CA vacation part 2: hiking up and down the 4 Mile Hike

It has been difficult to divide my pictures into appropriate, but brief blogs. I decided to capture the 4 mile hike by itself in a blog. Barbara mentioned to me that she wanted to hike a long hike on Wed of our vacation and wanted to know if Abram and I and others were interested. Of course Abram and I wanted to jump at the opportunity! It worked out that many of us could hike up while Mike hung with the younger crowd. He would drive up to the summit and meet us for lunch.

The hikers for the 4 mile hike were:  Tobin, Abram, Ryland, Barbara, Leah, me (taking the photo!)

Cora and Theresa.  The hike was really called "4 mile hike" because the elevation of the hike was 4 miles upward! 

When you drive into Yosemite park you can see upper falls or lower falls, but not both together.  At multiple points during the hike we were able to see both the upper and lower falls together.  I didn't realize how lucky we were this year to see the falls still running in August.  The snow fall the past winter had been at a 30 year high allowing the falls to flow rapidly even in August. 

I believe this spot is called Cathedral point.

This is half dome.

Barbara took this picture of us.  I do beleive she has one of Tobin and Ryland.  When I have that I will update this blog with it.

No idea what this is really called, but  I affectionately call it "Pig Face Point".

This is a panoramic photo of Glacier Point.  This is what we hiked up to from the Yosemite valley. 

Here is a great photo of all of us who made it by foot or car to the top.

Mike graciously stayed back at the cabin with Sarai, Carmen, Rachel, Joey, Julie, Thomas and Faye.  He drove everyone up to Glacier point with lunches so we could be together for part of the day. 


Rachel, Julie and Joey on top of some big boulders.

These are the hikers who climbed up the 4 mile hike.  Cora offered that Mike could hike down and she would take the car.  He accepted.  Sarai also hiked down with us.

Our family photo on top of Glacier Point.

This walkie talkie has a fantastic story!  Cora and Mike brought walkies to use between the cabin houses.  Cora thought it would be good to take one on the hike and she intended on Mike having the other so they could find each other when both arrived at the summit.  As Cora and Theresa were hiking up they were often hearing a kid yell into the walkie.  Multiple times they would say "Joey, we cannot hear you.  Talk slower!".  It became more frequent and more annoying that at one point they told Joey to shut up.  Well, low and behold, Mike forgot the walkie and Cora realized that she had been yelling at a different kid who was not Joey!

On our hike down I learned that Barbara and Paul were going to have celebrated their 20 year anniversary that month.  I also learned that they had gone to Yosemite for their honeymoon and this was a huge reason why Barbara suggested this area for our summer vacation spot.  We knew Paul had cancer while were making plans for the vacation and all hoped Paul would be able to join us.  Unfortunately, he died before our visit to Yosemite.  Barbara had his ashes and per request of Paul, she spread some of his ashes at beautiful spots on our hike down.  It was a tender moment to witness.  This truly was and is a beautiful park.  We miss you Paul!

Abram has the camera again and caught me and Tobin.

We took a break so Tobin could do some weight lifting!

Sarai join in on the super sibling show!

This is like a National Geographic picture.  Abram saw this small lizard with a meal in its mouth.  Great shot hunny!

Barbara and Ryland took bikes with them to the valley and biked to more spots to spread Paul's ashes.  We headed back to house and found out that all the family was coming for dinner at the cabin.  Many of the photos I took from the fire pit happened that night. 

A not so funny story about the cabin:  Tobin intended on running daily while we were at Yosemite.  After hiking the 9 mile rigorous trail up to Glacier Point he said he was going out to run a few miles.  Isaac told him that the owner said there were trails behind the house that led to the main road. Tobin took off.  An hour later, I realized he wasn't back.  Abram took off in the car to look for him and soon Isaac left in a car too.  The difficult piece of all of this was that there wasn't cell reception for AT&T carriers (which is our carrier).  Within 5 minutes of Abram and Isaac leaving Tobin shows up.  I did not know how to contact Abram.  I tried his cell number with the house phone, got his voicemail and absently held the phone away from my ear exclaiming my frustration that I couldn't tell Abram to come back.  Somehow his phone recorded my voice and when he was in a particular spot on the road with cell reception, mind you this was a miracle since we had no service the whole time we were in Yosemite, he heard me say "Tobin's back, but I cannot tell Abram to come back".  After that scare we told Tobin to run on main roads only, no trails and well before dusk. Oh yeah, forgot to mention he began running at 6.  Dusk was at 7 with potential of bears in the woods!  Ah!!!  Tobin drove home with Ryland that night and they saw a mom and baby bear outside of the house Barb, Jennie and Justine's family were staying in!  They ran at 6am and then encountered several deer on their run.  Beautiful sites and wildlife to see.