Liz and Bobby G: Birthdays, snakes, switchbacks and waterfalls.

Our good friend Justin had a birthday coming up, and we all wanted to do something GREAT to celebrate! We came to the conclusion that nothing could be greater that taking a beautiful hike in no where other than the glorious Yosemite. Me being the adventure expert that I am (not) decided for everyone that we need to hike Upper Yosemite Falls. I had no idea what I was getting us into. :) So we were going to Yosemite! (by the way Justin had never been, that's why it was so special) We all slept over at our friends and hiking compadre's Niki and Barrett's and woke up at 3:30am and packed up and headed out (another genius idea to beat Yosemite traffic, which we did!) We got there pretty quickly and nothing takes your breath away like driving into Yosemite Valley first thing in the morning (that and the semi-smelly car ride there..thanks guys) We headed for the trail, and our first nature encounter.... a freaking rattlesnake! I hate snakes, and fear them more than bears, and I just want everyone to know for the record that NO ONE has been killed by a bear in Yosemite, but someone has died from a rattlesnake bite! Anyway, we headed up the falls via some grueling switchbacks, which I had heretofore never encountered, but I kinda loved 'em. But after 2 and a half warm hours we made it to the top of Yosemite Falls, worth every drop of sweat! It was sooooo beautiful. We ate lunch near the falls and enjoyed the scenery. We also surprised Justin with the best happy birthday song ever and gave him a REI giftcard (so appropriate!) Then, we headed down, which I feel was FAR worse than up, it was slippery and steep and way too crowded! But all in all it was a great day and we all had a ton of fun!