Hiking in Yosemite
Yesterday was a good day, until I got back to the house.
I went out hiking with my dad all day. We drove out to california and went hiking in Yosemite. We hiked about 5 miles roundtrip...we went to the top of a small mountain. It was really neat...somewhere near the top the trail ended and all there was to climb was solid granite...so we climbed up through it to get all the way to the top. It was very scary because on one side of us was a very steep sheer cliff all the way to the bottom and the part we were climbing was steep but slanted towards the top of the granite mound. Somewhere very near the top I got really scared and slightly sick feeling (almost like motion sickness, but for heights) and I decided to stop. My dad kept climbing to get to the top over the ledge just next to me and soon disapeared. I sat down on the slightly flat place I had found and regained myself again. Then a few minutes later I realized how much I would hate myself to get this close to the top and not actually look around from the summit...so I forced myself to get up and I began climbing up the rock ledge, deciding that I just wasn't going to look back at the slope of granite behind me.
That granite slope was very scary because I knew one wrong step and I'd be sliding off the mountain and that's the reason I stopped initially. But I'm really glad I forced myself to go on, even though I was afraid. Even at the top, I was very afraid of slipping to my untimely death, but the view was so awesome that it was worth the fear. I took a couple of pictures and then my dad and I climbed back down.
I kept hoping the whole time that we would see a black bear; I really like bears, and the tour guide book said that bears run wild in the woods. But I did not get so lucky yesterday as to see one.
Then as we were coming back down the mountain pass that we had to drive through just to get to the park, it started snowing. It snowed there the day before too which is why my dad and I didn't try to spend the whole weekend there hiking and camping. Camping in the snow is no fun. Getting stuck on the top of a mountain until the pass thaws would have sucked even more. At the top of the mountain we climbed we were about 10,000 feet up, so it was hard to breathe there...but as we came back down the mountain we were glad we left the park when we did--we almost started on another hike, but neither of us liked the way the clouds looked that were rolling in very quickly.
And if I hadn't had to come home to argue with my mother for like the 50th time since I've been here, it would have been a great day.
I went out hiking with my dad all day. We drove out to california and went hiking in Yosemite. We hiked about 5 miles roundtrip...we went to the top of a small mountain. It was really neat...somewhere near the top the trail ended and all there was to climb was solid granite...so we climbed up through it to get all the way to the top. It was very scary because on one side of us was a very steep sheer cliff all the way to the bottom and the part we were climbing was steep but slanted towards the top of the granite mound. Somewhere very near the top I got really scared and slightly sick feeling (almost like motion sickness, but for heights) and I decided to stop. My dad kept climbing to get to the top over the ledge just next to me and soon disapeared. I sat down on the slightly flat place I had found and regained myself again. Then a few minutes later I realized how much I would hate myself to get this close to the top and not actually look around from the summit...so I forced myself to get up and I began climbing up the rock ledge, deciding that I just wasn't going to look back at the slope of granite behind me.
That granite slope was very scary because I knew one wrong step and I'd be sliding off the mountain and that's the reason I stopped initially. But I'm really glad I forced myself to go on, even though I was afraid. Even at the top, I was very afraid of slipping to my untimely death, but the view was so awesome that it was worth the fear. I took a couple of pictures and then my dad and I climbed back down.
I kept hoping the whole time that we would see a black bear; I really like bears, and the tour guide book said that bears run wild in the woods. But I did not get so lucky yesterday as to see one.
Then as we were coming back down the mountain pass that we had to drive through just to get to the park, it started snowing. It snowed there the day before too which is why my dad and I didn't try to spend the whole weekend there hiking and camping. Camping in the snow is no fun. Getting stuck on the top of a mountain until the pass thaws would have sucked even more. At the top of the mountain we climbed we were about 10,000 feet up, so it was hard to breathe there...but as we came back down the mountain we were glad we left the park when we did--we almost started on another hike, but neither of us liked the way the clouds looked that were rolling in very quickly.
And if I hadn't had to come home to argue with my mother for like the 50th time since I've been here, it would have been a great day.
posted by AeroAangel at 15:25
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