Gone Camping!

We went to Yosemite for 5 days and 4 nights and it was awesome!

Living in San Francisco has given me a new appreciation for "the woods." I grew up in "the woods" and hated going camping there (it was like camping out in the backyard). I always preferred the coast because it was a change of scenery.

I have to say there are definitely times I miss "the woods" now. Living in San Diego or Sacramento didn't make me miss it so much, but San Francisco definitely makes me feel as though I need some sort of return to nature on a regular basis.

I had only been to Yosemite once before (on a school trip with Justin) and we only got one day in the park. We decided to go back and do some exploring for our "honeymoon."

We stayed two nights at the Yosemite Bug Rustic Resort in Midpines, about an hour away from Yosemite. While driving into the park (and out) took a while - there is a place where the road was consumed by a landslide and a one lane bridge is the solution they came up with, it was totally worth it. We had a tent cabin, access to their health spa and didn't have to cook dinner or breakfast!

Normally, I wouldn't really care about cooking (I do it all the time). We did the Panorama Trail hike on Monday (8.5 miles from Glacier Point to Happy Isle).

We started here!  At Glacier Point - Elevation 7214

The view from our starting point!

Our finish point. At Happy Isles - Elevation 4000

All I can say is Eff the Mist Trail portion of the hike.  I'm not usually bothered by heights but this was sketchy, super sketchy.  There is a stretch that is a 12 inch wide staircase that has people both coming up and down with a rickety metal pole serving as a rail...... 

Once was enough... The "stairs" to the top of Vernal Falls. 

Apparently the John Muir Trail intersects near Nevada Fall, which would have taken us around the stairs of doom. We can say we did it. And once was enough!  The rest of the hike was great (about a 3200 elevation change over the course) and I got some cool photos. 

We camped two nights in the park as well. We stayed at Tuolumne Meadows camp ground and were pleasantly surprised about the "lack" of bugs.  I was sort of expecting something similar to the swarms of mosquitoes that attack a car the second it stops moving at Wright's Lake (both share similar elevations and wetland type areas).  We did use bug spray (and busted out the electric wand), but it wasn't necessary to wear a net headpiece or anything. 

We drank a lot of cold ones as one should when camping.  We took it easy. We took the shuttle (most genius feature of the park). We took pictures.  We climbed the dome across from Olmstead Point. 

We did not see any bears. That's the first thing anyone asks when they hear you've been to Yosemite.  I've seen more bears at my mom's house (and at the Folsom Street Faire). I did see a deer ford the river, a marmot and insanely tame squirrels.  I didn't see any hawks. I also didn't see much fungus. 

 

Hey guys. Look how many tricks I can do.  

Justin made a new friend. 

One of the few examples of fungus! 

One of the most exciting parts of the trip was that my beloved Sony V3 camera began working again prior to the trip.  I hadn't been able to use it for 2 years. It always said "ACCESS" when you would turn it on. I went to try one more time, and lo and behold it worked!  

I like my Panasonic T3 because of it's durability, but it doesn't take the same quality of pictures that the V3 does. I have a macro lens and wide angle lens for it and I am content to take macro photos all day long. I've had the V3 for probably close to 10 years now and nothing compares to it. It has NIGHT VISION. Seriously. 

The T3 is waterproof, shockproof and can withstand extreme temperatures.  I can take it places I would never take the V3. But the V3 takes far superior photos.  

I could go on and on forever considering the number of photos I took, but I'll save those for another post.  

AND REMEMBER: 

Going Camping!

I had grandiose plans of taking a month off of work this summer to work on projects, camp, get stuff done around the house, etc.  I'm not taking the month off after all, but we did manage to book our camping trip for the summer.

We're headed back to Yosemite!

We went on the most comical trip ever with AAU a few semesters ago, but only got one day in the park (and I think it was only like 7 hours). The cast of characters was AMAZING. Three Stripes, Squirrel Girl and the lot were far more entertaining that I could have asked for.

We're going to stay at the Yosemite Bug Hostel for two nights and camp in the park for two nights. I'm pretty excited. We can take Pi with us to both locations and they have kennels at the park in the event you want to hike a trail that doesn't allow dogs!

We were talking about Half Dome until we found out about the lottery for permit system.  Every permit application requires a $4.50 "application" fee ($6.50 if you apply by phone), which is applied to your permit fee of $8 if you get chosen.  If you don't get chosen, they keep your $4.50. Best scam ever. They only allow 300 permits per day but get like 3500 applicants for each day during the summer season. It's not like $4.50 is a lot of money but with that sort of volume, that's quite the haul.

I was eaten alive by bugs at work today (not exactly sure how, but hey, it happens). My arm is all itchy and swollen, which reminded me of something I need to pack for our trip.

In the last few years, I have been reacting terribly to bug bites to the point of having to go to urgent care because my leg was so swollen and red. It happens every 6 months or so. I'm not sure if they are some sort of mutant man eating bugs or what, but it's utterly miserable when it happens.

The first time it happened was at my brother's apartment. The second time, at Justin's. The third time, at Yosemite.  The last couple of times it has happened, I thought to put Aztec Secret Healing Clay on it.

Night and day difference.

Before, I'd spend a week or two all puffy and itchy and burning.  Using the Aztec Secret, the itching, swelling and burning went down in a matter of days.

I will definitely be taking some (along with apple cider vinegar) on our camping trip.  As much as I loved an excuse to barefoot at Yosemite (my ankle was so swollen that I couldn't wear my boot or having my pant leg touch my skin), I've become a bit of a tenderfoot living in San Francisco. It's far too dirty to barefoot here.

Aside from wicked, nasty bug bites it's also great for a bunch of other uses as well.  The first (and most obvious) is a facial mask (or any body part that needs a mask).  It really draws out the impurities.  The label exclaims "feel your face pulsate!"  I'm not entirely sure that's how I want my face to feel, but my skin looks fantastic most of the time. It's also supposed to help tighten and tone your skin. It could be placebo effect, but my skin looks and feels tighter to me after using it. 

Another use I found for it is making my own toothpaste or tooth powder. I stopped using commercial toothpaste quite some time ago.  Even Tom's of Maine because it was too hard to find a fluoride free toothpaste (Check out FAN for information on the negative impact of fluoride). I originally started making my own toothpaste for my brother to try to help remineralize his teeth.  My teeth felt pretty clean and I was happy not having to put more fluoride in my body. 

The toothpaste recipe I was using was a bit weird tasting (it featured Dr. Bronner's castile soap), so I started making tooth powder using baking soda, cinnamon, ground sage and Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay.  Sage has whitening properties and cinnamon just tastes good :)

It's a little weird brushing with a powder, but once you get used to it, it's not that bad. My teeth feel clean pretty much all of the time. 

Aztec Secret Healing Indian Healing clay is super economical and has a variety of uses. I purchased the 2 lb container more than a year ago and still have about half the container. I use it as a mask about once a week and on itchy scratchy skin when it's needed.