Day 9: Monday September 23
Yosemite Valley to Half Dome and back.

 In the wee hours, car doors slammed, voices, lights, people starting on the trailhead EARLY! We finally dragged ourselves up at 5:30am after a surprisingly restful, albeit short, sleep. Slowly searching our chaotic car, we managed to dress, pack, and hit the trail by 6:15am in the dark. It was COLD! Glad I wore a few layers we started the incline of the Mist Trail to Half Dome (16.4 miles round trip and 4800 vertical feet). We passed Vernal Falls in the early morning light, racing the sunlight down the mountainsides surrounding us. Knowing that much of the day would be in the blazing sun, I was glad to be in the shade, but still longed for just a bit of warmth from those rays. Soon enough.

We passed Nevada falls going up up up granite steps the whole way. This first few miles of the trip is pretty darn steep. After some more incline after the falls is a few miles of flat through a sandy meadow along a river before the forested switchbacks start. Half Dome looked really far away…and really high up from the meadow. But up up up we went and soon the subdome loomed through the trees. The first rays of the sun were blessedly warm; soon after, warmth became HEAT.

The granite steps of the subdome gain a ton of elevation in a few hundred feet. We met an older couple clambering up the steps who had started at 3:30am, almost 3 hours before us! What troopers. Then came our view of the famed Cables. To help hikers get up the last 400 vertical feet of Half Dome are two parallel cables strung about 4 feet off the rock face with a wooden slat about every 10 feet. Gloves required. In pictures of my brother’s ascents up the face, I saw a steady stream of people up the cables. Last year, however, the park limited climbers to 300 per day, hence the permit. I was super glad of this because I wanted to go at my own pace and not feel pressured/crowded by everyone else. We trucked up the cables, telling myself not to look down and not to freak out, and stood on the summit, 5000+ feet above the valley floor below with an amazing view of the rocky domes, mountains and slopes surrounding us. 

Truly stunning; nowhere in the world like it. 

Feeling super sleepy, I laid down and napped before snapping some pictures (including some with my football from the Panthers team) and heading down.

About halfway down, my right knee started to twinge, then hurt, then give me a good kick whenever I didn’t baby it enough. Thankfully Bry's knees were also hurting as well as his hip so he didn't mind the slow pace as much as he would have. It ended up taking 4:45 hours to ascend and about the same coming down.

A quick drive towards the park entrance led to an open campsite at Wawona Campground and for $20 bucks fee plus ibuprofen/advil for the knee, earplugs for the highway noise and chirpy bugs, eye mask to keep out the light, Sleep-Eze (just in case exhaustion isn't enough), exhaustion, air mattress and cozy sleeping bag, I slept for almost 12 hours and Bry did too. Praise the Lord; we needed that sleep so badly!