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Camping on Half Dome & Webinar Reminder

 

 

**Half Dome webinar  HD info**

Sunday night 7 pm

 http://hikehalfdome.com/the-half-dome-hike-all-of-it-1-hour-webinar-sunday-may-19/

 Camping on the top of Half Dome ended in 1992. I never did it. Can you imagine a field to tents up there?  So why did it end? Well, not only did you have to lug about 30 pounds of gear up, there are no toilets there. So you can imagine the odiferous molecules that wafted on Tissiak. Human impact beyond do-do was the normal litter we tend to see. I took the above photo about 5:30 am in July. this couple were huddled in sleeping bags awaiting the rays of the sun.  Is this camping?  I say no. Camping implies you intend to erect a tent, have cooking gear and all the other stuff we use. although no ranger is going to go up at 3 am to check, if they see you coming down with gear, you will get nailed – and fined.

The overarching reason, however, was that the habitat of the Mt Lyell salamander was impacted. In the early ’90′s there was a surge of Greenpeace type environmentalists who were alerting the nation to the ills we were causing …

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French Woman Hiker Eaten by Vultures; Yosemite’s Steller’s Jays are Merely a Nuisance

This is not a joke. A 52-year old woman fell from a cliff in the Pyrenees, France recently. She tumbled  down about 1,000 feet. It was clear she was dead, and rescuers headed down the steep area to her. It took them about 45 minutes to find her. In a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller “The Birds,” several Griffon vultures had consumed her entire body.

All that was left were some clothes, shoes and a few bones. Vultures in the area usually have fed on livestock carcasses left by French farmers. Today, regulations prohibit leaving animal carcasses out on the land. They have to be burned. Ironically, farmers aren’t allowed to kill vultures because they are a protected species.

This is the first verified report of a human being actually being eaten by vultures. Now back to those Steller’s Jay’s. The are the most aggressive bird in the park. If you turn your head they will swipe a sandwich right out of your hand. But that’s better than being devoured. Ugh.

 

Unrelated thought worth quoting: “Everybody have you heard? She’s gonna buy me a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don’t …

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Bay Area Station KNTV Channel 2 ran a story today about Yosemite Park opening new tent cabins to replace the 91 Signature Tent Cabins implicated during the Hanta Virus attack last summer. They feature a new design with no insulating area, where the mice nested. About 50 of the new cabins are ready with all of them expected for the throngs when they arrive May 1.

Visitors are advised NOT to eat in the tent cabins as the crumbs attract mice. So don’t even sneak that granola bar. Even mice without the virus cause problems. Bring Felix the Cat with you to patrol your cabin while you sleep. those green containers out front were designed to keep bears at bay – but they are most useful to keep the mice out.

Watch the film and notice that they appear to still have heaters.

 

Unrelated thought worth quoting: “My room is so small, the mice are hunchbacked.” - Morey Amsterdam

MrHalfDome™ – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com

One Best Hike: Yosemite’s Half Dome

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