Bridal Veil

The summer that my friend Brenten invited our friend Derek and my sisters Abbie, Lexie and I to camp with his family in Yosemite was the first time I had ever been to that park. We packed heavily and joked that we had brought everything PLUS the kitchen sink, because of the sink on the trailer behind us, brought solely for humor and secured carefully beside a full sized and open trampoline.

This camping trip was a chance to be more active in the outdoors than I expect most of us usually were. We rode bikes most places, went for long rides, walked, and rode the bus into the small nearby town to explore the museums. At night the girls slept in a tent atop the trampoline, and the boys slept beneath the trampoline on the trailer. We kept ourselves busy mostly, exploring nature trails, or going on guided walking tours sometimes.

One day we found a moderately safe rock face and began rappelling down the side of it, the ambitious Fillmores both teaching us how and advising our descent. Probably the height of our energy saw us hiking the Bridal Veil trail one day. I had no idea what I was getting myself into at the time. I don’t know if I would have done it had I known the full extent of the climb before I began; but today I would always do it over. We all began determinedly: the veteran climbers who had done it before and knew what to expect along with the cautious tenderfeet.

The climb was just as I had expected – at first. Then it continued, going on and on, farther and beyond what I had imagined. I hiked without a word – at first, but it was fairly obvious that I was a bit plagued by the trail when I straggled behind the large group of climbers with the mothers attempting to hike while carrying, or pulling along their young children. Everyone reached the top eventually whether in the front or back of the group.

The trail surprised me; I had never seen such a popular trail with some parts so seemingly risky. In some spots we hiked through mist and water droplets, right beside a waterfall and in others the path narrowed out so much there was a guardrail and we walked single file. The view on top was amazing, but the climb itself was the most fun part for me. I had always heard of Yosemite and how great it was, but going there myself established a fondness of not only Yosemite, but of being outside doing the things that I learned to do there.