martinlittle.com:thinkThin

So, I kind of skipped over a bit last week. On Monday, I headed over to our Dublin (California) office, then zoomed to the airport to collect Debbie who was on holiday. We headed into SF, and I sorted out my hotel for the night at the Edward II, down in the Marina district, on Debbie's recommendation (the first of quite a few great tips!). Normally I stay over by Union Square, but it was really nice to be in a different part of town, with a less touristy feel to it.

After dumping my stuff, Debbie took me to Pluto's, which was fantastic. Quality food, served up swiftly and cooked before your eyes. No messing with gazillion-item menus, just some solid food. Then we went to bowling (the one I had so much fun trying to find last time). My role was to ... relax and give the others encouragement, which I did pretty well, in between beers.

That ended at about 9.30 or so, which meant there was still plenty of time for having another beer or two. To cut a long story short, I started at a bar across the street, Marina Sports Bar, then went to another bar whose name I forget(!) before getting home in the wee hours.

Tuesday started, ahem, kind of late, and with the DPT giving me a parking ticket on my car. Woops. After another laundrette visit (running stuff), I lunched at Bechelli's (thanks once again, Debbie!) then set off for Yosemite.

The drive in took me just over five hours, seeing as I managed to hit some rush hour traffic. When I got to Yosemite Village I looked for a room, but there were none available, so I was told to try Curry Village and the canvas cabins there, which is exactly what I did (in fact, I think I secretly wanted to stay in a cabin instead of a regular room...). The huts were very basic, but for my requirements, perfect. I'm guessing maybe one or perhaps even two of you may struggle to believe that I was actually fully prepared for the eventuality, but there you go: I had plenty of bottled water, two torches (there was no light around the camp), my camping/computer repair Swiss Army tool and waterless soap; all set!

Sidenote: For many years, since my family first went to Florida back in the mid-80s(?) I've been reading books by Patrick F. McManus. His books are amusing, short stories about the outdoors; nothing too taxing or Pulitzer Prize winning, but fun. On Tuesday night, I lay in my canvas cabin and read a few short stories, which made me smile.

Now, in Yosemite, there are between 300-500 black bears. We are in their environment. EVERYWHERE there are big signs about being bear aware, and when I signed for my cabin there was a separate page I had to sign saying I fully understood the message, which was pretty simple: don't leave ANY food or cosmetics in your car overnight, but use the provided bear box. Without someone standing beside you all the time, that point really couldn't be any more re-enforced. Dutifully, I removed everything from my car, even down to chewing gum. Here is some good, practical, down-to-earth advice for avoiding bears.

For some reason, the family staying in the cabin across from me did not heed this warning and left fish and beer, both bear favourites, in their car. Naturally, when you tempt fate like that, it often takes the bait. A bear pitched up and tore their car apart... At 3.03am a ranger came round and told someone to immediately come with him. The impression I got was that the car was ruined. My sleep was not aided by the knowledge bears were actually a hundred metres from my canvas tent!

On Wednesday morning I filled my mighty Camelbak and headed off for some trekking, having been told that the trails weren't really ideal for running. The walk I had planned took much less time than I expected, when I caught up with Brent and Jess from Chino (close to LA). They were shooting for Half Dome, kind of the toughest hike in Yosemite, I think. My guidebook said the trip was a two day affair, but Brent and Jess had heard it was three hours to get there, so we went for it.

Without boasting too much, I'm certainly in the best physical shape I've been in for a long time, certainly in my adult life. Brent and Jess were not quite as up to it as I, and towards the end I was carrying all the bags in an effort for us to make it to the top. It took us 4.5 hours to get to a plateau before the base of the climb (another hour) and I didn't fancy attempting to descend in darkness, so we stopped there. Next time I'll hit the top, and I do reckon it is a decent one-day trek, not two days. Here's some more opinions on the subject. Wish I'd found this site before going...

My descent was a LOT of fun. The Camelbak was almost empty, and I'd eaten my food, so there was very little weight on my back. It felt like the time for running had come, so that's what I did, for as much as I could safely(ish) do. That was really a thrill, zooming down boulder strewn, loose dirt paths with heavy tree cover in late afternooon sunlight. In 90 minutes I was back at the car, which was good, as I wanted to get out the park before darkness, given the switchback nature of highway 120.

During my entire trek, my GPS watch was on, but it kept losing the satellites due to tree cover, so the picture is not very good at all, but here it is, for what it's worth.

The drive back took me just over four hours, after which I emptied my car into my room at the Chancellor Hotel, went to Johnny Foleys for a few pints of Guinness, then came back and packed.

If you plan to go to Yosemite, this site seems to be by people who are regulars and know the deal, with good feedback by others. Read it before you go and make the most of your time; it would have affected my time, definitely. Tomorrow I should have some photos posted of the incredible views.

One very cool thing to note was that a man by the name of John Muir was incredibly influential in having Yosemite recognised as a National Park, and, in fact, in huge amounts of other conservation. He was originally from Scotland, which made trekking around Yosemite special for me.