Cali 2011 part 2- Escape from Yosemite

A wise man once said "Sometimes success is just making it back home.  Perceived failures are often the greatest adventures."

The morning of July 2nd started out with great promise, as we woke up in Camp 4 with the plan of extending our stay another night, and spending another day in the Valley before heading back to Santa Barbara.

Strike one.  We got up too late, and soon found ourselves displaced by the family of roughly 50 people who were now moving into our site.

No matter.  We had heard of a campground outside the park boundary that would have some sites available.  Even better, by staying there we would be able to use the pool and hot tub at the neighboring hotel.  Suddenly the day didn't seem so bad!  Throwing our things in the car, we left the Valley in search of our temporary residence.

Strike two.  Arriving at the campground only to be greeted by a "no vacancy" sign.  Okay then, new plan.  We decided to grab some lunch at the nearby grill, then head back and climb for the day before making a late drive back to Santa Barbara.

Four lackluster patty melts later, we were on our way back into the Valley, planning to head over to Serenity Crack so Luke could get some good photos of Dan leading the 3rd pitch.  Then we hit the traffic jam...

As traffic jams go, there were definitely worse places to be!  The views definitely compensated for the fact that we were running the heat full force to keep the car from overheating.  And it was nearly 100 degrees outside as it was!  For a while we resorted to driving with the doors wide open, which didn't seem to bother the rangers at all, even when they yelled at Luke to put a seatbelt on.  Not sure what they were worried was going to happen while were driving at casual walking speed, but who were we to argue?

Eventually we found a parking space near Curry Village and walked from there over toward Serenity...

After cooling off in Devil's Bathtub, Dan, Scott, and Luke all headed toward Serenity.  The plan was for Dan to lead it, Scott to follow, and Luke to come up behind on a fixed line.  Once they had all reached the top of the third pitch, Dan was going to lead it again for Luke's camera.  Starting at 6:00, it was going to make for a late night, but we were hoping the resulting photos would be worth it.  Leaving them at the base, I headed down to boulder near the road, arranging to meet them inside the hotel if it got too dark before they returned.

On their end, the climb was a success, or so I eventually found out.

Photo: Luke Anderson

Photo: Luke Anderson

Photo: Luke Anderson

My bouldering down below was plenty of fun, and I was fortunate enough to run into a local who showed me some new problems.  Eventually he had to go, and I realized it was dark enough that I was better off going inside, especially with signs at the trailhead warning of mountain lions.  For anyone who doesn't know, mountain lions are quite possibly my biggest phobia.  So I went in and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  I started to consider whether I should go up to look for them, and had just decided that I would go in five more minutes when I saw the welcome sight of headlamps coming down the hill.  Well, two headlamps and a phone to be precise.  And not a nice bright smartphone either, since somehow the last four of us on the planet with regular phones had all managed to go climbing together.  Going across the lot to meet them, we sprinted to catch the last bus, and as we rode they caught me up on stories of stuck rappel ropes and overheated headlamps.

We got to the car around 10:15, threw our bags in, and got ready to head over to Curry Village for a quick shower before getting on the road to Santa Barbara.  At that point we were already getting home at 4:00 in the morning, so what was another 15 minutes?

Strike three.  The key wouldn't turn in the ignition.  Apparently some cosmic power had listened to our wishes for another night in the valley after all.

We called AAA and had a tow truck dispatched, fearing that they would have to come get us from outside the valley, but it turned out that there was a garage nearby in Yosemite Village.  The truck soon arrived and the driver miraculously avoided ripping a mirror off in the process of loading the car onto the trunk, mainly because Luke and I bent the stop sign back out of the way.  As the car was getting loaded on, a ranger drove by to check on us, and told us that we could stay in the backpackers' camp.  "But only for one night!"  Now, we did wonder how they were planning to limit us to one night when we didn't have a functioning car, but decided not to push the point with the surly man sitting next to a shotgun and an assault rifle.  Who knew rangers carried that much firepower?

Anyway, we got to the garage, packed up what we needed for the night, and walked a couple miles in the dark toward the backpackers' camp.  Which ironically was really close to where we had just been climbing.  And just to make the evening more comfortable, we got to walk right past the mountain lion sign on the way.

Even at the time, despite a car that wouldn't start and a long walk in the dark, we had to appreciate the fact that we were still in Yosemite.  If you're going to be stuck, that's the place to do it!  Eventually we got to camp, set up the tents, and somewhere around 1:00 in the morning sat down to one of the most satisfying dinners of the trip...

Photo: Luke Anderson

After a short, but restful night of sleep, we took a moment to enjoy our surroundings before heading back to Yosemite Village...

Getting back to the garage, we were happy to hear that there was someone there who could probably give us a temporary fix and at least get us back to Santa Barbara.  Lightened by the news, we went to the lodge for a good hot breakfast, and returned to the garage ready to be on the way.  Unfortunately, the looks on their faces told us that wasn't going to be the case.  As it turned out, they had tripped the security system while trying to do the bypass, and the car now had to go to a dealership... which would normally be two hours away, even if the park didn't have volumes of traffic I've only ever seen in Manhattan.

So we waited...

Four and a half hours later, our savior arrived.  Clay the tow truck driver loaded our car up, and we embarked on one of the most amusing portions of the trip.  Too bad he hadn't been driving us the whole time!

Clay dropped our car off...

...then took us to where our rental car was waiting for us.  Now, I should specify that the rental office wasn't actually open.  They just said they would leave it for us, which we thought was pretty trusting.  As we came to find out, they didn't even bother doing a rental contract.  They pretty much just left an Impala at the gate of an airport runway with the keys in the ignition...

After verifying that there were no large blocks of heroin in the trunk, we headed back to the dealership and packed everything into the new car...

Then off on the road again.  We made another much needed stop at In-N-Out Burger around 9:00, and cruised for several hours under the starry California sky.  Needing to stretch around 1:00 in the morning, we pulled over to do a bit of bouldering at Lizard's Mouth, which pretty much felt like an outdoor gym with all of its pockets, pinches, and huecos.

After a good stretch, and an amusing fall that managed to shatter my camera screen, we resigned ourselves to laying out on the rocks, taking in the shooting stars above and the glow of Santa Barbara below...

I could quite easily have slept there, but eventually we decided that with only about 20 minutes left to drive, heading home made as much sense.  So we got in the car for the final leg, made our way home, and passed a few pleasant hours of sleep before waking up to a much more relaxing 4th of July.  Well, not counting Scott's avocado cutting injury...