Day 35: Half Dome
23 miles, 6,000 feet of elevation gain — the hardest hike of my life, and I'm glad I did it.
This was the hardest hike of my life. I woke up at 5:30am and drove into the park to start hiking by 7:00am, and later realized I was one of the last people to start. The Mist Trail was closed so I wasn’t able to get close-up views of the two waterfalls along those trails and I had to take the longer route — the John Muir Trail — to get to Half Dome. 10 miles in I was pretty tired and made it to the sub-dome, where it got really steep. The views were amazing and climbing the cables was a little scary but a cool experience. The whole time I was dreading the hike back.
On the way back I stopped by the river, got some more water, and rested before finishing. At the end of the day I had walked 23 miles and gained over 6,000 feet of elevation. Not sure if I would do it again, but I’m glad I did it once.
