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Zusatztext "This guide covers everything you could possibly need or want to know about Half Dome and how to plan a successful hike." --Merced Sun-Star! May 2012 "This book is worth purchasing and it's an easy read. Being prepared and knowing some history will make your hiking Half Dome all the more memorable." --SeeYosemite.com! April 2012 Informationen zum Autor Rick Deutsch lives in San Jose, California, with his wife, Diane. A veteran of Silicon Valley high tech, Rick is an adventure traveler. Some of his personal bests include rafting through the Grand Canyon (three times); ascending California’s Mount Whitney and Mount Shasta; pedaling the 500-mile Iowa RAGBRAI cross-state bike tour (two times); mountain biking in Moab, Utah; 250 scuba dives, including Papua New Guinea, Palau, Truk Lagoon, the Caribbean, and the Galapagos; hiking Peru’s Machu Picchu; and dogsledding in Alaska. It was after his 17th trek up Half Dome that he decided to write this guide to help others enjoy this fun and rewarding hike. As of press time, he has hiked Half Dome 31 times. Klappentext Everything you need to know to successfully hike Yosemite's most famous landmark. Leseprobe POI 2: Vernal Fall Bridge Elapsed time: 30 minutes Altitude: 4,409 feet Cumulative Distance: 1 mile GPS Coordinates: N 37 43.565 W 119 33.094 As you walk up the paved path you will get some good ups and downs to warm up. To your left you will a see large rockfall that at one time was the site of a trail to Sierra Point. It has long been closed and is not recommended for use. Rattlesnakes abound here, and it is pretty rough scrambling. Sierra Point was the one spot where you could see four waterfalls from a single vantage point: Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall, Yosemite Falls, and Illilouette Fall. Grizzly Peak lies just above you and to the left. You can easily see and hear the roaring Merced River to your right. As you continue, the view to the right will open up and you may catch a glimpse of Illilouette Fall streaming down in the distance. All the falls at Yosemite are fed by snowmelt and are virtually gone by late August, depending on the previous year’s snowpack. Once you arrive at the wooden footbridge, you can look up and to the left to see the waterfall framed by trees. An emergency telephone is nearby. A sink and water fountain provide the final opportunity to fill your bottles with potable water. For the rest of the hike, you’ll need to treat the water. Also, the restroom building at the right, opened in the 1930s, will provide your last chance to use a flushing, porcelain toilet. There are no trash cans, so please pack your waste. A couple hundred yards up the Mist Trail, you will arrive at a control gate. It is closed during the winter, when the steps ahead might be covered with ice. A junction here allows you to continue on the Mist Trail or go right onto the JMT. Regardless of which way you proceed at the control gate, look to your hard right, and just a few yards up the JMT you will see a large granite rock to the left of the trail. It is called Register Rock. In the early days before the government organized things, people built trails in the rough terrain and charged tolls to use them. For a period in the 1860s hikers signed or “registered” on the rock and paid a toll to use the trail to get to Glacier Point and Nevada Fall. The alternative was the Mist Trail, described below, but that involved navigating a scary series of ladders next to the fall. On a recent trip, I looked closely high on the rock and believe the following inscription could have been done more than 125 years ago: gertrude smith 1881 f.k.c. It is too high to be modern graffiti, and it would have been very hard for a tagger to suspend himself by a rope and write it. I think Ms. Smith could have stood on the shack that once stood...
