Ragged Peak

So, here I am, my first weekend in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite, California, United States, North America, Planet Earth and I wanted to spend my Saturday doing what every good youth would do; I was going for a hike. Who’s coming with me? Who’s comin’ with me, man? Uh, nobody. Why would anyone want to come with me? I had no friends, I had no enemies. In fact, I could fall off the face of the earth and no one up there would really care. So I headed up towards Young Lakes. It was a short hike by my standards, only about 10 miles total. I first went by Dog Lake.

This was a popular tourist lake as it was only a mile and a half from the road. Even this was incredibly beautiful and it had the feel of being a secluded wilderness experience even though it was right off the road. I guess that is what the peaks of Dana and Gibbs could do to enhance any view.

I continued for a bit until I got to the base of Ragged Peak. It was an amazing looking mountain. It was perfectly named as it was not as formidable as it was ragged. At the spur of the moment, I decided that I must climb this mountain. I started up it and the nerves raced through my body. All the what ifs came to mind. “What if I slip and fall? Will anyone come out here for the next couple of days? What if I get stuck on a ridge where I can not find my way up?” All these thoughts and many more flew through my mind as I started that upward heave to the summit of the peak. What was the most amazing thought that came over me was, yes! This is why I came here. My whole life had been dominated by my idea of pressing forth my eager insignificance and here it was. This was my chance to go above and beyond me and just do. To feel my lungs struggle for air as I pushed myself harder than I should have to, just to see what’s next. My favorite part of the climb was this little gully halfway up. It was an easy climb, just hard lung work to get up until then, but I found this little gully I had to scramble. It was not scary, just exhilarating to have to use my hands to pull myself up and to nudge my body through some tight cracks. It was so dang green too. The whole way up it was a contrast between beautiful granite rock and small shrubbery. Near the top it got to be a bit trickier. It was called Ragged Peak, so that is what it was near the top. Jagged and sharp, yet strong rock to grab onto that helped me most of the way until the end. The top proved to be a challenge as I had to navigate myself to the back side in order to pull myself up. I got to a point where I could touch the top with my hand and since it was not a point to stand upon, I sat down right next to it and overlooked the rest of the area. The view was spectacular and I was now desperately in love with the Yosemite backcountry. I knew at this point, that if not anything else I could dedicate myself to the exploration of this country. It was strange that an area so close to so many of the most populated sections of the United States could be so exclusive. I looked over at White Mountain and I knew I wanted to climb that.

In fact, every peak that I saw, I knew that I wanted to climb it.

There is just something about sitting on top of a mountain that begins to melt your cares away. It had a lot to do with my current state of mind. In my head, so many questions were rummaging around. Just like those questions about my life, so were the questions of whether I was going to make it up this peak. When I got to the top, those questions were erased and in their place was a new sense of confidence that, yes I can achieve beyond my expectations.

I climbed off the peak and continued on my way to Young Lakes. It was about a mile and a half from where I got off the peak to the Lakes. This was my final destination of the day. I sat down and started to eat my lunch. The lakes were really nice, but it was not a perfect serene experience as the mosquitoes were out in full force this time of year. I scarfed down the food and appreciated what I could, but I got my stuff together and headed back. I took a different trail on the way back, which honestly was not very exciting and frankly you could tell that this was a popular horse destination.