hello this it A, i will be substitute blogging for you this evening because my wife is out
Today i am here to tell you all about our sons first birthday. For the past few weeks now M was toying with me and telling me that she had an awesome surprise in store for LD (Little Dude) and I for his birthday. well a few days ago she finally told me that she had plans to take us to Yosemite to go backpacking. Now this may sound crazy to some, but i really wanted to take LD backpacking before he turned one year.
I've wanted to pretty much since he was born. i was sooo excited. after she told me, all i could think about was what preparations needed to be done in order to make our trip successful. i employed some of my ultralight backpacking techniques to create a manageable pack weight for each of us while i would also be wearing LD on my back in our Osprey Poco Plus. Last Thursday morning we finally arrived in Yosemite after waking up at 3AM to drive while LD slept and make it to the permit office before it opened. The first thing we did was go straight to the permit issuing office to attempt to get a backpacking permit leading from Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley.
Unfortunately it was a no go... permits were not available for our destination. we were all very bummed but decided to make the best of it. since i recently became an ordained Dudeist Priest (story for another day) i tried to keep to my faith and "abide" as the Dude most assuredly would have given the situation. So we decided to do our hike anyways and just hike it as a day hike instead of with our overnight gear. the hike was alot of fun. it was my first time up to the top of Vernal Falls and in the poor shape i was in it was quiet grueling, but the mountain air kept me going. we made it to the top around lunch and sat down for a bite to eat by the Vernal pool. after lunch we headed back down and by the time we made it , we both thought our legs were made of jello. We went to the visitor center and picked up LD's junior Nat'l Parks Passport Companion book and his Nat'l Parks Passport. M helped him stamp it which i know she really enjoyed. we went over to camp 4 and much to our dismay, we found out there were no available camp sites.
We were thinking great... we drove here super early and now we are going to have to drive home the same night. we got dinner (pizza at Degnan's) and went to do a few other things, hoping that it would be easier to drive with LD tired and ready to sleep the whole way home. at about 9 we left the park with him wide awake. And then the nightmare began..... he began to scream, and scream, and scream. we thought he was tied and would most likely fall asleep in a few minutes. well, he didn't. we had to pull over to console and give him a break at crane flat. after about a half hour of waiting, we tried again. i pulled out of crane flat and after a minute or two, it started again. he screamed and screamed we thought we would come up to the park entrance soon enough and that we could stop there safely. i drove on and on thinking it should be coming up soon. after what felt like hours, and was probably actually about 45 minutes (still a long time to listen to your child screaming bloody murder) we see a sign for May Lake. AWWWWW SHIT. i feel horrible now because i realize i made a wrong turn somehow out of Crane Flat. I'm not about to repeat that trip back down to CF so we stop and decide to sleep in the car awhile, by now its about 11pm. i organize the back a little so M and LD can lay down in a sleeping bag. i try to sleep sitting up in the front seat which goes miserably for me. after about 2 hours of attempting to sleep. i wake up M and say we need to keep moving toward home. we buckle LD back up and he sleeps (for awhile) i drive until i feel like i cant do it any longer and then switch with M.
i pass out in the passenger seat and wake up later when hes awake and screaming again. at this point we are nearing Sonora and decide we have to pull over and sleep again. so here we are at a god awful hour of the morning, attempting to sleep with me propped up in the driver seat and M squished in the back. from about 3am to 630am. we made due the best we could and managed to get a little restful sleep. at about 630 we woke up and were able to drive the rest of the way home. we couldn't even nap that day because we had so much preparation to do for LD's upcoming birthday BBQ. but man did i sleep well that night...
all in all im still glad we went.
(This has been edited with photographic proof of a good time had by all. Love M.)!
I've wanted to pretty much since he was born. i was sooo excited. after she told me, all i could think about was what preparations needed to be done in order to make our trip successful. i employed some of my ultralight backpacking techniques to create a manageable pack weight for each of us while i would also be wearing LD on my back in our Osprey Poco Plus. Last Thursday morning we finally arrived in Yosemite after waking up at 3AM to drive while LD slept and make it to the permit office before it opened. The first thing we did was go straight to the permit issuing office to attempt to get a backpacking permit leading from Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley. 
