an even more amazing view of the falls. We stopped near Inspiration Point for lunch and discovered that Inspiration Point was far from inspiring, it had been overgrown for many years and there was little to see.

After lunch, the trail moved into a steep downhill grade. Some of my fellow hikers had a more difficult time with the downhill and we stopped a bit more to let their knees rest. In the last mile or so we could tell that we were nearing the end of our hike because we started to see people for the first time all day. We eventually worked our way down and ended our 10 mile hike in the parking lot next to the Wawona Tunnel at around 1:30 pm.
After the hike and the obligatory shoe change (yes, I carried flip-flops in my backpack the whole hike just so I could free my feet after hiking), we drove into the Valley to check in team in training, this is when we discovered we were the very first people to finish hiking that day. We also discovered that it was a good thing we hiked Dewey Point - the park was insane and the Valley was covered with people, as luck would have it this weekend the park was offering free admission, so all of the well known trails were far too crowded. Even our guide said he'd never seen that many people at Yosemite Lodge.
That evening, we had a Celebration Dinner at the hotel. We drank, we danced (yes, I looked like a fool out on the dance floor), we ate, and we reveled in the accomplishments of the day. The final Half Dome hikers returned to the hotel at 10:30 pm, they had been hiking for 16 hours (again a sigh of relief for not hiking half dome) as their vans drew near, the rest of the 89 team members lined up outside to cheer them on.

The sense of community as we yelled and cheered was astounding. I'm sure the other hotel patrons wished we would quite down, but there was too much excitement and energy to let the accomplishments of the day pass without proper applause. We continued to dance and dance until midnight, and then crashed until the next morning when we returned to reality.