An Epic Journey, A Modern Quest Part 2

We woke up around dinnertime. If you didn’t know this about me already, you should: I really only take 3 hour naps. And it seems as though it’s rubbed off on Megan. ☺ We awoke rested and rejuvenated, but, unfortunately, it was STILL raining. We went and got dinner at the cafeteria style dining where we recalled events of the day and laughed heartily. Being in Yosemite was refreshing and allowed each of us to truly relax and just enjoy life as it was happening around us. A woman at the table next to us commented: “It’s so nice to hear such joyous laughter!” Did she mean my hyena laugh? Sweet. From there we went to the Ahwahnee Hotel, which is where Megan worked the summer that she stayed at Yosemite. This is one classy hotel. Actually, the juxtaposition it is extremely bizarre to me, this luxurious hotel ($450/room/night minimum) is situated in the valley amidst camping areas and hiking trails and our little tent cabins. Regardless, it was a cool place. The dining room looks like the one at Hogwarts. We ended up in the bar listening to live piano with a glass of port and a slice of cheesecake. That is The Life. Interestingly, when the pianist took a break he came up to chat with us—Megan was wearing a UGA Ultimate hoodie that I sold her (to raise money for my team) and this guy actually had attended school in Atlanta. He ended up chatting it up with us for a little while and talking all about how this was the best poppy season in years, and that we should be sure to take a gander at them on our way home. He loved that we were from San Francisco. On his days off, he usually drives to the city (a mere 4 hours…). Nearing the end of our drinks and dessert we heard rumors of a weather change: snow in the morning in the valley. The last thing we wanted was to be stuck there and miss work on Monday—that happened on our trip to Atlanta just a few weeks ago! The report said snow would fall in the valley around 11 am Sunday morning—though the concierge seemed a little skeptical about the report, he thought that it would fall sooner. We left the hotel and realized that the temperature had dropped significantly, and, not to worry, it was STILL raining. At this point it was dark. Megan and I briefly entertained the idea of driving home that evening, but then realized that would be more ridiculous and more dangerous. So we played a round of cribbage—no skunking! And then we fell asleep.

I awoke confused around 4 am. I could not figure out why I had woken up. I lay there for a few minutes, and then I heard an odd sound: no loud rain drops, instead soft ones—hardly raindrops at all! Then I heard the sound that must have caught my attention despite my sleeping: a loud sliding sound from our canvas roof down the side of the canvas walls. Megan awoke. I realized that it must be snow! I announced my revelation, and together we layered ourselves and cautiously opened the door. At 4 am, everything was already dusted in 2-3 inches of snow. Megan groaned with disappointment (she feared getting home) while I laughed with glee! I love snow!!! We decided to venture to the bathroom, potentially the other reason that we both awoke. It was gorgeous; the snow was still coming down full force. We had planned to get up early to miss the mini blizzard, but clearly that was no longer possible. I turned off my alarm and we settled back into our sleeping bags comfortably. Around 9 am people around us started stirring. I was so anxious to see how much snow had fallen; Megan was anxious as well, but in an entirely different way. I opened the door to discover a good 4-5 inches on our stairs, and we were under tree cover. A good 6-8 inches had probably fallen! In the bathroom, I managed to wash my hairs and dry my face, but Megan had already sprinted (so it seemed) back to the tent to begin packing up. By the time I got there, she was headed out the door to investigate the car. I packed up most of the rest of our things and ventured to the car. I got there and found that my car had a high and tight haircut, but Megan was nowhere to be found. So, I took out my camera and started enjoying the scene. The snow was coming down full-force. I got my camera out just in time as Megan came back with the last load from the tent.






She didn’t even consider breakfast as we headed for the park entrance. I made her slow down for a few shots though. I have several more pictures that I took with my SLR, but I have yet to get those developed. As we approached the park exit, we saw a ranger vehicle, and we saw the sign: “Chains Required or Snow Tires and 4-Wheel drive OK”. We rolled down the window and he explained that we would have to go back to the “garage” to buy chains and have them installed before we would be allowed to leave. I loved the excitement of it all. Plus, Megan had rushed and not allowed me to enjoy the snow as much as I wanted, but now there was little excuse—we weren’t going to get anywhere fast. There was a line to buy chains. $70 later, we decided to skip the installation and get some breakfast—we were both getting grumpy from a lack of food. Not to worry! Yosemite comes through again with some amazing Velvetta croissant sandwich thingies that nearly cause Megan to barf. It’s been such a lovely morning for her…

We finished up and headed back to the garage to get the chains installed on my tires. Unfortunately, the line was long—and extremely slow moving. Here is a little video I took as we were waiting.
Clearly, it was snowing still. However, the longer we waited, the more the sky was clearing! This was great for my picture taking and the ability to see how gorgeous Yosemite could be! As the last car in line for the installation process, we finally got into the garage. They hiked up the car and then closed the garage door behind my car—this made the very clear statement that was being echoed by the clear sky: no more chains would be necessary in order to drive out of the park. Grr…luckily (maybe this isn’t really the right term) we had another problem: my car smelled like gasoline. It was bad. Anytime you turned on the ventilation system (to, you know, defrost the windshield) it stunk! While waiting in line we had determined that it was better to be cold than to inhale those fumes. Bummer. They popped the hood and poked around a little bit, but nothing could be found EXCEPT: a multitude of ants. They are potentially the reason that Megan and I have been discovering little bites on our bodies lately—Side note: Megan and I have been continually waking up with bug bites. At first we thought it was her bed. So we stayed at my place for a couple days in a row, then we thought it was my place. We cleaned. We itched. I realized that I had been finding like one token ant each time I got in my car, but there was by no means any sort of cause for alarm. I mean, I would kill the token one each time so as to reduce the gross factor, but I didn’t notice an infestation. The likelihood that one ant each car ride was managing to bite each of us multiple times on some regular basis is absurd. Or it seemed absurd until this guy popped the hood. Ants were swarming on my battery and on the vents. The good car owner that I am, I closed the hood and haven’t actually thought of it much again since. Well, until yesterday when I got back from driving myself home from the train station: there was an ant on my hand. He had managed to hang on to me for a good while, so it seems that we may have discovered the source of the bites. Back to the story at hand: we shut the hood and vibrated down the street with our new chains. We made it to the park entrance/exit where there was no longer a park ranger, of course. Then we headed down out of the park. After about 3 bumpy miles, we stopped and took the unnecessary chains off. I guess it’s kind of nice that I have them now that we are heading into summer…

The drive home was pretty, though it was longer than either of us wanted it to be. Unfortunately, it was raining a little so the poppies were not out in full force.

All in all, I loved my inaugural Yosemite trip. There are many more adventures to come!

An Epic Journey, A Modern Quest Part 1

Megan and I ventured to Yosemite last weekend for a few days in the mountains. It is one of her favorite places in the world, and I couldn’t wait to be outdoors for some hiking. Unfortunately, about 3 days before departing I discovered that the weather forecast was less than favorable. Rain was predicted for most of Saturday, and Sunday it was likely to snow! We over-packed appropriately. We left Friday night around 8pm, trying to let the traffic die down prior to heading over the Bay Bridge. We rolled into the park around 11:45 pm or so. It was a dark night, but it was clear. Once Megan and I were officially in the valley, she pulled off to the side of the road and turned off the headlights. Despite the darkness, we could see El Capitain looming ahead of us, and off to the right, more gigantic-ness. I immediately identified with someone who said that Yosemite made them feel claustrophobic, but it was night. I wasn’t going to draw any conclusions in the dark.

We checked in, and it was then that I realized the real danger that is bear country. There’s a video that plays looped within the check-in station 24 hours a day. It shows bears crawling into and out of cars that have been smashed and ravaged for food. First lesson: leave nothing in the car. Second lesson: leave nothing (food, toiletries) in the tent cabin either, duh! If you can’t leave it in the car, surely you don’t want to leave it in the canvas and wood structure where you will be sleeping! There are metal cubbies outside each tent cabin for the storage of whatever it is that you managed to bring. Megan failed to debrief me on this part, so I had to do a quick little cleaning of the car, which probably should have happened prior to our departure from the city.

After navigating some muddy areas with our one headlamp (Megan also forgot to mention that I might want to bring mine—slash, maybe this should have been intuitive.) Regardless, we made it to the bathroom and back and bedded down, exhausted. We awoke the next morning, or rather, I awoke the next morning around 8 am having to pee. I snuck out and took a gander at my surroundings. WOW. The shapes of the previous night were no longer hulking and oppressive, but more magnificent and impressive. I took a little walk to see what I could see before I wondered back to the cabin to wake Megan. We lay around until around 9:30 am (I mean, it was the weekend, after all) and then we dressed for the day and set out for some food. Megan managed to procure food vouchers (unbeknown to both of us), and we were stoked about some free breakfast. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the free breakfast was less than impressive and included a cake-like “muffin” and an orange and no cappuccino or café au lait ☹




Did I mention that it was already raining? Staring up at the North Dome and what we could see of Half Dome, one had to blink away the steady drops falling from the sky. After our delicious breakfast, Megan proposed that we hike to Vernal Falls. Since I didn’t know anything about anything and since Megan had spent an entire summer working in the valley, I agreed without much question. The hike was supposed to be pretty easy, and it wasn’t the hardest hike I’ve ever done—by a long stretch—however, it is difficult and frustrating to hike up steep grades and try to enjoy yourself when it’s pouring. There’s a picture of Megan with my camera (in it’s bag) under her rain jacket. This marks the point of the journey when it started hailing.
We started to catch glimpses of the falls after most of the steep climbs (did I mention the path was paved?). The falls were gorgeous and Megan was surprised by how much water was coming down, apparently there’s a lot less water in the summer. The paved path ended shortly after we saw the first view of the falls. Important side note: upon leaving our tent cabin that morning, we encountered a ranger-like woman who was cleaning up any recently vacated cabins. She asked what we were up to for the day, and we disclosed that a hike would be in order, despite the weather. She mentioned that the trail to the top of Vernal Falls was closed, but that if you went just beyond the gate, you could go out to “Photographers’ Rock” and find some good views of the falls. Thus, once we made it to the end of the paved trail and the next part of the hike was blocked by a sign, which read “Trail Closed for Winter”, we promptly walked around the sign. It wasn’t like we were the only ones. In fact, we saw some of the most inexperienced hikers I have ever seen in my life. Actually, there was a huge range: teenage girls in spandex and fashionable boots (or at least they were fashionable before they became water-logged), Asian women in the tiniest most unsupportive little flats, “cool” guys in jeans and t-shirts (did I mention it was pouring and about 50 degrees?). Then there was the other extreme: Patagonia-clad middle-agers with ski poles to…help steady them on the pavement? Megan and I were about in the middle of the two extremes. We weren’t fashionable, but we looked pretty good, and we managed to stay mostly dry aside from our running shoes that became totally soaked.


The closer we got to the falls, the more wet it was—and it had actually stopped raining for a few minutes. The falls were giving off an incredible mist. Megan took a picture of the water that was outlining all the tiny little hairs on my face. We could have hiked farther, like all the way to the top, but we were sopping wet, a little cold, and I could feel hunger setting in. We had managed to hike/walk 3 to 5 miles or so before we made it back to the tent area. We bought some snacks to go with the pizza that we had brought with us (and safely stored in the metal cubbies, no worries!) and we also bought a pack of cards. We thawed and dried in our little heated tent as we ate. Afterwards, just before the food coma set in, we played a game of cribbage. I have just learned to play, and Megan has been playing since she was like 2, so I lost, but I’m ok with that because I’m still learning the ropes. Actually, I think she managed to skunk me on this round, which was a little painful on my pride, but I’ve since recovered. Immediately after the game, with heavy raindrops falling loudly on our canvas roof, we settled into a nice afternoon nap.

The Relay.

The Relay.

You’ve heard of Relay for Life, and I bet you’ve heard of Race for the Cure, but have you heard of THE Relay? Ya, I hadn’t either. But now, I’m a part of it. And I’m asking that you think about being a part of it as well.

A couple weeks ago Megan’s roommate, Korin, emailed a bunch of folks solicited a response about participation in this “Relay” – all capitalized and stuff. It was described as a 12-person relay race through some awesome areas around the bay area. I have been looking for a good excuse to get in shape—some motivation. I have temporarily given up ultimate frisbee because it exacerbates my hip injury that started nearly three years ago. (Turns out one-sided sports make injuries really tough). Anyway. A conversation with me with The Relay would have gone something like this:

ME: Wow, this “Relay” thing sounds like a great way for me to get back into running. What is it like?
THE RELAY: Well, I have the largest number of tourist destinations of any run. It goes like this, teams of 12 travel 199 miles through 36 cities including Calistoga, Napa, Sonoma, Marin, Sausalito, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Silicon Valley and across the Golden Gate Bridge under a full moon to the beach in Santa Cruz.
ME: Whoa, my California geography isn’t exactly stellar, but I’d say that’s a pretty good distance. But I guess there will be 12 of us…(my math failed me here, it turns out that 199 miles for 12 peeps means 16.58 miles per person.) And, wait just a second, the moonlight? Are we running through the night??
THE RELAY: Indeed! You start Saturday morning and each person runs his/her legs of The Relay until you finish sometime on Sunday (before 6pm).
ME: Intense! I love it. This must cost something, and is it like a fundraiser or something?
THE RELAY: Yes! It’s about $80/person to run, and then each team must collectively raise $600 to benefit organ donation.
ME: COOL! I just read Stiff, which talks a little bit about organ donation, and I have always been a believer in donating body parts…(Does that sound creepy? It wasn’t meant to, I assure you.) Sweet! I’m in!!!

So, ya, it went something like that. And now I’m racing (pun intended) to get in shape. I think this is good for me, and I’m already enjoying the challenge. The thing is, this Relay is coming up pretty soon! Like, it’s May 2-3. So far, I can run about 4 miles on hilly terrain without stopping. Each runner runs 3 legs and mine are legs 12, which is 4.8 miles and labeled “hard,” leg 24, which is 5.9 miles “moderate” and leg 36, which (if you do the math here: 12 runners, 3 legs each…) finishes the race with 4.7 miles “easy.” So, I guess I am doing ok, I mean, I only have to run 15.4 miles total, which is less than the average.

Please, think about donating to my team—we are called “Cage Free Dozen” and we have a pretty sweet t-shirt design (pictures will follow once the shirts are made). If you wish to donate, and, believe me, I know these are hard times, but even $5 or $10 will make a difference. Visit our fundraising website (specifically for the Cage Free Dozen). And if you are interested in more about The Relay, please visit their site.
Thank you in advance!!!!