We parked across from Camp 4, and already felt that the day was getting warm. 86 degrees was the high, but as we made the first switchbacks up and over Captiol dome, the air was thick and hot. Hot, sweaty, steep, muscle tired, out of breath, steep, overweight, and steep. This section didn't seem so bad in the morning, maybe because we were thinking ahead to the difficulty of the switchbacks going up the side of the falls, but on the way down, this last section of switchbacks in the trees seemed like purgatory - the same trail cut with the same slick rocks on indefinite repeat. It hurt coming down the hill.
I could do some more endurance training and I could lose eight or 10 pounds of fat. Some of it can come off if I do fasted cardio by walking in the mornings – walking the ZIP Code; boots on the ground.
The going from the top of the lower falls to the very top was rough. The heat made a difference. We had been leapfrogging a few groups on the trail thoughout the morning, and a couple of them turned around at the 3/4 point. We tried to talk them out of it, but they just weren't up to it. We didn't feel great, but no way were we going to just quit. We did a lot of stopping and cooling down, but I had a worrisome deep quad cramp in my left leg at the top, which, when I tried to stretch out, countered with a hamstring cramp. Rested and drank and it didn't recur. Like old marathon times! In fact, I'd compare this effort to a 3/4 marathon today - even though the total miles were only 9ish.
At the top, we worked our way up the stream to find our own pool to swim in. Most folks took pictures from the falls overlook (not even a view of Half Dome from there) and then swam in the first pools in the river. We got to the first, but furthest pool from all the yahoos upriver - quieter there and no way was I drinking water after people had piled into it.
Going the extra mile (literally) to Yosemite Point made the day. We traversed right up the rock and got up on the highest point; a tower of rock off the edge of the point of the dome, and felt the vertiginous exposure - pulling, yawning, drawing the guts into a desire to fall out and into all that air. I felt small on the way up the switchbacks, underneath the Capitol dome rock wall, but on top I felt large - like I could fly, like I should fly, like I was meant to just cross that space in a single thought.
Lots of people climbing up as we were coming down - smart to do so in the shade, instead of the sun, but late in the day with no time to enjoy the top. A helicopter was rescuing a hiker who'd come down with heat stroke at the top of the lower falls when we were climbing down - just that toasty of a day up there.
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