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July 10, 2019

Today we tackle the hike up from Junction to Clouds Rest. It’s a 3.8-mile hike, but it has 2700 feet of elevation gain. The trail went straight up. As you reach the top, there are a ton of rock stairs you have to climb. But worth every step, the view is incredible, but there is a downside. The other side of Clouds Rest was a cliff-hanging that we had to traverse to get down the mountain. To continue, we went down the other side of Clouds Rest, heading for sunrise camp. Low and behold, there were a lot more uphills. We traversed several sections of snow and ended our day at the Sunrise High Sierra Camp. For some reason, my stomach is a mess. I could puke, but I need to eat.

July 9, 2019

Day 3 was a short hiking day. It seemed we climbed out of Echo Valley up 5miles to the Junction of Clouds Rest Trail, Half Dome, and the trail back to the Valley. To be able to hike to Half Dome with only 2.5 miles left. We set up camp, hung out, ate lunch, then started our hike around 4 pm. It took us a while to get there due to the elevation gain, but it was a great hike. As we got closer and, closer Half Dome came into sight. Crazy and scary, we climbed up Sub-Dome with some significant hand-made steps that were sketchy at best. The last part of Sub-Dome was dangerous; you had to scurry up the side with no steps to climb up to the base of Half Dome. As I got to the top and the cables and Half Dome was on view. All I could say was holy crap.

July 8, 2019

Day two was one crazy downhill from Vogelsang backpackers camp past Merced Lake to Echo valley. The rock gardens were so brutal, and my entire lower body ached from the pound of the rocks and steps. There were many rushing streams and rivers from all the snowmelt. We set up camp near Echo Creek. There were so many mosquitoes that it seemed they would pick us up and carry us off.

Sunday, July 7

We hike from Rafferty Creek TrailHead to the top of Vogelsang High Sierra Camp. It was a long grueling uphill climb. Fortunately, as we arrived, a young Swiss girl named Tonya fell in the snow while she traversed one of the passes and cut her leg. She decided not to bring any first aid kit with her. So Theron, Steven & I begin to help her. The cut was so deep we ended up using the butterfly strips and gave her some of the antibiotic creams and wipes we had. We continued up toward Vogelsang Lake to find a campsite. Still, unfortunately, since Vogelsang Pass was covered with snow so thick that we could not get across it. By this time, it was getting late, and the sun was setting for the night. So we backtracked our route to stay at the backpackers camp at Vogelsang.