I looked for fire damage on the way to Yosemite on Tuesday, and I did see patches of scorched earth and dead trees here and there. Surprisingly, there were signs of recent fire on the hills above Yosemite View Lodge. This motel shouldn’t be confused with Yosemite Lodge inside the park, but it is right outside the park entrance. Apparently, the Ferguson fire came horrifyingly close to Yosemite Valley.
It was sunny all the way to Yosemite, which isn’t unusual for this time of year, but as soon as we got to the park, I noticed storm clouds were rolling in. I intended to check in, drop my bag in my tent-cabin and spend the rest of the afternoon walking around. But it started raining, and then the shower turned into a thunderstorm. At first, I was annoyed, but then I remembered I hadn’t experienced a true thunderstorm in years. So I decided to appreciate it.
I hadn’t eaten. That morning, I was nervous about the trip, and I was afraid food would upset my stomach, but once I was in the park, my nerves settled, and I realized I was starving. So I ordered a single serving pizza at the Pizza Deck at Half Dome Village. I ate it under a patio umbrella as the sky flashed and grumbled. An employee told us we could eat our pizza in the bar even if we didn’t order alcohol due to the weather, but I elected to finish my early dinner alfresco.
It stopped raining by six, so I decided to walk down to Yosemite Village with my camera. The light was spectacular. I had never seen that kind of light in the park. The sky was still fairly dark, but rays of sunshine were highlighting the granite walls, including Half Dome.
I wanted to take the El Cap shuttle to the El Cap picnic area and walk around on that end of the park on Wednesday. I haven’t spent a lot of time down there. But the El Cap shuttle is a “summer service.” They used to keep it going until October, but this year, they shut it down the day after Labor Day. So I decided I would walk as far as the El Cap Bridge and come back on the other side of the Merced River. That would be about four miles down and four miles back.
I’ve been walking here at home, and I thought I was up to it. I thought I’d take it really slow and make a day of it. It wasn’t a race after all. I wanted to enjoy being in the park. And I did enjoy it…half of it, anyway, but I neglected to take a few things into consideration. When I’m here at home, I’m walking in air conditioned comfort. I don’t do all my walking at once. I walk for a few minutes six times a day, and I can drink as much water as I want.
On Wednesday morning, I took two bottles of water with me. I didn’t want to be weighed down, and I didn’t want to spend too much money, but I ran out of water by the time I got to the bridge. So there I was, a soon-to-be fifty-three year old man, considerably over weight out in the hot sun and four miles away from Yosemite Village. There is no place to get water down there, and because the El Cap shuttle wouldn’t be running again until next June, I couldn’t hop on a bus and head for the Village Store. The altitude may have been getting to me, too. 4,000 feet isn’t that high, but I’ve been living pretty close to sea level for over ten years.
I was already tired, but I thought surely I can go another four miles. I tried to convince myself it wasn’t that far even without water. I ran into a few people in the same predicament. An Indian couple in their sixties stopped me and asked where they could catch the shuttle. I told them I didn’t think there was a shuttle. I got the impression that the outing had been the husband’s idea, and the wife was not very happy. She told me in a sharp voice that they had been walking for five hours. After that, two English women asked me about the shuttle, so once again, I was the bearer of bad news. One said in her English accent, “They didn’t tell us that,” and the other said in her English accent, “No, they didn’t tell us that a-tall.”
Well, I trudged on, but I could only go a few feet before I started panting. I was sweating a lot, too. I was so thirsty. I don’t think I have ever been that thirsty in my life. The trail wasn’t packed, but people would pass me going in one direction or another about ever five or ten minutes, mostly young, fit people. I knew I should ask someone if they would give me some water. I tried to force myself to do it, but my shyness and social anxiety just wouldn’t let me. So I kept going. And I kept getting weaker, and I started feeling funny in my head. I also started stumbling, which isn’t good because there are big rocks everywhere in Yosemite. If you fall, you could hit your head on one of them. When I tried to sit down on one of those rocks, I completely missed it and ended up sprawled out on the ground. Luckily, I landed on a bed of pine needles.
I thought I was going to faint, so when the trail got close to the road, I cut through the woods, stood on the shoulder…and I stuck out my thumb. A few minutes earlier, I couldn’t bring myself to ask anyone for water, but now I was hitchhiking for the first time ever. I did my best Blanche DuBois impression and depended on the kindness of strangers. And it worked! It worked!
Within minutes, a couple stopped. They asked me where I needed to go. I said the nearest bus stop would be fine. In their car, I told them that I had run out of water and began feeling ill. They gave me a bottle of water and a piece of fruit. The lady explained that she had bone cancer, and this was their first trip to Yosemite. I got the impression she was checking off her bucket list in case the end was nigh. I thanked them profusely when they dropped me at the stop near the chapel. I wish I had thought to ask their names and maybe take their picture. This time it wasn’t my anxiety that prevented me from doing that. I was still feeling a bit disoriented. That was a scary episode, but it taught me a lesson. When you need it, ask for help. There are a lot of good people out there. Not everyone is a monster. It almost makes me cry thinking about how these people I had never seen before stopped for me when I was so afraid and feeling sick.
On Thursday, I was still a bit weak and rundown, but well enough to walk around a little. However, I stuck to the more developed side of Yosemite Valley. I was never far from a shuttle bus stop, so I could always head back to my tent-cabin if I needed to rest or a store for more water. I walked up to Mirror Lake, and then I walked along the stream back to Happy Isles.
When I’m in the park, part of the fun for me is people watching. I don’t get out much, so being around my fellow humans is quite the experience. And there are people from all over the world in the park. I hear all kinds of languages…French, Spanish, German, and many I can’t identify. Yosemite is woodsy but also cosmopolitan. I overheard one woman say she could tell the difference between grain and grass fed beef. I overheard a group of friends talking about ancient Greece. No one goes to Yosemite for the people, but they’re interesting nonetheless.
I had a memorable time, and enjoyable for the most part despite my little crisis. I’m glad I went, but it’s good to be home. I always sleep better in the park. The bed in my tent-cabin was comfortable, but the tent-cabin isn’t like home. The park is so expensive, too. The bill for my tent-cabin was sixty dollars more than expected, and even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich costs five dollars. I guess I should start saving for my next trip soon.
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