Tried to wake up earlier this day but we still didn’t get the earliest of starts. The hike up to Half Dome was beautiful. When we got to the bottom of the first hump the terrain got rocky and had many stairs with switchbacks. Half way up we ran into a ranger with a tablet checking permits. The bottom of the cables up Half Dome gives one a daunting view of the upcoming hike. There were a couple pairs of gloves at the start of the car led. Two nice older guys gave us their gloves since they were better than the ones in the pile. The climb was long and took some effort. It was much more of a workout than I expected. You ended up using your arms a lot more.
Once at the top the views were spectacular. A good deal of people were up there taking in the sights. The big attraction was a piece of the rock that jutted out towards Yosemite Valley. There was a short wait to go out on it and take photos. Met a fellow scout up there that had also went to Philmont. Once this was done we got ready to go down. We were delayed a bit because Rich wanted to see the other side.
The trek down went a bit slower than expected. There were times when you would just be hanging out on the side of the mountain for 5 to 10 minutes. During one of these periods we discovered. That the people in front of us were originally from the Poughkeepsie area. Once back at camp we broke down our equipment and went to purify water. Said goodbye to our neighbors and heard of their trip up clouds rest.
On the way to the next campsite we came across a mother bear and her two cubs foraging along the trail side. Got some better bear photos this time. We decided to hike towards the road and take that instead to get to Tuolomne Meadows.
For dinner we had rice and beans. The beans didn’t come out good, next time they will need to sit longer to rehydrate and need more water. We sat around the campfire and chatted a bit. Felt much better today. We definitely begun to hit our stride.