Hiking the Mist Trail

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend.  Lots of eating, lots of fun and laughter with family, and a major hike. Yosemite National Park is practically in Fresno's backyard.  Just a short 60 miles gets you to the park entrance and another 35 miles takes you to the valley floor.

Les and I have made many trips to Yosemite in the past 22 years.  He proposed to me there on November 3, 1990 and we've been going back ever since.  When Les proposed, we hiked the Mist Trail to Vernal Fall.  This time we continued another two miles to Nevada Fall.  3.5 miles, with 2,000 feet of elevation gain!

The hike is described this way:

Medium, but bordering strenuous if you go all the way to the top of Nevada Fall. The stretches beside Vernal and Nevada Falls are both quite steep - in fact, the last few hundred meters up the Vernal Falls trail are stairs cut into the cliffside.

Those stairs in the cliff are killer!  Many were so steep, my hand was touching the ground as my knee was bent.  But the views from the top make it worthwhile!

Both of our Garmins had trouble tracking with the tall cliffs, and mine died completely on the way down, so I don't have complete data.  I did see my heart rate hit 162 as we were climbing the final steps to the top.

At Nevada Fall the trail continues on up another four miles to Half Dome.  The cables are down for the winter, so even if we'd been prepared, we couldn't have gone.

We made our way down, via the Muir Trail.  It was four miles, as opposed to 3.5, which made it just a little more gentle.

I had very little soreness on Saturday and none on Sunday.  I guess running hills has helped!