Updates and a Half-Dome Novel
I do pretty much nothing all week. I only have two on campus classes. On Monday for like two hours and on Wednesday I go for like 5 (lab for graphic design is three hours a week and right now I'm doing 4) and that’s my week. No job, no activities, and no friends. Yet I’ve been feeling like I’m super swamped. It’s weird.
After half-dome my parents had their 25th wedding anniversary party. It was a pretty big production. At least 60 people made up of friends, family, and co-workers. That was a pain in the butt. Especially since there wasn’t a lot of help on the putting together of it, but it was really well. Everything turned out well and I’m glad it’s over.
It was a double weekend since the next day was my cousin’s birthday party. This weekend it also a double. Tomorrow is my brother’s Christopher’s birthday party and then Sunday we go pick out our Christmas tree.
Dude my brother turned 16 years old. 16…..I feel so old. It’s so weird that he’s that age since I can remember him as a kid. I mean obviously that’s how it works since I’m older, but I mean 16. Crazy nonsense.
I have to apply for Stanislaus this week. I’ve been kinda putting it off since my math class ends upcoming week and I’ve been stressing about it. I’m signed up for stats as a back up, but I really don’t want to take it.
I’m trying to decide if I want to sign up for San Francisco State as well. The chances of me going there are slim, but I would like to know that I could get in. My mother and I had a talk about it and she’s supportive (at least for now) about me going there, but my dad’s against it (he says money, but I know that only part of it). It’s not that high on my list to go there, but I would like to have that option plus there’s a part of me that wants to go there.
I realized that except for the video I didn’t write about half-dome and I would like to have it so that I can read about what happened since the videos (http://www.youtube.com/user/Jackeye5) don’t have all of it.
I’ll say this. I was right about it being a Hell Walk.
So we go there on Sunday at about….hmmm…..5 or 6 at night. The car ride took forever. We were able to get situated in our tent cabins. They were like tents that were up on a hard surface. We brought KFC and ate it outside of our tents (broke the rules...oh well). Then walked around for a bit. It was a big place. There was a restaurant, pool, and convenience store. I said that we should get hand sanitizer since we bad to go the bathroom out in the trees after a certain point. This lead to ice cream and sleep. We had really uncomfortable cots in out tents so there wasn’t a lot of sleep.
We awoke at 5:30, packed everything up, stuffed a few more snacks in our backpacks, and started toward the trail. I figured that Casey and I would be the ones holding up the pack. I was right for about 5 minutes.
The trail starts with inclines. Which means a paved walkway that just goes up and around the mountain. I immediately died. I couldn’t even get passed these. Michael and Tommy went with us and Mikey ended up staying with me a majority of the time. We took one break where I filmed a little and then started again. After a while Tommy ended up joining us and occasionally my mom. Mikey kept talking to me trying to keep my mind of the walking. I answered between my panting. My mom ended up having them go ahead and she walked with me for a while.
After the inclines there’s a bridge with the last modern bathroom. We took another break before starting again. It was just an dirt path with a small incline. I though “Oh I can do this.” Until the stairs started.
It must have been over a thousand steps. They were terrible steps. Like someone cut up some rock and shoved it together. Small and uneven, I walked crouched down using my hands. At this point Mikey, Tommy, and Chelsea became my support team. We took a small break. I think everyone thought I was going to pass out and fall down into the river. It was next to a really beautiful waterfall so I filmed a bit. My dad and Tommy ended up taking all of my water bottles out of my backpack and put them into theirs. We stared up the stairs again. To get to the top of the waterfall there was a last leg of stairs. These went along the rock face and had a railing.
From the moment I began panting on the inclines I was trying not to cry. I was so mad at myself that I was so slow and so tired. I mean I know that I don’t exercise or do much of anything, but I was so mad. I was holding everyone up and I was the only one dying. So after everyone but my mom disappeared over the stairs I kinda lost it. Not bad, jut finally released the tears. My mom asked if I was okay and I just said ‘keep going, just keep going.’ Then we got to the top of the stairs and waterfall aaannnd I fell. Right on my butt. Then I started laughing. My mom panicked for a moment before laughing a little and everyone looked over to see if I was okay. I know my face was red as were my eyes and I was panting but it was just funny. My dad gave me this look and quietly asked if I was okay. They didn’t think I would make it across the really smooth rock, I mean I’m clumsy already and I had just fallen, so my dad held my hand and lead me across.
It was a beautiful sight. You could see all the way to the bridge and the top was this emerald lake. My dad took the camera and finally got me on it…yuck.
We sat for like 4 minutes and started again. We had to go over this smooth cut up rock before we got to just land. I got behind again but caught up with everyone.
I’ll just say that I was behind every time. There wasn’t a real moment were we were able to all walk together. We went through this forest and Tommy and Mikey stayed with me. Then we hit this death path. It was made up of stairs and smooth rock and zig zagged right up the mountain. Halfway up my dad decided that it was his turn to stay with me. He walked behind me and just keep talking “come on. You’re doing great.” I had to stop the most at this part. I was just exhausted. We finally made it to the top and stopped to take a break.
We found out that this point was only 3 miles into the 7 mile hike. Only 3 miles…the worst 3 miles ever. I finally figured I was ready to start again when Tommy started to talking to Mikey would was sitting on the ground. He was trying to get Mikey to start walking. But we (my dad and I) realized that he was having a mini panic attack. Michael is scared of heights and had reached his breaking point. Tommy offered to go down with him, but I knew that he wanted to finish so I said I would go down. We said goodbye and the two of us waited until he was able to calm down before starting to walk.
It was about 9:30 or 10 at this point and so a lot of people where coming up. We trekked carefully down the smooth rock. I slipped a couple times and gave Mikey heart attacks “Whoa…slow down. Let’s not do that.” We were asked if we made it. When we said no the people got this look that screamed ‘LAME’ then Mikey would say he was scared of heights and it turned into “oh okay” and “ohh that’s sad.” We stopped a twice, but took a really long break once we got to the top of the waterfall. Mikey did not want to go down the stairs.
When we finally decided to go down he got to the top loudly exclaimed “Oh no. This is bad. I do not want to do this” then grabbed the railing crouched down and backwards and grabbed the wall. Some guy saw Mikey grabbed the railing and shook it. Then looked at Mikey and said ‘scared of heights huh.” It was a moment of us looking at him like…’nooo he just walks like this.”
This was point that was the busiest. There were tons of people taking pictures of the waterfall and it took us a while to get down the stars. As we walked down the mountain we passed a lot of stuff that I did not remember walking up. At the inclines we talked to a park ranger who informed us about Black Toe Disease and told us that we had only gone 3 miles up and that it got harder after that.
We ended up walking around. Walked Happy Isles because Mikey thought it would be fun, it was just a bridge that lead to a dead end. Then we tried to find Mirror Lake ended up hopping over horse dung before giving up. Then we sat at the bus stop and played what country are they from.
At 12:40 I got two texts. My dad said “we didn’t make it up lol.” Chelsea then explained that Christopher freaked out soon after Mikey and I left. He is also scared of heights. And my dad got scared on these mountain goat steps as did Casey.
Turns out Erin and Tommy where the only two to made it to the top of half-dome. Chelsea and Chris ran down the mountain (stopping for a couple breaks and one 30 minute one). The four of walked the mile back to the car. I went to use the restroom came back to find a huge buck right by car (I had to edge around him) and was told that a squirrel/chipmunk had jumped in the car.
About an hour later everyone else came back down and we left. It took us less time to get home even with a stop for dinner.
And that was the half-dome hike.
My dad and mom want to go back, but no thank you. I can understand why someone trained for 6 months. It was bad, but I wish I had been able to go up.
After half-dome my parents had their 25th wedding anniversary party. It was a pretty big production. At least 60 people made up of friends, family, and co-workers. That was a pain in the butt. Especially since there wasn’t a lot of help on the putting together of it, but it was really well. Everything turned out well and I’m glad it’s over.
It was a double weekend since the next day was my cousin’s birthday party. This weekend it also a double. Tomorrow is my brother’s Christopher’s birthday party and then Sunday we go pick out our Christmas tree.
Dude my brother turned 16 years old. 16…..I feel so old. It’s so weird that he’s that age since I can remember him as a kid. I mean obviously that’s how it works since I’m older, but I mean 16. Crazy nonsense.
I have to apply for Stanislaus this week. I’ve been kinda putting it off since my math class ends upcoming week and I’ve been stressing about it. I’m signed up for stats as a back up, but I really don’t want to take it.
I’m trying to decide if I want to sign up for San Francisco State as well. The chances of me going there are slim, but I would like to know that I could get in. My mother and I had a talk about it and she’s supportive (at least for now) about me going there, but my dad’s against it (he says money, but I know that only part of it). It’s not that high on my list to go there, but I would like to have that option plus there’s a part of me that wants to go there.
I realized that except for the video I didn’t write about half-dome and I would like to have it so that I can read about what happened since the videos (http://www.youtube.com/user/Jackeye5) don’t have all of it.
I’ll say this. I was right about it being a Hell Walk.
So we go there on Sunday at about….hmmm…..5 or 6 at night. The car ride took forever. We were able to get situated in our tent cabins. They were like tents that were up on a hard surface. We brought KFC and ate it outside of our tents (broke the rules...oh well). Then walked around for a bit. It was a big place. There was a restaurant, pool, and convenience store. I said that we should get hand sanitizer since we bad to go the bathroom out in the trees after a certain point. This lead to ice cream and sleep. We had really uncomfortable cots in out tents so there wasn’t a lot of sleep.
We awoke at 5:30, packed everything up, stuffed a few more snacks in our backpacks, and started toward the trail. I figured that Casey and I would be the ones holding up the pack. I was right for about 5 minutes.
The trail starts with inclines. Which means a paved walkway that just goes up and around the mountain. I immediately died. I couldn’t even get passed these. Michael and Tommy went with us and Mikey ended up staying with me a majority of the time. We took one break where I filmed a little and then started again. After a while Tommy ended up joining us and occasionally my mom. Mikey kept talking to me trying to keep my mind of the walking. I answered between my panting. My mom ended up having them go ahead and she walked with me for a while.
After the inclines there’s a bridge with the last modern bathroom. We took another break before starting again. It was just an dirt path with a small incline. I though “Oh I can do this.” Until the stairs started.
It must have been over a thousand steps. They were terrible steps. Like someone cut up some rock and shoved it together. Small and uneven, I walked crouched down using my hands. At this point Mikey, Tommy, and Chelsea became my support team. We took a small break. I think everyone thought I was going to pass out and fall down into the river. It was next to a really beautiful waterfall so I filmed a bit. My dad and Tommy ended up taking all of my water bottles out of my backpack and put them into theirs. We stared up the stairs again. To get to the top of the waterfall there was a last leg of stairs. These went along the rock face and had a railing.
From the moment I began panting on the inclines I was trying not to cry. I was so mad at myself that I was so slow and so tired. I mean I know that I don’t exercise or do much of anything, but I was so mad. I was holding everyone up and I was the only one dying. So after everyone but my mom disappeared over the stairs I kinda lost it. Not bad, jut finally released the tears. My mom asked if I was okay and I just said ‘keep going, just keep going.’ Then we got to the top of the stairs and waterfall aaannnd I fell. Right on my butt. Then I started laughing. My mom panicked for a moment before laughing a little and everyone looked over to see if I was okay. I know my face was red as were my eyes and I was panting but it was just funny. My dad gave me this look and quietly asked if I was okay. They didn’t think I would make it across the really smooth rock, I mean I’m clumsy already and I had just fallen, so my dad held my hand and lead me across.
It was a beautiful sight. You could see all the way to the bridge and the top was this emerald lake. My dad took the camera and finally got me on it…yuck.
We sat for like 4 minutes and started again. We had to go over this smooth cut up rock before we got to just land. I got behind again but caught up with everyone.
I’ll just say that I was behind every time. There wasn’t a real moment were we were able to all walk together. We went through this forest and Tommy and Mikey stayed with me. Then we hit this death path. It was made up of stairs and smooth rock and zig zagged right up the mountain. Halfway up my dad decided that it was his turn to stay with me. He walked behind me and just keep talking “come on. You’re doing great.” I had to stop the most at this part. I was just exhausted. We finally made it to the top and stopped to take a break.
We found out that this point was only 3 miles into the 7 mile hike. Only 3 miles…the worst 3 miles ever. I finally figured I was ready to start again when Tommy started to talking to Mikey would was sitting on the ground. He was trying to get Mikey to start walking. But we (my dad and I) realized that he was having a mini panic attack. Michael is scared of heights and had reached his breaking point. Tommy offered to go down with him, but I knew that he wanted to finish so I said I would go down. We said goodbye and the two of us waited until he was able to calm down before starting to walk.
It was about 9:30 or 10 at this point and so a lot of people where coming up. We trekked carefully down the smooth rock. I slipped a couple times and gave Mikey heart attacks “Whoa…slow down. Let’s not do that.” We were asked if we made it. When we said no the people got this look that screamed ‘LAME’ then Mikey would say he was scared of heights and it turned into “oh okay” and “ohh that’s sad.” We stopped a twice, but took a really long break once we got to the top of the waterfall. Mikey did not want to go down the stairs.
When we finally decided to go down he got to the top loudly exclaimed “Oh no. This is bad. I do not want to do this” then grabbed the railing crouched down and backwards and grabbed the wall. Some guy saw Mikey grabbed the railing and shook it. Then looked at Mikey and said ‘scared of heights huh.” It was a moment of us looking at him like…’nooo he just walks like this.”
This was point that was the busiest. There were tons of people taking pictures of the waterfall and it took us a while to get down the stars. As we walked down the mountain we passed a lot of stuff that I did not remember walking up. At the inclines we talked to a park ranger who informed us about Black Toe Disease and told us that we had only gone 3 miles up and that it got harder after that.
We ended up walking around. Walked Happy Isles because Mikey thought it would be fun, it was just a bridge that lead to a dead end. Then we tried to find Mirror Lake ended up hopping over horse dung before giving up. Then we sat at the bus stop and played what country are they from.
At 12:40 I got two texts. My dad said “we didn’t make it up lol.” Chelsea then explained that Christopher freaked out soon after Mikey and I left. He is also scared of heights. And my dad got scared on these mountain goat steps as did Casey.
Turns out Erin and Tommy where the only two to made it to the top of half-dome. Chelsea and Chris ran down the mountain (stopping for a couple breaks and one 30 minute one). The four of walked the mile back to the car. I went to use the restroom came back to find a huge buck right by car (I had to edge around him) and was told that a squirrel/chipmunk had jumped in the car.
About an hour later everyone else came back down and we left. It took us less time to get home even with a stop for dinner.
And that was the half-dome hike.
My dad and mom want to go back, but no thank you. I can understand why someone trained for 6 months. It was bad, but I wish I had been able to go up.