11.6km, 823m, 5.5 hours

Yes well here we are after the hellish drive from Lake Tahoe. If there's one thing that I am sure of, driving a large vehicle up and down steep grades (with sharp corners) is not something that I enjoy.

It's made all the more hair-raising when one is uncertain of the quality of the workmanship that went into servicing the brakes. I'm pretty sure the nasty squealing noise is the sound of brake pads that need to be replaced, so The Turd™ is booked in to have them looked at on Monday.

Normally, I would do it myself, but despite Euan's scorn, I shall entrust this job (and no doubt several hundred dollars of my hard earned cash) to the local mechanic. I have many excuses for this, some of which include:

1. Not having the time to do it (I'm a very busy man).
   
2. Not having done them before on this particular vehicle.
3. Not having an appropriate place to jack the vehicle up (e.g. level and not dirt or gravel).
   
4. Not having appropriate auxiliary jacking equipment (e.g.. jack stands).
   

If you want more excuses I can probably think of some, but that will do for the time being.

Moving backwards through time (because as well all know there is no good reason not to) let us cast our attention to yesterday, Thursday 29th of May.

A day I would like to call "The Day the Mountain Nearly Killed Me".

It started off much like any other day. Some tasty All-Bran and Granola, topped with what are the sweetest, nastiest blueberries I have ever had (on a side note, who adds high fructose corn syrup to dried fruit?!?! Don't even get me started on that stuff.....), some coffee and an hour long drive to Yosemite.

The hills are relentless here. Up, and down. Round and round. I guess that's what you get for being in the Sierra Nevada ranges, but it's difficult to get used to for someone who's from the land of flat.

The approach to the village is mainly downhill, and you pass through a couple of tunnels. The last seems to descend almost vertically to the floor of the valley and is a little disconcerting. Once you get there though it's amazing. The rock faces just seem to rise vertically from the floor, towering above you. Some photos of that later in the week....

Our chipmunk overlords seem to have continued their surveillance of our trip.


Kat selected the "Lower Yosemite Falls" trail for our first hike, which was rather short and crowded. Spurred on by our ruggedness, we decided to tackle the "Upper Yosemite Falls" trail.

This is where it all goes wrong.

823 vertical meters doesn't sound like much really.
But let me tell you that it's a FUCKING LONG WAY.

The first mile or two was pretty strenuous, although I thought it was going pretty well.
We got to the point where we could see the Upper Falls, and decided to press on to the top.


Bad idea.

The next two miles was hell. The trail gets steeper and steeper the further you go. It seems to stretch on forever. You can see the top, and it seems like it's getting further away.

I honestly felt like it might beat me. But somehow, I managed to haul my failing body to the top...


...and here I am. Surprisingly not looking as bad as I felt.

This is the view down.


I am not a huge fan of heights to be honest, and this vista was a little stomach-turning. Just for perspective, we climbed from the VERY BOTTOM where the pine trees are......

This is the dirty little path you have to climb down to get to the view:


Sadly I must admit I hung on for dear life and had to mutter to myself "don't look down, don't look down" the whole way down. Of course you do look down, and it makes you feel a little queasy.

Never mind.

This is the view from the top looking across the park. It was very hazy.


Just to prove we both made it....

The overlords sent their blackbird minions to keep watch over us.


On the way down I took the opportunity to take some photos. In fact these were more rest stops disguised as photo taking. I thought my legs were going to give way, they were shaking like jelly the whole time.


You can see the Half Dome in the background of this picture.


The falls in the afternoon light.


One of Kat's from the way up.


By the time we reached the bottom, I was absolutely shagged. My legs were shaking and I had a headache. It was very nice to catch the shuttle bus back to the village, and buy a drink and an ice cream. Holy crap.

It's safe to say that physically this was the most challenging thing I've ever done. Today I am a little rooted, and we have done nothing. Mainly because I am too tired to move my ass.....

Tomorrow, Yosemite beckons again.

Edit: My new tripod arrived today. Sadly I have emulated young CHUNG and gotten a Manfrotto 190XPROB Tripod and a 488RC4 ball head. I look forward to carrying another 2kg around with me.

:-)