Well well well...we meet again. As I sit here on Thursday, June 16th, beer in hand, feet wrapped and bandaged, icy hot strewn on the legs, and a glorious sunburn covered about, I can't help but think about the next time I get to relive this amazing experience, the experience of hiking Half Dome.

Hell...it kicked my ass, it kicked all of our asses. 6 youngins voluntarily woke up at 3:00am to inhale dust, drink warm CamelBak water, and walk for 16 miles. And for what? To stand at the top of one of the most iconic landmarks in the world.

5:40 am, Tunnel View. Remind me never to wake up this early again.

There's a very basic saying, that can usually only be said while holding a Starbucks and browsing Instagram; "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." I think this quote applied to the majority of us on this hike. It was a long, enduring hike that had some steep cliffs and tall views, but life was definitely lived throughout this trek.

Just look at these stats:

Disclaimer...I forgot to stop the gps at the top of Half Dome, and didn't realize it until we were already heading back down. So the total times are a little bit off.

As you can see, the closer we came to the final destination, the slower we moved. We were definitely ready to get to the top and relax for a bit. And like the saying always goes, the last mile is the hardest, and that couldn't be more true in the case. The staircase up Sub-Dome was brutal, and absolutely destroyed all of our legs, which left the ascent up the cables to Half Dome that much more interesting.

To get on with the adventure, I'll leave the rest to the photos.

Enjoy:

The gang, all happy and cheerful...we had no idea what was to come.

Mist Trail at 8AM, good little wakeup shower for us stinky hikers.

I kind of forgot to take photos for about 4 miles...mainly because I was way too lazy and tired to stop and take my bag off.

Just about to sub-dome, but this was after a pretty steep stretch, so we all needed a nice break.

All the hard work paid off! And the view was definitely worth it. I was more than excited to eat my PB&J and look at the peasants, I mean world, below us.

The top of Half Dome is surprisingly...plain. No restaurants up here.

The clouds started to roll in, so we started to boogie on out of there.

And there you have it! 8 miles to get back down to the car, and we were all soooooo excited to be able to take our boots off and relax. Of course, we dealt with the unexpected traffic that floods Yosemite Valley periodically. But in the end, we ended up getting the pizza we had all been looking forward to since 6:30am when we started the hike.

I'm gonna go and soak my feet in some hot water, and drink another beer.

'til the next adventure,

-J