We started out from the hostel, after sleeping past our first two alarms. The free pancakes at the hostel were actually free pancake batter. Was surprised that they weren’t made for us. We just barely made our bus to the train station, caught it a minute before it left. Took a double decker Amtrak from San Francisco to Merced. There were layovers at each of the train stations. The train ride was decent. Unfortunately, I was unable to sleep. I decided to go and get some food, settled on a hot Cuban sandwich and an Anchor Steam beer.
The bus ride into Yosemite was a long but good. He driver made the trip enjoyable. He had lots of good information about the area as we drove in. It really gave it a nice touch. The views on the approach were spectacular. Unfortunately, Yosemite Falls was turned off since it ran out of water.
When we got to the wilderness center, we discovered that we couldn’t start out as planned. They had already reached their quotas for the area we wanted to start. Instead of starting at Happy Isles, we would start by taking the 4 mile trail (actually 4.7). This led us up to Glacier Point. We had a good dinner at the Yosemite deli. Once done with this we went to the store and bought the fuel for our stove. While waiting for Mike and Rich to be ready to go I talked to a cute girl about our trip.
We had to take the Yosemite shuttles to the trailhead. While waiting we talked to a couple who just finished up some of the John Muir Trail. They assuaged the fears of the cold that Mike put in our heads. The trail was reached by five and got some good views of Yosemite Valley on the way up. The hike took a lot out of us and we went slow. The biggest factor was probably the altitude. We started out at the height of a high peak in the Adirondacks, and went up another. Ended up deciding to stay at the Geology
Hut on top of Glacier Point that night.