One of the more ridiculous hikes I’ve ever done was Upper Yosemite Falls back in February 2007.

Chris and I headed out from his house early to give us enough time to get to the park and then knock out the 7.2 mile round trip.

The hike itself was pretty straightforward and I don’t remember it being super difficult. It was more the conditions that made it challenging and probably fairly stupid that we even went for it.

There was a light amount of rain and it was pretty cold at the trailhead. From my photos I can tell that I was wearing tennis shoes, jeans, a cotton hoodie, a sweatband, some wool gloves, and a non-waterproof jacket.

…clearly ready for the conditions…

Well apparently the journey to the top comes with some 2700′ of elevation gain in 3.6 miles. And once to the top, the elevation dropped and what once was a mildly wet rainy hike turned into a very cold, snowy hike.

One of the few distinct memories I have some 9 years later was once we were all done and driving back home, we were starving and cold and we stopped somewhere and ate what was probably the best bowl of chili in the history of humankind.