Yosemite et al.
I have been ignoring the jivelournal. This is... not new. I guess I thought that I'd have alllll this free time and so I'd post all the time, but yeah, apparently not. I did think I ought to post though, b/c I'm going on a trip tomorrow! It's like so sad in an "I'm spoiled" kind of way, my summer has been trip after trip, and this one isn't the last one, either. Why not go crazy after you've graduated? I'm thinking that's my plan here.
Anyway, said trip is going camping in the Sierras! ...Where I just was last week. Oops. Er, more or less. This time it's a volunteer trip where it's going to be trailbuilding (lots of physical labor, like the CCC again!) for three days, but the exciting part is that as long as you get yourself there, they are paying for the campsite and food. And I'm carpooling, so it's really not much of an expense at all.
Last week I went to Yosemite with my sister, so it's not even all that far from where I'm going to be tomorrow. The crux of that trip was to hike Half Dome, and I was fairly excited that my plan for that trip - just after reading the website a bit - worked out so well. Basically, first day drive to the forest, stay in a campground just outside of Yosemite, get up at 6 in the morning, drive into Yosemite Valley, get in line at Camp 4 (a walk-in campground) to get one of the few coveted spots, then stay the next two nights, with going to Half Dome the next day.
Half Dome is 7 miles up, and 7 miles back, so a pretty legit day hike, and I didn't feel very tired or out of it until the last mile or so on the way down, when my feet started hurting like crazy. However, getting my sister to accompany me up and back is another story, holy crap. Whenever we're shopping, she is rushing ahead of me while I drag my feet, but in hiking it's the exact opposite, and I have to practically drag her up a mountain. If you read Hyperbole and Half (and if you don't, go read it, EXCELLENT ARCHIVE BINGE EXPERIENCE), I kept seeing her as "giantly frowning Allie" the whole hike. (This amused me greatly, I assure you.) Really, it's amazing that she made it sort of to the top (by which I mean, the base of Half Dome. So close.) It is legitimately really cool being on top of Half Dome, I have to say. Like, by the time I got to the cables, it was 5:30 or so, so no line and I got to scramble right up them, and it changed from dusk to super sunny right then. It's like, sharp, deep caverns all around. I know it's like, supposedly not as cool as other stuff, but I was fairly mesmerized by the view for awhile. Then of course, we had to hike down in the dark, practically by ourselves, and my sister went from completely silent to chattering. And of course, the most often subject broached during the four hour hike down (read: super fast compared to earlier progress) was "OMG Bears they are going to eat us!" And then of course, when we were getting a ride back to our campsite from a ranger, he's like *shrug* "They're harmless" in a totally bored voice. Oh man. I don't know how long I'd have to work in a national park to think like that; probably a long long time.
*****
In an unrelated note, b/c my LJ needs to be about more things that "hey guys guess what I had for lunch today!" , this blog is pretty great. It is called "My Fault; I'm Female" and is lots of stories about women who get lots of silly things said/done to them because of their gender. I'm sure everyone has some of those! (Oddly enough; though you'd think most of mine would be women-in-tech related, actually most of my stories in that vein would be the zomg-you're-a-girl-you-couldn't-possibly-lift-that variety. SO MUCH. ALL THE TIME. Especially when I was younger and had about twice the upper body strength I do now, which was a fair bit.) But this puts it conveniently in one blog. I spent all Saturday archive binging the entire thing, I shit you not. So, I don't suggest doing that per se, but it is a good read.
Anyway, said trip is going camping in the Sierras! ...Where I just was last week. Oops. Er, more or less. This time it's a volunteer trip where it's going to be trailbuilding (lots of physical labor, like the CCC again!) for three days, but the exciting part is that as long as you get yourself there, they are paying for the campsite and food. And I'm carpooling, so it's really not much of an expense at all.
Last week I went to Yosemite with my sister, so it's not even all that far from where I'm going to be tomorrow. The crux of that trip was to hike Half Dome, and I was fairly excited that my plan for that trip - just after reading the website a bit - worked out so well. Basically, first day drive to the forest, stay in a campground just outside of Yosemite, get up at 6 in the morning, drive into Yosemite Valley, get in line at Camp 4 (a walk-in campground) to get one of the few coveted spots, then stay the next two nights, with going to Half Dome the next day.
Half Dome is 7 miles up, and 7 miles back, so a pretty legit day hike, and I didn't feel very tired or out of it until the last mile or so on the way down, when my feet started hurting like crazy. However, getting my sister to accompany me up and back is another story, holy crap. Whenever we're shopping, she is rushing ahead of me while I drag my feet, but in hiking it's the exact opposite, and I have to practically drag her up a mountain. If you read Hyperbole and Half (and if you don't, go read it, EXCELLENT ARCHIVE BINGE EXPERIENCE), I kept seeing her as "giantly frowning Allie" the whole hike. (This amused me greatly, I assure you.) Really, it's amazing that she made it sort of to the top (by which I mean, the base of Half Dome. So close.) It is legitimately really cool being on top of Half Dome, I have to say. Like, by the time I got to the cables, it was 5:30 or so, so no line and I got to scramble right up them, and it changed from dusk to super sunny right then. It's like, sharp, deep caverns all around. I know it's like, supposedly not as cool as other stuff, but I was fairly mesmerized by the view for awhile. Then of course, we had to hike down in the dark, practically by ourselves, and my sister went from completely silent to chattering. And of course, the most often subject broached during the four hour hike down (read: super fast compared to earlier progress) was "OMG Bears they are going to eat us!" And then of course, when we were getting a ride back to our campsite from a ranger, he's like *shrug* "They're harmless" in a totally bored voice. Oh man. I don't know how long I'd have to work in a national park to think like that; probably a long long time.
*****
In an unrelated note, b/c my LJ needs to be about more things that "hey guys guess what I had for lunch today!" , this blog is pretty great. It is called "My Fault; I'm Female" and is lots of stories about women who get lots of silly things said/done to them because of their gender. I'm sure everyone has some of those! (Oddly enough; though you'd think most of mine would be women-in-tech related, actually most of my stories in that vein would be the zomg-you're-a-girl-you-couldn't-possibly-lift-that variety. SO MUCH. ALL THE TIME. Especially when I was younger and had about twice the upper body strength I do now, which was a fair bit.) But this puts it conveniently in one blog. I spent all Saturday archive binging the entire thing, I shit you not. So, I don't suggest doing that per se, but it is a good read.