Yosemite 9.16.9

i didnt 'SEE' the bear, but the shotgun woke me up about 2am today...

BOOM! (hear woman scream) 'bear'

BOOM! 'there's a bear...' BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

(they shoot a shotgun with rubber bullets. they also dart, collar and tag bears. if the same bear comes into camp and becomes a trouble maker, they dart him and carry him off to the other side of the forest.)

i was so tired and sore from hiking that i rolled over and immediately went back to sleep. the next morning we discussed it with fellow campers only to find out the bear ran right through our camp and beside our cabin. we had placed three small folding chairs in the entrance to our patio - which i am certain is what stopped him from killing me!
Our climb was from the valley floor up to the first waterfall. Vernal Falls, where we ate picnic lunch and then hiked back down. Others, crazy people, climb up all the way to the top of half dome. the last 1/4 mile is straight up using two cables attached to the mountain.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS
El Capitan climbs to 7,569 feet (2,307.03 meters) above sea level. (annually about 5 climbers 'lose their climb' and fall to their death, i am told.) located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end. The granite monolith is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers.

OK. the stuff i dont know about Rock Climbing could fill a rock climbing book... (probably does? do they have their own books?) I'll check half priced books next time i'm in. So here we are driving out of Yosemite going back to Napa. i tell Susan, "i want just 20 minutes to take photos of climbers." Then we spot this group up there doing some wild stuff. Did you know it takes between 5 - 7 days to make the climb. At night you can see their lights hanging up there in their mummy bags. (i found out the last day - too late) this group of 5 guys needs to move their equipment over. so one guy climbs down / lowers down on his rope and swings free style, running along the rock face to get over to a ledge on the left. they then lower all their equipment down to him and the two above him pull it up there. (we didnt get to see how the last guy got over, but i bet he swung over on his rope.) i photograph these guys for an hour and as i'm leaving i talk to some other 'watchers.' they hadn't seen my group and i hadn't seen the one they were watching. we finally spotted six separate different groups of climbers all over the mountain. i imagine there were more that we didnt see.

*i stayed on the ground so i could photograph... (yikes!)

first stop is GROUND training school. where they practice. (little tiny yikes)


Finally back in Napa tonight. will enjoy the wine country for a few days then fly home. It's harvest season here.

- skip