Adventures in California

Well, I'm sure you want to hear how I'm getting on in Cambridge, but I like to keep things in chronological order, so here's what I got up to in California.

I had a three movie flight, which is a good thing. When movies are on demand, I can watch five in a transPacific flight if I don't sleep at all (ie. when the plane leaves at 9am, so it only feels like bedtime when it arrives). Four movies means I had a little sleep, and three means quite a lot.

I was very relieved to find that the BART strike had been cancelled, so I didn't need to deal with buses to find my way to Berkeley. Instead I cruised the very easy trip. I turned up at Adam's door around noon, but he was still at work, so I sat in the sun (actually, I sat in the shade, but enjoyed looking at the sun) on the front lawn of the University of California, reading my book.

After lunch at Sufficient Grounds, my favourite place to by a very nice sandwich when I didn't eat at Foothill during my time in Berkeley, I met Lisa at the adjacent Yogurt Park. All Berkeley students are meant to go here, and I never had, so I was glad to try it. It certainly tasted more like frozen yogurt than the previous version I had had when I was living in Berkeley (which tasted more like yogurt, frozen). We chatted for a couple of hours about studying abroad, grad school, and other bits and pieces, before going to find Adam. He had arrived home, but actually no longer lived at the place I thought. It was quite odd that the intercom still reached him, but I wasn't complaining (although I did have his phone number, so it wouldn't have been particularly worrying if I hadn't got through that way - it was just a phone that I was lacking).

We chatted, with Lisa and then without, for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It was interesting to hear his tales of being a Major League Soccer journalist. I'm sure Patrick would like to hear how he's been going.

Late in the evening, we met Nathan for more frozen yogurt, this time at Yogurt Land. For those of you back in Australia surprised at the amount of frozen yogurt being consumed, remember that it's summer in the US, and actually warm by Berkeley standards (ie. I took my jumper off for part of the day). I do wish I'd been to Yogurt Land first, because I preferred it, and had eaten more than my fill at Yogurt Park (small is in no way small there!).

Nathan mentioned that he was making a day trip to climb Half Dome the next day (Tuesday), and invited me along. After receiving an assurance that I would be back in time for my 11:30pm flight, I decided to go along. We left Berkeley around midnight, and his place slightly further north around 1am.

I didn't sleep much on the trip, presumably because it was still early evening back home. We arrived near the base of Half Dome around 5am, and got and hour and a half of sleep before the cafe there opened.

At 7:30 we set off for Half Dome. It's really quite a hike: around 11km each way, rising from 1300m to 2700m: yes, that's taller than anything in Australia. It's also a big elevation gain (and loss) for one day. Added to this, it's meant to take 10 to 12 hours, and I was hoping to finish it in no more than 10.5.

After filling myself with water at the beginning of the trail, I set off at a brisk pace. The others (Nathan, Chris and Angelo) followed a little behind. By the time we reached the first (and, rather unfortunately, last) water point, they had realised that it was going to be a difficult day. 1400m in 11km is one in eight grade, on average, for the entire day, so even the early sections were steep. We chose the shorter Mist Trail, but I warned the others it would get steep (I walked this part of the course in September 2007 with Anna, Yu Heng, Felicia and Owen Wilson). They laughed at me!

As I warned, it did get very steep, and I outstripped the others by quite a distance, waiting around 5 to 10 minutes for them at the top of Vernal Falls (on a half hour or so section, that's a fair percentage - it pays to have experience!). After a brief rest, I encouraged the others to keep moving, and we continued to the top of Nevada Falls in a similar fashion, reaching there around the two hour mark.

By this stage, I was getting a little concerned. I expected that I could reach the top and back in time, but the others were falling a little behind and I wasn't sure whether they would. I felt bad, because I was enforcing a fairly rigid leaving time, but I knew we just had to keep walking. Also, they were drinking the last of their water around this time: I don't know how much they brought, but it was much less than recommended. I didn't actually have any with me: I had a sip of Nathan's, but I have had a much worse experience without water before (overnight), so I wasn't worried.

The trail was a bit easier for a while, but it was still very long. There was about 1.5 km of flat sandy path, which was actually rather hard to walk on. We then started 3.5 km of steady one in six climbing. I passed many people up this section. I wouldn't call myself unusually fit or active (I cycle around 6km per weekday, but that's almost the extent of my exercise), but I seemed to be able to handle the climb substantially faster than most. Perhaps being tall means I can take long steps, and being light means I'm not carrying up too much weight. Whatever the reason, I reached the point where we get a good view, around 11am. I didn't actually have a watch (I'm counting back from a later point when I knew the time), and I thought it was a little later. Half Dome was depressingly far away (actually, less than 3 km, but it looked further to me), and the cable section looked forbidding. I don't have a picture from here, but you can google one if you like. I was concerned that even I might not make it in time, let alone those behind me.

Nathan soon caught up, and we set off. The next little bit was the hardest of all. The rocks were quite steep, and after a long climb already, not to mention at 2500m elevation, it was hard work. I still overtook people though: I remember wondering how any of them managed to do it at all. I was finding it strenuous, and they were presumably finding it harder, and it wouldn't have taken much more for me to give up!

Eventually I reached the end of the walkable section. I was then confronted with the view seen in one of the photos above. What was left was approximately 300m, over which I was to gain 200m altitude. I'm not scared of heights when I don't think there's any danger of falling, but there really was here. Eventually, though, I decided that the whole point of coming all this way was to reach the top. Also, I thought that most of the people going up were less fit than me, so if they could make it I could.

The climb was physically demanding, but I think less difficult than what went before. Instead of relying on my legs as I had been all day, I was pulling myself up primarily with my arms, my legs just walking along to keep my body upright and moving. I didn't look down at all, but I reached the top more easily than I expected.

I'd like to point out that 'more easily than I expected' is only in relation to what I'd done previously that day. I expected it to be the most physically exhausting thing I'd ever done, and it probably only came second (to the time I rode 90 km without preparation - the second half of that was far harder!).

At the top, the reward was meant to be good view around, but it was just so many rocks and trees to me! More important was my accomplishment of the second item on my list of the 25 ultimate experiences in the US (a book given to me by Joe for my birthday), the first being going up Empire State. I don't have a specific plan for the next 23.

It was then time to turn around and go back down: see the other picture. This was easier than the way up, as we had been assured while we were going up. Both ways, we're always going to be hanging on for dear life, but at least on the way back down we don't have to exert the same effort to make each step of progress. I went forwards, against the advice of some, but staying within the groove I'd made. On the way down, I met the others, who weren't all that far up yet.

I took my time back down the stairs, and reached the viewpoint around 1pm. I then had a nice long rest (an hour and a half) while waiting for the others. Leaving there at 2:30, we had 3.5 hours to walk down what had taken me 3.5 hours to walk up. Chris set off first, I followed, and Nathan and Angelo were behind.

On the way up, I had been in front and hence chose meeting spots. This time, I was second, so I wasn't going to rest until Chris did. I headed down, and down, and down... without catching him. By this stage I was getting very thirsty, having walked for many kilometres without drinking, and assumed that he, like me, was eager to reach the water near the bottom. I pushed on, and made good time, probably taking less than two hours to reach the water (it had been a three hour climb). I still had no sign of Chris, so I filled myself up with water and waited half an hour or so.

Now, I had missed a sharp corner at one point, and wandered along a rock before realising the track was not doing the same. During this time, some people passed me without me noticing (I had just overtaken them, and overtook them again a few minutes later). I thought that perhaps Nathan and Angelo had also overtaken me, and had gone all the way down thinking I was still ahead of them. They had been just behind me and (as I believed) keeping a fairly good pace, so after the half hour I continued down.

At the bottom, there was no sign of Nathan and Angelo (which I actually thought was more likely, I was just preparing for the possibility they were there), but also no sign of Chris. I waited around, assuming that they would show up.

After half an hour or so Chris did, and after a further half hour the other two. They had experienced fairly severe dehydration (ie. believing that by taking a shortcut they had accidentally moved to a different dimension, and perhaps Chris didn't exist any more, so they would never catch up to him), and had spent some time finding water (from friendly walkers, and from the river), drinking and resting on the way down. Fortunately they did get down in one piece - there are enough people around that someone would have noticed had anything bad happened, but it's still a long way from any real medical assistance.

I guess you could say that the lesson is that the most confident hiker (in this case me) should always be at the back, but I think the real lesson is that you really do need AT LEAST four litres of water on the Half Dome hike. They had had less than a litre each (I think) and I had had none (ok, perhaps 50 ml from Nathan). In fact, I think having none (instead of a nominal amount) was a good thing: it forced me to gorge myself at the drinking point, so I still had sufficient water in my body, if none else.

It was now 6:30, half an hour after my preferred time of departure, but by taking the San Mateo - Hayward Bridge instead of the Bay Bridge, we thought we could easily reach SFO in time. Sure enough, the SM-H Bridge was closed! After a worrying trip, we reached there at 10:45, about 10 minutes before checkin closed.

Well, that was my time in California. I hope to post reasonably frequently from now, so keep an eye on the blog for news of my time in Cambridge.