Tag Archives: California

Across The Great Divides

On June 20, a humid Wednesday in the District of Columbia, I schlepped my internal frame pack, my daypack and a carry-on, all exploding with two weeks worth of clothes and camping gear, to Baltimore Washington International Airport. Two bumpy rides later, I landed in an even hotter, but dry, Denver. My first real vacation [...]

The Four-Mile Trail That Isn’t

The inaptly named Four Mile trail in Yosemite Valley is, in fact, just over four and half miles each direction. The Yosemite National Park Web site list the trail as “strenuous,” but it wasn’t incredibly taxing for the distance. Besides, the trail terminates at Glacier Point where, unknown to us, there was a bus stop, [...]

Half Dome 1, Josh 0

“It’s not that I’m scared, I’m just really tired,” one big burly guy said to another. The second looked at the peak of Half Dome, the largest granite monolith in the world, and agreed that he too was indeed too fatigued after the eight-mile hike from the floor of Yosemite Valley to finish the trail. [...]