America!

This is my blog archive, www.thewholeworldround.com has my most recent scribblings.

I don’t know why I expected the bus from Mexico City to Tijuana to actually arrive in Tijuana at the advertised time. You’d think I’d know better by now. I foolishly bided my time in Mexico City so as to reach my destination in the morning (on the third day) with plenty of time to cross the border into California. My frustration at arriving 12 hours behind schedule was easily forgotten at the joy of getting off that bus. I was the only person who rode the bus the full distance from Mexico City to Tijuana. Stopping every hour to be searched for drugs got pretty old. Surprisingly, the Tijuana bus station isn’t a bad place to spend the night. I woke up refreshed and boarded a Greyhound for Riverside, CA.

The ticket to Riverside, by some odd glitch in the system, cost more than the ticket to the city beyond Riverside along the same route. I only needed to go to Riverside but I bought the ticket to the further city knowing I could just get off early. When I got off in Riverside –giddy to be on U.S. soil- I told the clerk that I wasn’t going to use the remaining portion of my ticket, in case someone wanted my seat. The clerk said he couldn’t sell the seat to anyone else, but that I could mail my ticket stub to Greyhound for a refund of the unused portion. I won twice!

A friend from college picked me up at the Riverside bus station. I had learned through facebook –by frantically sprinting to Mexican internet cafes during ten minute bus stops- that Sarah had a personal goal to climb Half Dome. Yosemite was where I wanted to go, so it was perfect. We left that same day.

The Half Dome attempt, as Half Dome attempts tend to, waxed positively epic. We didn’t want to do the fixed cable tourist route so we borrowed some climbing gear and, at 2:30a.m., started hiking towards our route -Snake Dyke. The guide book describes a three hour hike to the base of Snake Dyke. People who don’t get lost along the way miss out on seeing a lot of things, mainly rocks, trees, and rattlesnakes, that we enjoyed during our eight hour approach.

The only reason we ever found the climb was because another team had come along and found us, befuddled, studying our map. The more experienced duo planned to climb Snake Dyke as well, so I figured we could still summit by employing alpine plagiarism. We were out of water and needed to get limit our time in the blazing sun. I hoped that following the same route as the first group, and rigging the same belays, would allow us to complete the 3-4 hour Snake Dyke route in less than two hours. They climbed exposed slab for the first 100ft, not bothering to use the crack system that would allow the placement of protection. The climbing looked easy enough, so I followed suit. I’ve never before climbed that high unprotected. I definitely got scared, but I know from experience that scared climbers become completely incapable of the task at hand. Ignoring my fear, battled upwards, and finally breathed a huge sigh of relief upon reaching a belay ledge. Unfortunately we didn’t climb much farther before lightning, thunder, and rain dealt our climb a final blow. The retreat to the car was rough. We still didn’t know where the trail was; bushwhacking took forever. Luckily for me I planned to stay in Yosemite, Sarah had to drive solo back to Southern California after our all night lesson in the relative sizes of God’s creations.

My arrival in the States was abrupt, but it took me no time to adjust. I’ve spent two previous summers in Yosemite, so I immediately felt like life was normal again. Over the past week I’ve actually been surprised and almost startled when it occurs to me that I’m only a traveler passing through.