Miles hiked: 10ish
Oh my god, Yosemite Valley and Half Dome are AMAZING!!!...when you get rid of all the people. Lol. We went to Halfdome with no permits in hopes that the ranger would let us up anyways because we're PCT hikers, or maybe I could just sweet talk him into letting us up. When we got there, he let us up with our PCT thru-hiker permits. STOKED!! We got there at a great time, because on the way down it was sooooo crowded! If anyone wants to do Halfdome make sure you are on the cables before 10am or it is a complete clusterf*ck of humanity up there. Lol. It was a fun experience! I got pics of us at the base of the cables, one of me at the top, the view of the crowd coming back down, and Kyle and I at the trail junction after we pau. I think the view from Cloudsrest was way cooler than half dome though.
Today's hiking was incredibly beautiful, as the pics dictate. But oh my god Yosemite Valley was sooooo crowded. It was ridiculous!! I was irritated. So was Kyle; I didn't even have to look at him to know what he was thinking. Multiple times throughout the day we were both fantasizing ways we can take out the crowds with our hiking poles. Lol. in all seriousness though, it's not that we're self-entitled assholes (well, maybe we are, a bit), but it was such a juxtaposition of us being on the PCT where you rarely saw people, to these trails in Yosemite valley that was littered with people. It literally felt like I was in line for a ride at Disneyland or something. Kind of a bummer how we were at one of the most beautiful places in the world and it was crowded as all hell. But I suppose that's how it is around a holiday.
It took us forever to get to Curry Village in Yosemite valley, because there were so many people on trail and it was painfully slow-going. But we got there *just* in time to take the bus back toward Tuolumne Meadows, which is on the other side of Yosemite. YAY! :)
We ended up taking the bus to Lee Vining which is a *tiny* town due east of Yosemite. The whole reason we went was for the Whoa Nellie Deli at the Tioga Mobile gas station. The guy that gave us a ride from Independence to Bishop a couple weeks ago was absolutely raving about it. So we went. It definitely lived up to our expectations. It was nuts, we got there and there were about 300 people all over the place on the lawn, eating. Where did everyone come from?!? Lol. The mango margaritas there were AMAZING!!! Oh my god, I'll be dreaming about them for a long time to come. Lol. The food was frickin epic too. There was also a live band there, that was cool! I took a pic of that. I dunno how to describe this place really. It's one of those places where you *must* stop if you're in the area.
Random encounter! I saw Rem, another PCT hiker there! I last saw him in Big Bear. Him and his wife offered to drive us around to look for lodging. Thanks Rem! We ended up staying at the El Mono Motel. It was rad, like a motel from the 20s or something. I was stoked to get a shower and decompress.
Oddly enough, neither of us slept much. Ok, so for those of you who don't know me in person, I'm kind of weird in a quirky/eccentric way. So is Kyle in a more nerdy way. The past couple of days we had an idea of making wizard suits out of tyvek to wear while hiking, when we got to Washington. I think we were both up til about 2am brainstorming about our wizard suits. We decided that we are going to make them out of the USPS priority mail/express mail envelopes because 1)they're free, and 2)they're colored and not solid white, so Kyle won't look like a kkk member. O.o. Kyle wants to draw stars and put LED lights on his wizard suit. I want to draw ninja faces and ballerinas on my wizard suit. Not sure on the shape of the sleeve. Bell shaped or regular? Hmmmm... The good thing is we have a *long* time to design and think about it. So by the time we get to Washington we will look badass.
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