On the Saturday of July 24, 2010, my wife and I embarked on our first hike together. Of course we have been on long walks through local parks that the obese might classify as a hike, but nothing that really got the heart going. Anyway, during that mid-summer weekend, we were spending time with her family at a cabin in Groveland , CA where we visited nearby Yosemite National Park
Upon arrival to Yosemite , we were not prepared to do any hiking. To clarify, we knew we were going on a hike, but preparation was not in our vocabulary for this visit. It was 90+ degrees outside, I was wearing temperature increasing apparel (jeans and a black shirt), my wife wearing shoes that might as well have been sandals, we both had empty stomachs, and we only brought one 16oz. bottle of water. With all of that said, we said “screw it, lets hike.” We also eventually said…“we’re not very smart.”
We decided to hike to the top of Vernal Falls
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| Vernal Falls on July 24, 2010 |
So about our Cloud’s Rest hike…
We woke up at 4am and left our East Bay house just before 5am arriving at the Cloud’s Rest trailhead in Yosemite at 8:30am. The parking lot for the trailhead is on the west end of Tenaya Lake and is labeled “Sunrise
About 30 yards into the hike we approached the Tenaya Lake
At this point, we were absolutely miserable and even debated whether we should just notch this one in the loss column and head to the village and do a less strenuous hike or possible go home. I made one last effort to analyze the situation. I saw another man who was also planning on hiking Cloud’s Rest confirming I was at the right location. He informed me that the Tenaya Lake
By now, it was 9am and we accepted the fact that crossing the cold water with a canoe was not an option. We removed our shoes and socks and took the plunge. About 30 seconds later, we reached the other side getting attacked by the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes didn’t appear to be leaving any time soon, but we thought that if we hiked at a quick pace it might reduce the amount of bites we receive. Fortunately, the first couple of miles are relatively flat and we were able to get through it pretty quick. But still…my arms, legs, face, neck, and scalp were getting abused by bug bites. We had read that this part is the easiest part of the hike considering the flat trail, but nowhere did we see mention of the mosquitoes. Factor the mosquitoes in and it was probably the hardest for us to endure.
We heard that the second part of the trail is the most strenuous of the hike. It involves a series of switchbacks for a mile covering a thousand feet of elevation gain. While the mosquitoes were definitely at their worst for the first couple of miles of the hike, they were still around for the next mile of switchbacks. With that said, we continued on at the same rapid pace to try and escape the bug bites. This actually kept our mind off the rigorous climb through this part of the trail. Thanks for the help you winged spawns!
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Bug bites on my arms the next morning |
...“"Tenaya" is apparantly the Native American word for "lake with millions of mosquitos". The lower portions of the trail were blanketed with the bugs, who laughed at my DEET coating and made the early and late hours of the trip a miserable experience.” From a hikers blog entry on Fedak.net
“Sunrise Lake
At the top of the switchbacks, we arrived at the Sunrise Lakes
After this leisurely portion of the hike ended (despite mud and snow), we started to climb Cloud’s Rest. This involves hiking an incline, but not as steep as the earlier part that had switchbacks. The issue we faced was our poor visibility of the trail since it was covered in snow. At this point, breathing also started to become an issue. We were touching close to 10,000 feet in elevation and the air was thin.
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| Beginning of Cloud's Rest Foot Trail |
Approaching three hours into our hike, we reached a sign that read “Cloud’s Rest Foot Trail.” This foot trail consisted of a narrow ridge that has sheer drop-offs on each side. It looked like something out of one of those Lord of The Rings movies and I was under the impression that I was supposed to throw my wedding ring over the edge. Out of the few people that we saw hiking the trail with us, one lady didn’t want to continue past the Foot Trail sign fearing she would plummet to her death. What a bummer considering she hiked all that way not to experience the view at the top.
Speaking of crowds, Cloud’s Rest had by far the least amount of people I have seen on any trail in Yosemite . I find this surprising because it arguably offers the best view in the park. I hypothesized that the 15 mile length scares people away from hiking it, but this doesn’t explain the masses that flock to Half Dome (17 mile round trip hike) every day to the point where a high-demand permit is required to reach the top. Each person we had spoken to on our hike said that the view from Cloud’s Rest is definitely superior to the view offered from the top of Half Dome.
Since Half Dome IS (not HAS) one of the best views OF (not IN) the Yosemite landscape and often symbolizes the beauty of the national park, this often attracts “checklist tourists” – people that want to visit a place with the sole intention of being able to take a picture and say “yeah I’ve been there/done that” without actually absorbing in the experience. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Half Dome and I have a permit to hike it in September, but I shouldn’t have to have a permit because so many people think it’s the only trail that exists and/or is worthy of hiking in Yosemite. I’m just waiting for the day when they replace the Half Dome cables with an escalator when some fat guy sues for not being able to make it up on his own strength. No, I don’t drive a Prius and this isn’t my inner hippy talking, but I don’t like seeing something that is a piece of nature becoming a carnival attraction. I shouldn’t complain because it was nice to have a peaceful and quiet hike to the top of Cloud’s Rest...and I’m not letting the secret out, no one reads this blog.
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| View from about 10,000 feet in elevation |
Once we were at the top of Cloud’s Rest, we ate our lunch and enjoyed the 360 degree panoramic view…which included seeing close to 100 people waiting in line to scale the Half Dome cables. A few yellow-bellied marmots made an appearance and that startled my wife. The only marmot she knows of is the one in the Big Lebowski….justifiable fear, The marmots didn’t bother us for food or anything, unlike the bastard squirrels at the top of Vernal Falls (who were probably introduced to human food by the checklist tourists on their way to Half Dome).
After an hour of lounging on top of Cloud’s Rest, we started our descent down. As it did to go up, it also took 3 hours to make our way down to the car. It was definitely a tiring journey back with the mid afternoon sun beaming down, but we had plenty of water to prevent us from dehydration. Unfortunately those mosquitoes were waiting for us on the way back to our car.
