Whew!  I went into this hike thinking it was only going to take 6 hours, but it ended up being about 7.5.  That’s a loooooooong 10-mile hike.  Now I think I am REALLY prepared for Yosemite.

We started out at the trailhead on Skyline Drive, between mile markers 33 and 34.  Seven of us – Carey, Ellen, Jon, Margie, Shayna, Michael, and I – hiked downhill for a couple of miles to the turnoff to the White Rocks Trail.  (You know what that means, don’t you?  It will be uphill for the last 2 miles…) Before too long we came to a trail marker that simply said “Cave/Waterfall 0.2 mi” and pointed to the right, down a steep, steep hill.  We took the side trail down to the waterfall and the first three of us to get there were unimpressed with the trickle we saw. When Jon made it down, he told the REAL waterfall was a few steps farther, past the cave. Click here to see pictures.

We gradually made it back up that steep, steep hill and continued on the White Rocks Trail.  From there we could see the surrounding ridges to the north, and Hazel Mountain to the south.  I was walking right behind Michael, who was leading the group, when something ran across his foot.  He jumped and yelped, and I turned to see what the heck it was.  It turned out to be an Eastern Fence Lizard, brown with gray and black markings.  Some new wildlife!  We continued down the other side of the ridge and down to the Hazel River.  We ended up crossing the river several times before lunchtime. 

We stopped for lunch on the river at the bottom of the next steep trail.  Once we had fortified ourselves, we proceeded on a 2.1-mile trek straight up Sam’s Ridge.  It was about halfway up this trail I started cursing the name of our trail leader for choosing such a difficult uphill climb (though I forgave him once we got to the top).  He tried to motivate us to walk by telling bad jokes he learned from the boy scout troop he leads.  At this point, EVERYTHING was hurting – my feet, knees, back, neck, etc.  Somehow I managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other and make it up the hill.  We finally made it to the top and posed for a picture at the end of the trail. What a day!