6:56am, Tuesday, June 11th, 2024 - Camp 4, Yosemite Valley National Park, California
…listening to birds make their calls...sounds of tent zippers...peoples feet walking across the Valley Floor…communication of squirrels and chipmunks…a woman sneezing...the sound of metal bear food storage bins opening and closing loudly in the morning air…a man clearing his throat…the sound of nylon technical pants in motion...all these sounds layered upon one another with the added benefit of our campsite being next to a celebrity of sorts, a rock named Columbia Boulder, with a problem (yes, this rock has a problem as well as a name, lol), in the parlance of the climbing community, the route up it, is called Midnight Lightning; which explains the amount of people with lights and the serious chatter at all hours of the day by folks attempting to solve it and scale its twenty-five foot summit without the aid of ropes or other devices.
My two sons and I, or as we call our squad, "The Dolphin Pod", came here to hike up Half Dome today, coming in the night before to this wonderful campground that you can only reserve a week in advance, so spaces are generally obtainable through Reserve California. What you get in return is beyond imagination. Looking ANYWHERE here will compel you to stop and take a picture, and if not, you seriously considered it. Think Kodak Moment! Just consider the traffic congestion of vehicles, if not stopped, barely exhibiting forward movement. I felt terrible about myself honking at someone in their car within five minutes of arriving in the park, thinking in my head, jeez Chip, you are just a jerky-inconsiderate-in-a-hurry-LA-driver-even here!-this PLACE doesn’t slow you down? Gawd, you seriously need to tone it down- hopefully this vacation will help! All was forgotten the following day when our tram driver proceeded to blast the mega horn of her bus at stopped traffic repeatedly along her route, multiple times. Ahhh, thank you!! Validation! I am not so bad after all.
My squad and I have come to recreate with nature in this beautiful part of our Golden State. To reduce what Richard Louv called in his book, Last Child in the Woods, Nature-Deficit Disorder. The hike to the summit and back to the bottom was really hard, for me, and made me think in my humbled state, geez Chip, why didn’t you think of training for this by throwing a gallon of water in a backpack and going for a couple walks for a few hours, maybe walking up a hill in the process? Couldn’t come up with an answer or any excuse, so I decided when I got home, and recovered, and recovered some more, and even a little more just to be sure I was recovered, that’s what I would do.
I don’t really call it hiking, can you really? if you are doing it in the city? I call it training. Seems to bolster my self-confidence as I think of how I might look. A middle-aged dad wearing a small backpack filled with water, long sleeves-a hat-and-pants-in-an-attempt-to-preserve-my-skin, setting off down the street. Walking. So simple. If I get too far from home and too tired; the bottles come out and let the watering of public plants commence!
Is it a stretch to call it nature if you remain in the city? I call it nature-ish; because the value of walking and just being in nature has proven mental health benefits on reducing stress. Feels better to me. No matter where you walk in this city, if you persist long enough you are bound to end up in some legit nature - either in the mountains or by the ocean. Call this mini-vacation whatever you want! As a plus, no carbon is emitted en route to the trailhead, if you leave from your front-door. I think mother nature appreciates that.
“It’s better outside”, is motto of mine, and the amount of nature present in the city, if you choose to look, can be healing.
Happy trails!
-Carl "Chip" Krantz, Penny Lane Centers
