Last minute trip with a couple other
couch surfers to Yosemite to climb Half Dome
Soltan, a
couch surfer from Charlotte had posted just a couple days earlier that he
wanted to go and climb half Dome in Yosemite national park over Labour Day
weekend. Always up for fun and adventure
I contacted and let him know I was in. A
few others expressed interest too, but bailed last minute with the exception of
Robber, from Spain who joined us. Soltan
decided to drive his rental car out because he was thinking of of leaving
Sunday night, while Robber and I were wanting to stay until Monday. The drive was uneventful, but the traffic was
heavy, Labour Day weekends are always
this way. On the way there my car was
starting to make a squealing noise, I determined after a quick stop that the
clutch bearing on the A/C compressor was going bad. I kept my fingers crossed and hoped it would
last the weekend.
When we
finally arrived in the park, we managed to secure our half dome permits, and
camping at Yosemite Valley Meadows for Sunday night. We also made arrangements to camp in the
backpacker’s campground Saturday night, so we could leave early the next
morning. Shortly after that the clutch
bearing in the jeep seized up, and the accessory belt stopped turning,
noticeable by the fact that the alternator stopped working as well as the power
steering pump. Luckily there was a
garage in the park and I managed to get it there. After a quick assessment, they concurred that
the clutch bearing was done. So they
proposed ordering an idler pulley to replace the compressor, since they can’t
do A/C work, but unfortunately it was late Saturday and nothing would be open
again until Tuesday. No worries, there
are worse places to be stuck for an extra day.
Sunday morning
Soltan and I quickly made our way up to Little Yosemite Valley campground about
2 hrs from the trail head, I setup camp, dropped some gear and then we
continued up to half dome. We arrived at
the cables, and then slowly made our way up to the top of half dome. The cable are to assist people climbing up
the bald, steep and somewhat slippery rock surface that makes up half
dome. The views from the top were very
impressive. It’s pretty obvious why this
is such a popular hike. We stayed for
about ½ hours then made our way back down, mostly running. Soltan is an ultra marathon runner so the two
of us really pushed each other to move quickly.
That night I
camped a Little Yosemite Valley, Soltan and Robber headed back to camp. I had a pretty quiet night, met a few people
around the campfire and then headed out early the next day. I setup camp in the backpacker’s campground,
went for a run and relaxed. The next day
I had the truck towed to Merced California so that it could get the A/C system repaired
at the dealer there. Thank goodness I had
AAA plus.
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