Nights 197 and 198

Royal Arches, Yosemite

Red Tail Hawk

Hi and welcome back!

On Monday afternoon my dad got an email from Mark Smiley about the trip to Yosemite.  He confirmed that on September 27 we are going to climb Royal Arches! Royal Arches is the smallest big wall in Yosemite at 1,400 feet tall, but it's 17 pitches total, so it's not a small climb.

On Thursday C.S. came over to my house, and we went for a hike around 12:15. We cut into the woods about 100 feet from where the pond starts and then followed a stream that went up for about a quarter mile to the mountain that my dad and I hike up. 

Once we found the start of the stream we decided to look for the trail. The woods were so overgrown that we had to bushwhack. We found a cleared spot where we sat and rested. As we were about to turn around we heard a screech, looked up, and saw a red tail hawk.

Once we started climbing up the trail, a yellowjacket started flying around my head. Then it landed on my upper lip and stung me twice! I tried to yank it off which worked after a few seconds of trying.

J.A.C. Giving me a Wake Up Call

I took off my shirt and wrapped it around my head so it wouldn't sting me again, but it managed to get under the shirt and sting my lip a third time! Once I caught up to C.S. I noticed that my lip was starting to swell, so I dipped my shirt in the stream and put it on it.

We finally got home about 2:30.  We were all scratched up and dirty, but we had a ton of fun!

Thanks for reading!