Roadtrip Squared: Day 16: 15 mile hike= $250 hotel room

When Mike was at the top of the falls yesterday, he noticed a sign that said White Wolf 10.8 miles. After hearing about Yosemite Falls from him and about his hike yesterday, I really wanted to see the falls. So today we decided to hike the 10.8 miles to the top of the falls and either turn around there or hike another 4 miles to the valley floor. I'd talked to a kid who worked at the White Wolf Lodge who said that there was a bus that came up from Yosemite Valley at 6 pm. Time got away from us and we didn't leave until 10 am, but we still thought we could make it. We pretty much busted ass on the hike, no real breaks, moving at a fairly decent pace, and made it to the falls by about 2:30. We spent about a half hour wandering around the top (Yosemite Falls, highest waterfall in North America) and taking pictures..

The way down was pretty grueling, I can only imagine Mike's hike yesterday. We've had this running joke on quite a few of our hikes, that Mike is just trying to get me into the backwoods to kill me. Apparently this will be the start of him becoming a serial killer. (Yes, ridiculous, but remember we've been together for a long time 24 hours a day. You run out of normal things to talk about!) At one point in the hike, I told him I was done and asked if he could just kill me already if that was the plan. He responded with a really long explanation as to why that point on the trail was not a good place to kill me, just injure me. So loving!

Anyway, we reached the valley at about 4:45, despite the elevator from the top being broken (no, there wasn't an elevator, that was just more of my tired rant). We walked over to the lodge to find out that we had some misinformation. The shuttle the kid told me about only runs on Saturdays, and even then, leaves at 5. Great.

While I was talking to a ranger about alternate routes to get back to White Wolf (hitch-hiking, bribing an employee to take us), Mike went to check if there were any rooms available at the lodge.

So apparently this is the difference between your 20s and 30s. Twenties would have been the hitch-hiking, no doubt. Not us. We dropped the $250 for the last available room and went and had an expensive dinner in our sweaty, dirty, nasty hiking clothes. Hmm. Thinking I might be ready for 30!