Vacation Week 7/21/14

Well what do you do when you just finished the race that you've been planning for 7 months and find yourself in a beautiful area like Lake Tahoe? 
Both Gina and I felt pretty good following the race.  I had a few blisters, will probably lose my right big toenail, but overall feel pretty good.
7/21/14 - We went for a hike at Echo Lake just south of Lake Tahoe.  The trail is part of both the JMT and TRT.  This was a very nice area.  As we drove in we saw a running training camp was going on and being staged from this area.  The trail skirted the north shore of the lake and was a pretty smooth non technical trail.  You could take a water taxi to about the 2.5 mile point of this trail and hike from there if you wanted.  We hiked up to Tamarack lake and then headed back for a nice easy 8.5 miler.
7/22/14 - When we were in Tahoe for our honeymoon I remember heading out to Fallen Leaf Lake.  I don't remember exactly what we did there but I've remembered this area off and on over the last 16 years.  We went to the Glen Allen Springs Trailhead and did a short unimpressive hike.  This area was notable in that it was the first resort area in Lake Tahoe. 
7/23/14 - Leading up for this trip we were looking into what BIG trail to do in Yosemite.  We got to looking at the Half Dome Cables hike as the primary goal.  This is a crazy hike up to Half Dome where the last climb has you being assisted by use of two rows of cables.  One misstep and you'd be a goner.  The trouble with this hike is that is by permit only.  275 of the 350 permits are given out in the early season to backcountry hikers and day hikers and then the remaining permits are given out by lottery.
The NPS website has all the stats for how likely it is that you will get a permit.  I think they had the numbers as around 1500 people try to get the 75 permits available.  Well, we got permitted.
So our last morning in Lake Tahoe saw us getting up at 3am and leaving around 3:30 for the 4+ hour drive to the Yosemite Valley and Half Dome.  We got started around 7:45am for the 16ish mile hike, 8 miles out and back where it was described as having 4800ft of elevation gain.
In hindsight, we should have gone up the Mist Trail and down the JMT, but due to the signage we went the opposite route.  The Mist trail is a steep stair ridden trail that goes along Vernal and Nevada Falls.  The JMT goes off to the side with views of both.  Both trails are fine but I prefer to go out and back on different trails if I have the option.
Both the Mist and JMT head up to Little Yosemite Valley where we took the side trail up to Half Dome.  Before you get to the cables you get to the Lower Dome where the Park Ranger was to check our permits.  We checked in and then hiked up the very steep Lower Dome.  This trail was straight up sections of granite steps and rocks. 
Once on the Lower Dome you have only the last 400ft of elevation and the cables to conquer.  Fortunately there are a number or boards or steps in the granite where you can take a break to catch your breath, give your arms and legs a break, or let up and down traffic by you.  After a couple of breaks we were at the top and on top of Yosemite.  From here you can see almost the entire park.  We soaked in the sights and then walked the perimeter before heading back down.  We ended up with right at 19 miles.  A very tough day on already tired legs but we did it.  As we were winding the day down walking back to the care I mentioned to Gina how close we were to a 100 mile week.  That's all it took for us to look for the last 13-15 miles we needed to hit that mark. 
7/24/14 - Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias - We didn't get off and running very quickly this morning so we got caught in vacationer traffic at the park.  We were actually fortunate because the allowed us to have one of the best runs we could have wished for.  Overflow parking was sent to Wawona.  From here we caught the free park shuttle up to the Sequoias.
We started out on the outer loop and within about three quarters of a mile we were out of the crowds and on our own.  We hit all the major landmarks as we made it to the upper grove and then Wawona Point (this was a nice place to get a lookout and enjoy the scenery and day).  From here we continued on the outer loop to the Wawona Trail.  This was listed as a 6 mile trail back to Wawona and where we parked.
The Wawona Trail was a mostly downhill trail on nice soft footing through some old growth pine, redwood, and sequoia forest.  You couldn't have asked for a nicer trail.  If the vacation had ended with this run alone, I would have been fine with it.  The total for the day was 12.2 miles.
7/25/14 - For our last day and last miles heading toward the goal of 100 for the week we headed to Calaveras Big Trees State Park.  This was another park with Giant Sequoias.  This park was much more low key.  We went to the South Grove and did a pretty unimpressive Bradley Grove loop trail and then headed onto the South Grove Loop.  This loop was much better and had a lot more big trees to see.  After this loop we got back into the car and headed to the bridge and hung out by the river for a little while.  We got in a total of 7.33 miles.
Total for the week; 53.88 miles.  Add that to the race on Saturday and we had a Saturday to Friday total of 104.4 miles.