A few months ago, Stewart's family was talking about who might be interested in hiking it. In order to hike up the cable to get on top of Half Dome you have to enter a lottery. Sunny's husband won the lottery for him and 5 others. There was going to be 3 adults with one kid to go, so I didn't think we would end up hiking. We entered the day before lottery for last minute reservations and I GOT IT! This was it. I was going to do it! However, it didn't even really matter because only five of us ended up hiking it - Stewart, Robbie, Lori, Jack (11 years old), and me.
Even though we didn't get the first lottery, Stewart and I were still trying to prep just in case we got the chance. He borrowed a harness from a friend to help me feel more confident in case I slipped. If you slip and let go while hiking the cables, you are most likely dead depending on what part you are on.
The hike up was pretty decent. We left around 5am. It is 7 miles up to the top of Half Dome. We hiked up next to two different waterfalls and through the forest. The rangers stop you before the sub dome to check and make sure you have a reservation. The sub dome is a bunch of granite steps forming switchbacks. It was hot and a LOT of steps.
Once you get done with the switchbacks you walk down the other side on smoother rock, across the saddle, and up the cables. Once the cables were in sight I started feeling the nerves growing stronger and stronger. I was trying not to let it show because I didn't want to place doubt or fear into other people (mostly Jack) but talked to Stewart a little since he had done it a few times before. I had a love hate relationship with the harness I was wearing. Wearing harnesses are not super common and a lot of people will say don't use them because it can slow the climbers down unnecessarily. However, I don't know if I would have been able to get myself on the cables without it. I knew I wasn't going to fall to my death, but every time I had to switch the carabiner to the next section, I was forced to look down the very scary slope. We were very tired at the top and took a few minutes to eat lunch before we headed back down.
When we walked to the top of the cables to start our descend there was a long line and people were packed on the cables. Apparently there was a group of individuals who were taking a very long time. This caused us to be on the cables for 45 minutes, way longer than necessary which gave us all some lovely uneven sunburns. I walking down the cables backwards which I think was the best way for me to do it. My knees didn't suffer and I didn't have to stare down the whole time. The feeling of unclipping from the cables for the last time was such a good feeling! I yelled, " I did it!!!" My mantra the whole time was "I can do scary things. Thousands of people do this every year, I CAN TOO!" lol
The hike down was harder than expected. We took the recommend amount of water but we were out of water way earlier than expected. Robbie, Lori, and Jack went ahead of us because Stewart and I decided to go a little slower so as not to totally blow our knees.
We stopped on the trail and drank our last sips of water, without saying out loud that it was our last. A couple hiking behind us asked us if we were out of water and filled our bottles with their own water. They had a water filter and they were going to be hiking along water along a different trail. It was honestly such a blessing, we would have reeaaaallly struggled without it.
A few miles later we were hiking with a group of three people maybe 20 feet in front of us. They all of a sudden start running back saying, "There's a bear! There's a bear! What do we do!!" Stewart, in his reassuring and calm voice, told us to be loud, down turn our backs to it, and don't make sudden movements. None of us really knew what loud noises to make and were a little in shock in think. We just start clapping and moving back. We then saw a second bear. Of course, the first worry is if this is a cub and it's mother so we were all trying to figure out if one looked bigger than the other. Thankfully, kind of thankfully, both bears were both the same size, very large and both were crossing our trail 30 feet in front of us.
As we continue to walk backward and be loud, we hear a group coming up the trail from the opposite direction and their noise helps move the bears away from the trail. There was a small bridge we were on and one of the bears was crossing up the creek from us. Someone made a loud clap and the bear just stares at us for a good 30 seconds causing more fear in me than I would like. By that time the group of us had grown to about 20 people and Stewart whispered to me that we needed to go. So we slipped away safely.
The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful, but it was sooooo long. There were so many steps we walked down and so many parts of the trail I had forgotten about.
When we were on the last little stretch I looked up and thought I saw one of my brother in laws walking toward me. I didn't know if I was hallucinating a little bit or what. But sure enough, it was Jenner's husband bringing us a scooter and bike so we could rest our walking muscles. I took the kid scooter and almost fell over at least 5 times because I just couldn't balance after 14 miles of hiking.
The hike was completely worth it, but it was really challenging mentally and physically. Now I don't have to do again! Unless one of our kids begs me to do it with them or something... But we will see!
