Marseille. Legend has it that 2600 years ago, sailors from Phocea in Minor Asia, led by commander Protis landed in Lacydon creek. It just so happens that the native tribe of Lacydon shores was having a festival to allow the tribal chief’s daughter, Gyptis, to pick her husband. Gyptis offered the bowl to Phocea and the northern part of Lacydon was given as a wedding gift. Marseille is born from a love story.
We arrived into Marseille in late evening and took us a while to find our hostel, the Vertigo. The hostel was very clean with a pretty lively lobby. Internet actually costs money here. BlueOrca and I got separate rooms again (though we should have asked for the same one). My room consisted of three bunked beds, and by the time I got into the room, two of the girls were asleep already. Wtf. It was just 9pm!
We went to a nearby restaurant, Sur Le Pouce, for some Couscous and two platters of MEAT (as some would say). The couscous was okay, but the meats were just what we needed after a day of practically no food. yum. There were fans watching an UEFA Champions League match at the restaurant.
After dinner, BlueOrca was tired and wanted to retire early. I wanted to go out to the Old Port area to grab some night shots. Dropped BlueOrca off at the hostel before I headed out. She ended up having a most interesting experience spending the night with her fellow countryman/druggie. :)
The area around the hostel / train station was kind of sketchy. There were some weird people doing something against a window or half hiding in the alleyways. I sped through this area and finally got to Cours Belsunce, the outskirts of Vieux Port. Vieux Port at night was definitely quite a sight, with many historical buildings all lit up along La Canebière. This is the France that I expected to see. :)
I made my way out to the Vieux Port harbour area, which is essentially a rectangular inlet into the heart of the city. The harbour is guarded by two forts at its entrance: Fort St Nicolas and Fort Saint-Jean. All the yachts and sailboats are docked neatly in rows inside the harbour. Here's a view of Quai du Port side of the harbour.
I set up camp at the end of the port, which happens to be the location of the first stage of a multi. Some officers were randomly pulling over cars near while I was taking pictures of the Fort St Nicolas. During one of the lulls, one of them came by for a chat. Fort St Nicolas, while not Carcassonne, is still quite beautiful at night. It just has such a presence above the gentle sway of the water and boats.
Spent quite a bit of time roaming around Marseille, taking photos of her many cooly lit up buildings. Managed to grab the cache minutes before midnight (timed perfectly), to keep my streak alive. Perhaps it was because this was a weekday, but the city seemed very quiet at night. Where are all the party goers?!? Little did I know, the party was going to be…
The next morning, we got up and decided to head to train station (since it was only a few minutes from our hostel) to reserve our train tickets to Nice later that day. I mean, for once, we are not going to leave this to the last 30 minutes! :D Now, this gare is my favourite of the entire trip. A very modern, open-concept design, with trees inside! :P
Anyway, we got to what we thought was the ticketing office, only to find that it was closed, despite its business hours being 24 hours / day. Yeah right. A fairly long line was spilling out of the information centre, so I presumed that’s where they were selling tickets. While BlueOrca waited in line, I scoured the rest of the station to see if there were other ticketing counters. BlueOrca came back saying there’s only ONE train to Nice and it’s at 11 something. WTF?!? They were running only limited trains today, apparently.
Well, what were we going to do? We haven’t explored Marseille yet.. it was 9 something… we would have at most an hour in downtown before coming back to the train station. We fooled around with the ticket vending machines to no avail (well, I know my CC won’t work without the PIN). Ended up getting back in line at the info centre to double check the train schedule. Got to the front and BlueOrca started conversing this guy in French. Now, BlueOrca is quite fluent in French. While I can follow a little, but I could hardly speak a word. We were having trouble understanding the answer to our ultimate question. WTF is going on?!?!
As BlueOrca was conversing, I noticed the unmistakable UNION JACK icon on his name tag. DUDE!!! He can speak English!!! The guy’s English wasn’t perfect, but it was a heck a lot better than our French. lol. Long story short, there was a national strike today (aka public holiday), hence, very limited train service. BlueOrca came up with the brilliant idea of taking a bus to Nice (it was not that far) and to our great fortune, the buses were still running! We scurried along to the bus ticket counter and grabbed tickets for an afternoon/evening ride to Nice. Woot.
Now that we had our day in Marseille back, our first stop was back to Vieux Port and its fish market. Maybe it’s the Hong Kong influence, but I just love visiting fish markets. As we got near Vieux Port, we ran into the procession of union workers on strike - essentially a parade of people cheerfully marching along to music, chanting some french slogans, waving colourful flags, setting off a few flares. Quite the party! Really resembled more of a carnival than a strike. There weren’t really any picketing signs. lol.
Contrasting this to the strikes in North America, the Frenchies definitely know how to do it. This is more or less a national holiday, as if they don’t already get enough. The union workers were apparently demonstrating to protest changes to the state pension system. The people marching in the street were cheered on by folks on the balconies of nearby buildings, including the Chamber of Commerce!
Shooting the protest gave me a weird feeling as a photographer. I didn’t want to be too obvious when taking photos, as some people might not be too happy having their picture taken – plus, the mob vastly outnumbered me. It was also difficult getting a good perspective of the crowd. I guess this is as close to “embedded” photography as I’ll get. If I had my P&S, I would have turned on video mode and interviewed Anderson Cooper, I meant BlueOrca, with the protestors marching behind. I guess I need to find a mic, a helmet and a bulletproof vest too, just to make it authentic. lol.
The protestors continued up La Canebière, while we decided we’ve had enough and headed for the famous Marseille fish market. I bet it was due to the strike, but the market was very lacklustre. A dozen stands selling miscellaneous fish, eels, shells and sea creatures. It was cool to see fishing boats come in to deliver the fresh catch of the day. I really wanted to buy a fish and if we were staying in Marseille for another night, I probably would have. Unfortunately, we were taking a bus to Nice this evening and nothing will get you kicked off the bus faster than a smelly fish.
The tourist guide showed us 3 possible routes to explore Marseille. The first follows La Canbière towards the government centre and palace. That option probably wasn’t the best idea, since it’ll lead us right back to the protestors. We elected to do the other two, each route covering one side of the port. Picked the north side first, which is known as Le Panier, the historical section of Marseille. Along the way, we saw so many seafood restaurants lining the coast. mmm. We saw some armoured guards outside of some building. Why weren’t they at the protest? :P BlueOrca found a sticker for me somewhere along the way too.
Here’s a view back into Marseille harbour. I just love the architecture of the city, starting from the warehouses along the port to the multi-story trading houses with red rooftops that dot the harbour. There was a funky little church near where I took this photo. Location verification pending BlueOrca Research.
We did a quick loop beside Fort St. Jean before heading to Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure de Marseille. For some reason that I cannot remember, we did not bother going into this cathedral. There is a major avenue that leads right up to the front of the church, which gives it a very strong dominance.
We then cut into the inner streets of old Marseille before reaching Centre de la Veille Charité, which was built between 1671 and 1745. There is a baroque style elliptical domed chapel in the middle of the courtyard. Surrounding the courtyard is a three storied building with very beautiful open balconies and arcades. This place was built as a housing project to provide shelter for the poor. Marseille must have been quite a rich city to afford such housing.
We stopped at a little restaurant in a “village square” style courtyard. Got a table outside and I think I ordered some sardine, which was suppose to be a regional delicacy. While the fish was definitely good, I’m not a big fan of sardines or any fish with small bones. I know it’s safe to eat the bones of sardines, but still… :| Sometime during the day, I had asked BlueOrca whether she wanted to get Bouillabaisse, since it was one of the dishes she wanted to try on the trip. She told me that she can wait till Nice. :|
After lunch, we headed over to the other side of the harbour. Our first stop would be Fort St. Nicolas, the same fort that I took a night shot of above. We came up one of the ramps to the top of the fort. At the top, there was a turret with a giant sword in front of the gate. It had the weathered look of a sword of legend.
Today turned out to be a beautiful day. While I’d have a terribly hard time picking out the most beautiful spot on the trip, this view from the walls of Fort St. Nicolas would be my winner. A visually spectacular vista, a rich sense of history, a mixture of down-to-earth attitude and untold wealth, bustling metropolitan activities, all intertwined by the calm of a sea-side setting. It’s rare to be able to feel so completely at ease, mentally and physically. After taking some photos (happens to be where we took one of my favourite group shots. :P), we indulged ourselves to a super nice, super wonderful, super duper nap.
Boy, did we need that nap. What? Sleeping on the top of a fort wall, just a few feet from a drop to instant death? D80’s left by our side, open to any passerby’s taking!!! But dang, did that nap feel good!!!!!!!! (My CPL took a tumble here. >_<)
By the time we convinced ourselves to leave the fort, we continued down the street to Palais du Pharo. This was a seaside villa that was built for Napolean III, but he never ended up using it. Now it’s a great public space for families to come and relax. BlueOrca and I had a different purpose to be here of course. A young couple on a little used waterfront trail were smooching right by the cache. Kind of awkward, but after a little while, we just decide to go for it. lol.
A brief and fruitless stop by L'abbaye Saint Victor and we realized we were running really short on time! We needed to get back to the train station to catch our bus. We stopped by a supermarket to grab some water. By the time we got back to the fish market (still a good 15 minutes run to the station), BlueOrca asked whether we should take the subway. It wasn’t a hard choice, but as we got to the stairs down to the station and saw the closed gates, we realized … stupid STRIKE!!!! argh. Some French dude, who made the same realization as us, exclaimed “Fermé!!!!”
We made it back to the station in time and boarded our bus. Buses in France are no different than in North America. Some of the folks seated near us were Canadians. It was kind of weird hearing them talk about 407 ETR and Toronto area stuff. Not that I really miss home yet. :P I also fumbled around searching for our tickets when the staff came by to collect them on the bus. By the time I found them, she was gone. lol.
Recap. Marseille is a marvellous city. Almost a pity that our schedule did not allow us to stay longer. There were many more attractions I would have liked to visit. Despite our early misfortunes as a result of the strike, the strike was an experience in and of itself. Vieux Port was spectacular both day and night. Words just can’t describe this place. Marseille gets a well-deserved 5/5. (Don’t worry, not every place I visit will get 5/5, lol.)
Montpellier. A port city in Southern France. We briefly stopped in Montpellier to change trains to Marseille. Montpellier had been one of the stops on our itinerary, but got the axe as we started trimming down.
Well, we did not have much time to explore the city. My throat was really dry after the train ride from Carcassonne, so I needed to grab a drink. We spotted a McDonalds across the street from the train station. As we learned, McDonalds in France == Free Wiki Wi-fi. This is the only time I’ve brought just a drink from McDonalds.
Montpellier has some cool looking light rail. I was trying to see if it’s a Bombardier, just so I can say, “That’s my train”. lol. This particular flowery pattern on the train made me think of it as a giant caterpillar for some reason.
Here’s a picture the train station Gare De Montpellier Saint-Roch. Nothing very fancy, but it is a major hub in the area.
It’s a pity we did not have time to explore Montpellier. I’ll have to return on a future trip.
It’s been a while since my last Europe update. I’m already starting to forget stuff… sigh. Anyway, to refresh our collective memories, please read E08: Carcassonne – Part One.
After a night’s rest, BlueOrca and I had the morning and early afternoon to explore inner Carcassonne. BlueOrca and I spent the night in separate rooms because the reservation system said there were no co-ed rooms at this hostel. I found out that was not the case later, as some of BlueOrca’s roommates were of the heterogametic flavour. I was placed in a double’s room with one bunk bed and a private bathroom.
Anyway, my roommate got up quite early in the morning and since he woke me up, I decided to catch some sunrise photos. Unfortunately, as I was waiting for him to finish up in the bathroom, I dozed off again. Next time I woke up, it was my alarm going off. sigh.
I suspect a school was having a big field trip (how come I didn’t have such cool field trips when I was in elementary school). A good number of the kids stayed on my floor. I felt as if a freight train was running by my room as they ran through the hallway. One of the kids was playing with the door knob to my room while I was brushing my teeth. I almost wanted to open the door and have the kid fall into the room while I say BONJOUR with a toothbrush in my mouth. :D These kids ended up swamping the breakfast room. We were forced to sit in the common area to eat.
My room was on the 3rd floor and from my window, I could have climbed up onto the roof. It would have definitely make for some interesting shots, but I didn’t risk it. Above is a shot towards the keep from the 3rd floor hallway. I love the rooftop tiles and how the keep rises above all else in Carcassonne.
After tucking our packs at the base of the stairwell, BlueOrca and I explored the city. We stopped by the keep first, which was just around the corner from the hostel. The sign on the left asked that we use the entrance to the right. For some reason, we didn’t realize that the closed gate meant the keep wasn’t opened yet. We saw people inside, so we incorrectly presumed there must be another entrance! We walked down the street to the right searching for the entrance. Came back 15 minutes later to find this gate opened. :)
It was nearing 10am in the morning, so I'd expected the streets of this ancient city to be more busy. The keep wasn’t opened yet either, so maybe late starts are normal for this community. I also have a thing for clobberstone streets. Strolling along these Carcassonne streets totally reminded me of Rothenburg (still my favourite medieval town). Both cities have an awesome medieval feel.
We somehow found our way down to what used to be the moat protecting the keep. The water’s all gone now leaving rough patches of grass that seems to not have been maintained for a while. There were weeds growing all over, kind of like my front lawn. :P
The photo on the right is the bridge over the moat leading into the keep. Now that I know more about the fortifications of the castle, it’s kind of scary to think of all the traps that await the unwelcome visitor. I had very little knowledge when I first took this photo. The keep is quite the engineering marvel now that I think about it.
We soon gained entrance to the keep. While I was crossing the bridge, some lady pointed at my tripod and said “forbidden”. Yes madam.
Once we got behind those towers, we entered a very big southern courtyard of Carcassonne. There were two giant trees in the middle providing shade for much of the courtyard - seemed like a wonderful place to relax. I had wondered what the courtyard was like in the past. Probably reeked of horse manure. :P
From this courtyard, we passed into a second one before going inside the main keep building. Saw a very cool video on the history of Carcassonne and the restoration efforts by Viollet-le-Duc. While some of the decisions Viollet made in certain aspects of the castle restoration were controversial, this man's mission and efforts to restore Carcassonne a hundred years ago is the reason why there’s still such an impressive castle left for me to visit today. What a great legacy.
After the video, we went through the rest of the building, seeing some drawings of Carcassonne at various points in its history. The fort has undergone a lot of additions and renovations over its storied 2,500 year history. The museum also had a very cool model of the entire fort.
The rest of the keep tour was essentially around the enclosures atop of the castle walls. This was my favourite part of the entire tour. First, you get these spectacular views of Carcassonne's surroundings. This is lower Carcassonne towards the river.
Second, you get an awesome view of the castle itself. After the history lessons, I started recognizing the different aspects of the castle. For example, in this photo, you see three different types of tops on the towers. The flat ones date back two millennia to the Roman days, the pyramid ones date to the 8th century, while the cones were the most recent (12-13th century). I cannot remember much more than that! lol.
Finally, along these walls, you get to see all the cool defenses of the castle! From the converging arrow loops, double portcullis in the hoardings over the entrance gates(so cool) to the semi circle entrance ring known as the barbican, it’s hard not to appreciate that this fort was built for protection of its inhabitants. Every single stone and design was laid out to provide a military advantage. This fort wasn’t built as a pretty attraction for Tochi to visit in the 21st century. I also found it cool that a lot of the defense mechanisms were duplicated as well, in case there are traitors within the castle.
I want to mention, this is one of several places on the trip where I had stopped taking photographs, and just sat back and took in the scenery and the moment. So cool.
We wrapped up our tour of the keep in the gift shop (surprise surprise!). BlueOrca and I both wanted to pick something from Carcassonne, but had a hard time finding something cool. I almost picked up a book on the history of Carcassonne (definitely fun reading for the long train rides), but I didn’t want to carry it. It’ll get crumpled in my backpack anyway. We ended up minting our own gold Carcassonne coins at one of those vending machines. Not a geocoin, but we’ll settle, just because this is Carcassonne.
After the visit to the keep, we strolled through the town visiting some of the little boutique shops and starring into some of the fancy little restaurants and bakeries. At one of the shops, I saw these bright plastic sword and shield combo. I really wanted to grab them and ask BlueOrca to take a picture. Unfortunately, I’m not meant to be a knight. I couldn’t figure out how to untangle the mess of string that tied the pair to the stand. :(
We also took a stop at Saint Nazaire and Saint-Celse Basilica, the main church within Carcassonne. It was rather dark inside the church and some folks were praying. I saw the Northern rosace in the cathedral, which made me think of Chrono Trigger and Zelda for some reason. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a big circular stain-glass window before. With the deep history in this place, maybe this IS the long lost Temple of Time. I mean, this church is named after Saint-Celse, which must be the french spelling for Celes. Anyway, we spent quite a bit of time in the church. I found out that BlueOrca is very much a photographing-church person. :D
We stopped by the arena which happened to be closed to the public. Proceeded outside to the expanse between the inner and outer walls. Ran around in the opened area before looping back around the ramparts towards to entrance with the geocache. After some time, we still couldn’t find the darn thing.
Our train was leaving at 4:30pm, so we were forced to leave the fort and head back to the train station. On the way, we had to stop by the Aude gate to grab the corresponding daytime shot. Within the 10 second timer on my camera, I had to run 20-30ft and get into my my pose, all while carrying my backpack. Not an easy feat! A bunch of ladies watching all this action applauded my efforts after the picture was taken. I felt a bit embarrassed that I forgot to bow. lol.
We traversed back across the old bridge towards the current town of Carcassonne. There used to be a big rivalry in the past between the town by the river with the folks in the castle. As the strategic importance of Carcassonne diminished with the signing of Treaty of the Pyrenees (Carcassonne was no longer on the French-Spanish border), the fort was not really necessary for protection and hence people started moving closer to the river.
BlueOrca needed to exchange her traveler cheques again, but we were cutting super close to our train’s departure time (we hadn’t gotten tickets yet!). Found out that in France, the post office is the place to cash traveler cheques. There was quite a line at the post office cashiers. A little bit anxious and worried, I strongly referenced the time, or the lack thereof, to BlueOrca several times. However, BlueOrca seemed adamant about getting cash. –_-; I don’t know how she does it - leaving things down to the wire so often! I’d have a nervous breakdown if this continues. In the meantime, I went to buy some stamps for the various postcards we had collected. We would have mailed the fateful card here, but BlueOrca suggested we send it to someone’s workplace, for which we didn’t have the address yet. :P
We got to the train station and managed to pick up our tickets in time. Good thing we had First Class Europasses. Despite being 4:30pm, we did not have lunch yet, so we picked up some 1 Euro snacks (Hit) from the convenience store in the station. The train soon arrived and we were off to Montpellier onward to Marseille!
Final Thoughts
Carcassonne at night is truly a spectacular sight, with no parallels. This experience alone would have made the entire E08 trip worthwhile for me. Carcassonne is such a great exquisite little town in the French countryside. You can feel so much history in its lands. A full day and night at Carcassonne is enough to experience her treasures. Totally worth the small detour to pay a visit. Since Barcelona was 5/5, and Carcassonne, in different ways, was so much cooler, I must give her a 10/5. :D
GCYoMoDo was coming to an end, as RC and I both had flights out of California on this day. The writing of this final Yosemite post is really bittersweet. The trip has been such a great experience in so many different ways that blogging about its end is a bit depressing.
In case you’ve missed reading the earlier posts:
- GCYoMoDo – Part I: San Francisco to Yosemite
- GCYoMoDo – Part II: Yosemite High Country
- GCYoMoDo – Part III: Yosemite Valley
- GCYoMoDo – Part IV: Half Dome
- GCYoMoDo – Part V: Journey Home
Five days, four nights.
We got up at 6am at Little Yosemite Valley and I felt horrible. During the night, I woke up shivering. After a single sneeze, the runny nose started. I had been coughing a bit two days ago and the cold has finally caught up to me. When I got up, I had a mild headache as well. Popped two Tylenols and armed myself with a roll of toilet paper (courtesy of Fairmont).
We packed up our stuff and headed out of Little Yosemite Valley at 7:50am. What a difference a night makes. Despite feeling crappy, I was full of energy hiking down the trails this morning. I always find it amazing whenever I revisit a place that I had previously traversed in the dark. Seeing the same surroundings in daylight is like exploring a totally new environment, and yet there are certain features, such as a bend in the road or a giant rock that caused you to stumble before, that resonate out to you. It is as if you’ve been here before, and yet you haven’t.
We passed by the restrooms close to Nevada Falls. I realized I had forgot to take a photo of the chalet at Little Yosemite Valley. It’s quite a high tech facility. Doesn’t smell, and when you log at the Ground Zero, they seem to disappear into oblivion. There was a warm draft emanating from the black hole.
Continuing down along what is known as the Mist Trail, a strenuous side trail that forks off the John Muir Trail back toward the Valley. Well, it’s strenuous only if you walk up from the valley. :) Stone steps rivaling the ones at the top of Half Dome dominated sections of the Mist trail. This is particularly evident in the sections beside Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls, where the trail essentially climbs up alongside these gigantic waterfalls.
On our way coming down passing Nevada Falls, we ran into a constant stream of people on their way to Half Dome. Some of them asked whether we had just come down from HD. They all appeared very impressed, until we told them we had camped at Little Yosemite Valley. Somehow, that made our journey less impressive. We didn’t really tell them about the Four Mile and Panoramic Trail part. :)
A little bit about the waterfalls. August is considered dry season at Yosemite. Yosemite Falls, the highest measured waterfall in North America and most famous at the park, was completely dry. Nevada Falls (above) and Vernal Falls (below) are both down at least 75% - I suspect it’s closer to 90%. April and May are the best times to view the waterfalls in Yosemite given the melting of the alpine snow.
We passed by Emerald Pool and Silver Apron, the feeders to Vernal Falls. When we got to the top of the falls, we could look down and see the trail snaking around the cliff side down to the bottom.
RC interrupted two high-pitched squirrels on our way down to the great wall. One of the squirrels ran off, while the other just sat at the top of a little rock and cried for its mate. He was less than a foot from me, so I took a bunch of photos. I had a hard time nailing the DOF focus properly though.
There is this abandoned outlook point that’s pretty famous in Yosemite, known as the Sierra Point. Only place in the park where you can see 4 waterfalls. Rock avalanches had forced the closure of the trail in 1970s, but apparently you can still get to the outlook point by scrambling up the boulders off Happy Isle Trail. You can easily find instructions on getting to the outlook on Google. We spotted the ledge on our way down from Mist Trail, but didn’t have time to go up. Will have to save this for next time.
I felt kind of bad for RC along the way, as after the mishap, he did not have a fully functional camera. If there was one thing he wanted to shoot on this trip besides sunrise and sunset, it was the waterfalls. As I was shooting the waterfall pictures, RC would wait quietly on the side. He didn’t look very happy; I was not sure if he was just tired.
Continuing down, we got near Happy Isles, and a geocache led us to two very giant boulders beside the trail. I would never have noticed them otherwise. These two boulders used to be one, but a fissure developed and split the rock into two, as if a very sharp knife just slides through the rock, resulting in a slab being cut off. Seeing the stone formations on Half Dome, it totally makes sense now why it’s so smooth and layered. A nifty lesson in geology. :)
We got back to Trailhead Parking at 11am and our car was still here. We found a ticket on the windshield from the park rangers, who saw our 2L bottle of Coke and some “trash” in the car. That the perfect bait for bears apparently. Good thing this “ticket” turned out to be just a warning.
RC and I both wanted to get some Yosemite souvenirs. After not being able to find parking at the Village Store, we decided to hit up on the famous Ahwahnee Hotel. Well, the hotel was very splendid in both its rustic architecture and interior decor. We took the opportunity to wash up. The hotel was stocked with this wonderful almond soap. My favourite. :) Here’s a photo of the Great Lounge:
and one of the Dining Room:
Found parking at Village Store afterwards and spent quite a bit of time shopping. Took a while to figure out what to get. RC and I had seen the perfect souvenir at the gift shop on Glacier Point, but couldn’t seem to find it here. :( It was a magnet replica of a US Geological Benchmark for Half Dome. Etched on this circular plate were the elevation of Half Dome Summit at 8842ft and the GPS coordinates N37 44’46” W119 31’55”. After some more searching, we manage to find the magnets. Woot.
I was terribly disappointed with the postcard selections at Yosemite. Given the many great photographs of the park, they definitely didn’t pick the good ones to turn into cards. That being said, I knew one postcard was the perfect winner the moment I saw it. Picking out the other postcard felt like forced voting in a bad challenge group theme.
RC spotted some really fancy gold Half Dome stickers used to seal bags at the checkout counter,and came up with the great idea of stamping the Yosemite National Park cancellation stamp on top. I’d already stamped my passport and my policy is never to double / triple stamp. However, I can cover the old stamp with this sticker. Sweet! In the visitor center, I had dialed back the date to the 16th (the first day) for my stamp. Afterwards, I forgot to reset the date! I’d only realized after I left the visitor’s center. Too late! We stopped briefly at the Ansel Adams Gallery on our way back from the Visitor Center as well.
By the time we were all done, it was 1:30pm. The drive back to San Jose would take 4 hours and our flights were at 7:45pm. We were cutting it very close, and needed to head out. If we hit traffic in San Jose, we could be screwed. Didn’t have time to visit Tunnel View, so will have to save that for a return trip.
RC drove at a breakneck speed out of Yosemite and the terrain was absolutely spectacular. Once we got out of the cliffs and Sierra Nevada mountain range, there were beautiful rolling hills with lone trees at the top. Classic photo opportunities, but no time!
Stopped at an In-N-Out to grab some lunch. After we passed by a giant reservoir, RC noticed the gas light had turned on. Checking the map, it didn’t seem like there would be any town or city for the next 15 miles. Last thing we need right now is to be stranded on the side of a highway out of gas.
RC suggested drafting behind a truck. He meant slipstreaming, right? While he can definitely conserve fuel, driving through the warm air may overheat the engine (especially given the track temperature) and subsequently put more wear on the tyres. Aye, so many tradeoffs and strategies. But in the end, you don’t need to slipstream to pull a fancy overtake maneuver on a truck. Come on!
We managed to find a gas station to fill up. Got into San Jose at around 5:45pm. Spent another 10 minutes sightseeing the pathetic San Jose airport to get to a gas station. Oh yeah, we still had to pack. We parked in front of a Denny’s and tore everything out of the car. Fastest packing job ever. Returned the car at 6:25pm and got to the terminal at 6:45pm. Good thing I was flying to Vegas, so I didn’t need to check in 2 hours before my international flight!
I had a tough time with my carry-ons, as I had my tripod, laptop, camera, and a rolling suitcase. Took me a while to get through security. What a mess. RC and I rested at the waiting lounge. RC must have seen some pretty girl. After he came back from a “restroom” run, he was nursing a nose bleed. ;)
We bid each other farewell, and parted ways. GCYoMoDo was one helluva trip. Many thanks to RC for making this such a great trip. Didn’t hear any qualms or complaints about scheduling around the dates or flight times, getting up at weird times, the super long hikes, the long drives, the weird photo ideas, the list goes on… I couldn’t have asked for a better pal with whom to tackle the challenges that were Yosemite.
What’s the plan for next year? Who’s in? :D
Half Dome. The iconic image of Yosemite National Park. A giant ball of granite at the Eastern end of Yosemite Valley. My faithful readers are probably tired of seeing pictures of this rock, but you’ll have to bear with me for one more post. :)
In organizing this trip, I had sent out these two emails:
Wilderness Permit $5
Park Entrance Fee $20
Plane tickets $460
Opportunity to go climb some the most beautiful natural icons of the world with MMM and TH AND have it fit your school and vacation schedule. PRICELESS!
MMM has promised to do something (TOTAL SHOCKER) at the top of Half Dome (weather permitting) and TH would do it too if MMM does it. You can only find out what and participate if you are there! XD (I'm gonna get killed by MMM).
Dates: One year to the weekend of McGregor : How Badly do you want it.
Duration: About as long as McGregor
Tickets: Cheaper flight tickets for everyone compared to Seattle. :P
Given our awesome luck, Aug 16th is full moon. I need to redeem myself with better full moon shots, after the Carcassonne ones didn't turn out well at all. :(
So I hereby codename this McGregor Anniversary reunion camping expedition as ... Yosemite: Full moon at Half Dome.
See you all there!
These emails provoked some LOLIRL’s and cries of me being HORRIBLE. Half Dome was to be the highlight of the trip. We failed to summit McGregor last year (yes, I am still bitter), so failure at Half Dome is not acceptable.
We woke up at 3am to begin our 2.5 mile trek to Half Dome. Our goal was to catch the sunrise from the summit. I suspect most people think we are crazy to get up at 3am, especially given the toils of the previous two days. Fortunately enough, RC and I shared the same crazy ambitions.
Well, I got up at 3am and I was in a rush - I forgot to go the previous night. This totally brought back memories from a year ago. Good thing there is a fully stocked, super advanced, two story, solar-powered, fan-induced, bacterial composting facility at the campgrounds. We quickly tossed whatever we needed into our packs and hit the trails at 3:45am, 15 minutes behind schedule.
Finding the trail proved a bit difficult in the dark, as we never got a good feel for the layout of the campgrounds. We did not interpret the hand drawn map provided to us by the Wilderness Center properly, so we fumbled our way around until we found the proper trailhead. We also realized at that time that we didn’t pack any food! RC decided we can forego the food and I had agreed since we were running late.
Well, the climb from Little Yosemite to Half Dome was all uphill. I became tired very early on in the hike. My headlamp didn’t seem to illuminate the path very well (I had charged my batteries before the trip too). My left eye kept itching against the dry air for some reason, so that bothered me (has never happened to me before).
Our friendly neighbour had told us about a water source just past the John Muir trail fork. RC was going through his water pretty quickly, so he was dancing behind every fall tree trunk in search of this spring. We finally struck water at 4:58am. :)
I’ve heard about walking under moonlight and how bright the moon really was. This hike is the only time in recent memory that I’ve been in wilderness under a full moon. So I found it pretty cool that I could see the trail quite well with just the moonlight (no headlamp), at least in the spots with little tree cover.
There wasn’t really much to the hike in the dark. RC and I didn’t chat too much, it was just heads down, step after step. We did run into yet another deer on the trail. He was probably as curious as we were on why the other was on the trail at this early hour. We also realized that the annoying bear bell that RC has been wearing doesn’t work on deers. :)
It was a great relief when we broke through the tree line to see the last section of Half Dome in its entirety. I was thinking, omg, we are so close! That was until I noticed a few little beacons of light further up the face of Half Dome and realized we still had a ways to go. We weren’t the only crazy ones trying to Half Dome (HD is now a verb) before sunrise! It was 5:45am by then, so time was tight. 30 minutes before sunrise – we had to race. However, before all that, I had to stop to grab a Full Moon at Half Dome photo.
There were better positions to frame a similar photo earlier on and later in the trail, but I was not given the luxury to stop and take photos. Even as I got my gear out to grab this shot, someone was impatiently telling me... "You better hurry up!" Well, this ended up being the ONLY shot of our natural satellite I got on the entire trip - I'm glad I took it. so THERE.
Hi ho hi ho, off to Half Dome we go. We finally got up to the stone section! I look up the face, I cannot see the top of Half Dome anymore. wtf. The trail had turned into a series of stone steps. Ugh. I started going up, and after a few steps, I was huffing and puffing. I couldn’t help but stop.
RC seemed to be doing better than me, as he was pretty much two switchbacks worth of steps ahead. I was trying to focus on just tackling the steps. Starting counting the steps I took. Take at least 10 steps before coming to a rest. Man, I was struggling to make even 5 in a row. Had to rest after 8. My legs just were too tired. Whenever I stopped to rest and look up, I’d realize these steps don’t seem to end!!
The photo on the right shows the steps (taken on our way down). Some of those steps are a foot high and when you are dragging your legs already, they are totally not fun. The steps you see is maybe 1-2% of the overall stairwell.
Well, after I got past the steps, I had to rest. Screw the sunrise at the top of Half Dome. I’d settle for watching it from this little Half Dome before the cables section. A group of campers had settled at the top of this little Half Dome (essentially, a small camel hump leading up to the final climb to the top of big Half Dome). They had everything including their sleeping bags, beer, bangos and guitar. Quite the hippy crowd.
They were certainly a source of entertainment. One of them even lit this flame ball on a chain thing and remarked, “We are a photographer’s dream! Entertainment at the top of Half Dome.“ I couldn’t agree more.
We rested a bit and caught the sunrise before deciding to tackle Half Dome. The cables were a LOT scarier in real life than in the photos. As you can see, there are two chains anchored into the side of Half Dome and you essentially use them to pull yourself up the steep incline to reach the top. I’d estimate the steepest part probably had a 70 degree gradient. No photo can give justice to how steep these cables were. It is one of those moments you just have to experience – feeling the wind blow across you, seeing the cables sag, hearing the chains rattle against the poles, and knowing that it’s your turn to go up.
RC mentioned he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do this. Come on! We didn’t hike all this way to go home now!! The little voice in my head was saying, what the heck are you doing, do you want to die here?!?
Went to take our pick from the pile of gloves at the bottom of the cables. Wow, there was quite a selection. Also, did I mention that because of my baby Gitzo, I had to carry my backpack with me (minus all the stuff we could leave at camp). I would need both hands to stay alive today. Let’s just say having to carry extra weight on my back didn’t instill too much confidence before this cables section.
Up we went though. Quick scrambles of a few steps to the next wooden plank. Repeat. These cables were a lot worse than I expected. Not only were the chains not taut, the poles holding the chain weren’t drilled solidly into the rock – they actually moved. Those wooden planks were not secured very well either and in the steepest sections, some of the planks were missing!!!!
We slowly made our way up the cables. We basically had to stop at each plank to catch our breath. Good thing we were the only ones on the cables. I won’t know what to do if others were waiting behind me, forcing me to move on. RC kept saying this is the craziest thing he’s ever done. It definitely ranks up there for me too!! The climb was as nerve racking as it was exhilarating. I have never done anything quite like this.
That is RC climbing the cables ahead of me. Yes, TochiCam was hanging precariously around my neck the entire time. Probably not the smartest choice, but we both survived. :)
Anyway, after 40 minutes (probably a lot slower than average summiteers, but no sane person would have carried a pack like we did), we finally made it to the TOP! Wow, I had no idea how we did it. But here we were, at the top of Yosemite. That was truly “a knee-knocking, hand-clamming cable ascent that will test your courage, your strength, and the tread on your shoes.” HAHA. And what do you know, there were a LOT of squirrels up here. How the heck did they make it up?!?
We lounged around a bit, took photos at a ledge. RC laid down on a rock and actually passed out for 15 minutes. lol.
Well, I don't really have to say it but the view is just absolute spectacular. No matter which direction you look, there’s an unbelievable, bigger-than-life vista. With the exception of a couple small shrubs, the entire terrain was solid rock. It really felt like we were in a different world/planet.
Here’s a shot of RC and me with Glacier Point and the valley behind us. It’s a little surreal to think we were just at Glacier Point less than 24 hours ago. Wow! We’ve come a long way. You’ll also see the official mascot for GCYoMoDo. This is no consolation prize like Signal was to McGregor, but the uber reward for our crowning achievement of Half Doming!!! It acts as a decent ballhead protector too!
We took a bunch more photos including the official Full Moons at Half Dome shot. It took two tries to get right. Timing was everything. Took the necessary photos for the virtual. RC built a very cute looking Inukshuk while I was surveying the land for a lost benchmark. We shouldn't be building these unnatural piles of rocks in National Parks... least of all at the top of Half Dome. :P
Well, we had our hour of being the lone ones at the top of Half Dome (How cool is that!!). However, around 10am, a stream of people from the valley floor was making their way to the summit. It was time for our descent, especially before it got too crowded on the cables. Traffic had to flow both ways on the same set of cables!
So here lies the biggest question of the day. How do we go down? Face forward or backwards? Forward was faster, but you had to get over the nerves. It is a 70 degree gradient. Backwards was probably safer, but it’ll take forever to get down. RC and I decided to get this over with and confronted our fears face forward.
The climb down turned out to be not that bad. You slip and slide a bit, especially with your momentum propelling you forward, but with a good grip on the cables, you can almost run down the hillside. Passing around people was a little tougher, cause you had to let go of one cable and trust the other one for dear life. RC rocketed down the cables, while I went at a more leisurely pace. lol. I had one cable tucked closer into my armpit, just in case! Thanks to RC though for racing down so quickly and grabbing some photos of me descending! Oh, I forgot to mention, the view coming down was most spectacular. If only I could get my camera out! Heading down was a heck lot easier than going up.
Got down to the bottom of the cables and rested for a bit. It finally sank in. We conquered Half Dome!!! The sense of accomplishment was overwhelming. Before the journey, this wasn’t on my list of things to do in my lifetime. Now that I’ve done it, it totally belongs on there!
Half Dome is the ultimate Yosemite hike - the one you can't die without doing, and the one you're most likely to die while doing.
This quote hit the nail right on! Wow. Wow. Wow. GCYoMoDo – Level Completed. Mission Success! Now we just have to make it out of Yosemite alive.
Started heading down those stone steps. I felt really sorry for the people huffing and puffing their way up. Now that I can see the steps clearly, man, how the heck did I make it up all these steps? There were a lot more than I remembered. Geez. You only ever hear people talking about the cables, but these steps were the killer for me. As one guy said, “If I ever see a 12 inch granite step again I am going fall into a fetal position and whimper uncontrollably.”
We had to hike back to our campgrounds. Unfortunately, I’ll always remember this moment as one of the hardest ordeals of my life. I had been battling the onset of a cold, we ate next to nothing in the past 24 hours and I was literally sapped of energy. My body must have bonked. It was so frustrating for me. The hike was a nice easy downhill one and while I was mentally awake, my body just could not move at any decent pace. In retrospect, I’ve always had a sort of self confidence in being able to perform against challenges that I expect to be within my limits. This experience was definitely a rude awakening, which was probably why I felt it was such a personal letdown. I was mentally focused, but my body just would not give. It wasn’t as if my muscles were overly sore, but that they just had no energy. zippo. I don’t know how to describe it.
Well, halfway down the trail, RC, who is in the best shape of his life, decided to leave me and head down to camp first. He claimed he would start cooking. By the time I got down to the camp grounds, I was expecting to find food ready. What I found was a pot full of water, and it was not even on the stove. RC was nowhere to be seen. WTF. Where’s the food?!??! Me is hungry.
We took the rest of the day off to lounge around the campgrounds. It was great to finally have some time to rest and relax. I took a nap under a tree by the beach, while RC waddled through water with a snake and a bunch of boy scouts. Wrapped up early and headed to bed at a decent time, for once.
Oh, did I mention we Half Domed today?!?! :DDDD