The Last Leg!

Day 19:

Today we woke up very groggy, sore, and blistered. Sarah and Phil both had GIANT blisters on their toes from Half Dome the previous day. Dawson woke up early and took a short walk and found this fuzzy caterpillar.


Phil thought it was cool.


So did Totoro.


While packing up the tent we found the daddy of all the spiders in our campsite. It was almost tarantula sized.


On the way out, we took a picture of the Yosemite sign, and then the sign on the way into Sequoia.



And, as promised, here's a picture of Sarah's Pokéman, Pii and Totoro.


That night we stayed in a campsite in Sequoia.

Day 20:

After waking up, cooking some hash browns, and packing up, we headed to the largest tree in the world (not height-wise or girth-wise, but in overall cubic feet-wise) called the General Sherman tree.




Everyone thought it was really cool that we had a gnome with us, and took lots of pictures. Every time we passed someone, we could hear them murmuring something about gnomes, or travelocity.

Phil found a tree with a large growth, so he jumped the fence and kissed it.


After carrying our fifty pound gnome the half-mile back up to the car, we drove out of sequoia and on to Vegas!

After a four hour drive through the desert, we managed to get a flat tire within site of the strip. After quickly changing it, we drove in on the spare tire and checked into our room at the stratosphere. It was an amazing hotel room, especially after camping for a few weeks.

After checking in, showering, and taking a quick dip in the pool, we went to the airport to pick up Lizzie! She had just gotten in from North Carolina and had flown out to Vegas on a whim to meet up with us on our last day.


After getting back to the hotel room, we took off on a walk down the strip. Tim found a terrifying clown to stand in front of at Circus Circus.


The strip was quite an experience. So many cultures, and all of them were drunk.



It was fun having two new members on the trip.


Tim wanted his picture taken with the Eiffel Tower and the moon.


We saw two of the signs that Brant designs the structures for.



We also decided that Tim should join Thunder Down Under.


We all parted company close to the end of the strip. Sarah and I headed back, Tim and Phil walked through every casino on the strip, getting hit on by cougars, and Connor and Lizzie continued to walk the strip. About halfway back, Sarah and I decided that we were sick of walking (the strip is about three and a half miles long) so we took the bus the remaining distance back.


Sarah and I got back around three thirty, Connor and Lizzie got back around four thirty, and Tim and Phil got in around five thirty. They wanted to go to the pool, but it was closed, so they decided to take a bath together.


Day 20:

Waking up in Vegas!


We packed up and headed out of the hotel I looked around, but there was only one place open in town to get the tire changed, and because it was Sunday, the wait was five hours, so we decided to risk it and headed to arches on the spare.

After driving about eight hours, we pulled into Arches national park at about eight PM. Unfortunately, all the campsites were closed, so we headed to Moab and camped in a little RV park. We were able to sit in the pool a few minutes before it closed.

Day 21:

After waking up, eating some of the last scraps, and packing up, we headed into arches national park.


We took some short hikes to the arches and took some cool archy pictures.




It was really really hot, so we headed back to beautiful Colorado.


On the way back, we stopped in Glennwood Springs to swim in their giant pool. After about three hours of hot spring water, we headed back home! We got back at about ten thirty, talked to Sarah's parents for a while and then went to sleep, at home!

We hope you enjoyed our blog!

Until Next time,

The Great Idaho Circlers.

San Francisco to Half Dome

Day 15:

We woke up at Gold Bluffs Beach at 6AM and quickly packed up camp with the knowledge that the eight mile dirt road out of camp would be closed from seven thirty till noon for maintenance (of which it was in MUCH need). It actually turned out for the best because San Francisco was about seven hours from our campsite, so we arrived (after "dozens" of bathroom breaks for Phil and Sarah) on time for our campsite reservation at Half Moon Bay.

After setting up camp and walking the beach a bit, we headed to San Jose to meet up with old friends of Sarah's parent's at a delicious Chinese restaurant the four of them (Brant, Laurie, Jimmy and Sherri) used to eat at all the time. We had been told over and over again that the food was amazingly spicy, and we weren't disappointed. Phil's eyelids were dripping sweat by the end.

During our delicious meal, a man came in and sat down at a table across from us and Dawson managed to get an inconspicuous picture with his iPhone of his epically GIANT unibrow.

Afterwords we went to Guitar Center for Phil to buy a guitar capo. While we were there, Dawson and Tim figured out the background chords to their new smash hit swing song, "Look Out, Boiling Water Coming Through, And it's not Very Well Secured." (It's a long story)

Then we went back and spent a relaxing evening in front of the campfire, resting up for our big day in San Fran.

Day 16:

Today we drove into San Francisco. We were going to take the trolley everywhere, but found out it was $13 a person, so instead we opted to walk through the city (as we had seemed to do in every city so far).


We walked ridiculously far to the Fisherman's Warf where we had some delicious sushi at a place called Miyabi Sushi. Connor decided to take the Yom Bomb (wasabi wrapped in ginger) to the extreme, as you see here:


Then we went to Trader Joe's, where Sarah bought a one pound dark chocolate bar, and Tim bought a carbonated chocolate protein drink with thirty six grams of protein in a twelve ounce can. Needless to say, he was rather energetic for the rest of the day (and night).

After walking though some of the market we walked up to the high point overlooking the city.


Where we saw the windiest road in the world:

And a building Phil likes a lot.

After some difficulty (it had been a long day of walking) we arrived at China Town where Sarah and Phil were very excited to find the Pokéman store where Sarah bought a Totaro purse and Pii (it's a Pokémon). You'll see them in a few days.


On the way out of town Tim stopped to hug a tree.


When we got back to camp, Phil and Tim set up a mini rail made out of firewood that worked pretty well.



We spent the rest of the evening around the campfire and saying goodbye to the ocean. Then packed up and left for Yosemite around 11:30 PM in the hopes that we could get a campground if we got there early enough.

Day 17:

After leaving Half Moon Bay at eleven thirty at night, we got to Yosemite at about four in the morning. While driving through the park we slowly realized that EVERY single campsite was either reserved a year ahead of time, or closed. After driving all the way through the park, we pulled over and slept in the truck on the side of the road just outside the park. Dawson, Tim and Phil slept in the bed in the back, Connor slept in the front seat, and Sarah slept on a giant pile of duffel bags and pads in the back seat.


We woke up to a stunning view of a timberline lake.


Dawson and Tim found a Geocache (sorta like a worldwide treasure hunt for outdoor nerds). We added our names to the log book and added in a few trinkets of our own before re-hiding the box in some rocks.


Then we drove back through the park and found a decent campground just outside the park called Shimmering Lakes. It was a surprisingly hot day, so we bushwacked our way up to a waterfall to take a swim.

Day 18:

We woke up early to climb Half Dome. We made it into the valley before the sun, and eagerly started up the trail.


We took the scenic route on the way up. It was aptly named.


Sarah got tired, so Dawson and Tim switched of carrying her backpack on their front.


The trail was quite long! Due to taking the scenic route, it was about seventeen miles round trip, with a forty-eight hundred foot altitude gain. At the top of the trail was Sub-Dome and Full-Dome. Sub-Dome had really steep stairs going up it.



The view was amazing, even before we were at the summit.


After some convincing, Dawson talked Sarah into going up the cables to the top. Tim was very excited!


We were lucky to get onto the cables with almost no wait, but getting up took about forty-five minutes, even though it was only four hundred feet. It was interesting being on top because it seemed like the summit of a fourteener. The rock was huge, and quite flat. You could have played a game of ultimate (if there wasn't any wind) up there. But none of us were short of breath because the summit is only at about eighty-eight hundred feet.

We took some photos:




And did the fork in the garbage disposal


Dawson and Tim decided to do a round of push-ups, and Phil decided to freak Sarah (and some of you reading this) out by peaking over the edge through a hole.



We found a plaque that had hundreds of names and dates from climbers carved into it. Some of them were pretty old.


Sarah had a much easier time on the way down.


We were told by people coming up that there was now a two hour wait just to get on the
cables. The view was pretty spectacular.


Sarah was quite happy to reach the bottom.


We took the less scenic (much wetter) way down. It led past several waterfalls and the mist from them soaked everything in the valley. It was like being in a heavy rain storm.



Phil beat us to the bottom and decided to spend his time meditating on a bridge.


Back at our campsite, we discovered several very large spiders.


And Phil discovered that his mustache is now big enough to hold snacks in.