WELCOME TO YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

My journey to Yosemite began nearly 6 months ago when I was asked by my brother to join him and a group of guys on a hike up to the top of Half Dome.  Yesterday, our group drove from San Francisco to Yosemite National Park.  We are here.  We are ready.  We are hiking today, Thursday October 1st.  At about 6:00AM PACIFIC TIME this morning I will be at the base of Half Dome making the first steps in this 16 mile round trip hike up (and down) this mountain.

We arrived at Yosemite National Park yesterday afternoon at approximately 2PM.  We had lunch. We checked into our hotel rooms. We met for dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel. We bought last minute provisions. We walked around a little bit. And we went to bed early.  The plan is to gather together at 5:30AM to get going. We all went to sleep last night knowing that the weather forecast was not looking so great. Somehow, we have managed to schedule a hike in a state that is experiencing a historic drought - but we have rain in the forecast.  Go figure.

Arrival at Yosemite.  Half Dome looms large in the background.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  

 Wednesday MENU

breakfast  cheese omelette, whole wheat toast     740 calories
lunch        PIZZA, RICE CAKES                       1085 calories
dinner      Ahwahnee Tuna, salad, rye bread         960 calories  

total calories consumed  2795 calories                                                              

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

CALORIES BURNED
NO EXERCISE, not even much walking

WEDNESday net calories 2795 calories

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  

fitbit day 28

16138 steps

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

I expect, that my blog entry tomorrow will have lots and lots of pictures.  The weather forecast for the hike is not the best... I will be happy if we all succeed in getting up and down this mountain.  If we get wet while doing it, so be it.  See you tomorrow!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I found the following from the website of Mr. Half Dome (Rick Deutsch) author of the only Half Dome hiking guide, ONE BEST HIKE: YOSEMITE'S HALF DOME. This guy has climbed Half Dome more than 30 times.

How many calories does the Half Dome hike burn?
Posted on 10/08/2014 by Mr Half Dome - Rick DeutschI’m not a nutritionist, but I estimated 4,000 up. I looked up the tables for exercise and used the walking numbers. That is, for straight and level. I added a lot for the 2 mile uphill. Then multiplied for a 12-hour round trip.

Now we know. This device is on a client of Lasting Adventures on a 12-hour round trip recently. 9,800 calories burned by this man. We all differ, but I’d go with this number.
Sounds like we now have permission for that banana split at the Curry Village Ice Cream parlor. Or stick to the crackers and water if you want to shed pounds.
MrHalfDome™ – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.comOne Best Hike: Yosemite’s Half Dome

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
For the hike, I have packed hard-boiled eggs, four oranges, two apples, almonds, date pieces, mango slices, granola, raw pumpkin seeds, Kale Crunch, toasted coconut, 3 CLIFF bars, Le Noir chocolate bar and a Firecracker Dark chocolate bar.  I have already entered all of this into the MyFitnessPal calorie counter application on my phone.  If I ate everything I brought - I am scheduled to consume 5442 calories today.  I guess if I am also scheduled to 'burn' 9800 calories - I would be apparently working on a calorie defecit.  I know myself very well...I am guessing that I will consume everything that I brought...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

There is one mildly amazing thing about me thinking about consuming nearly 6000 calories today.  That is that prior to my lifestyle change on December 24, 2014, I consumed 5000-6000 calories EVERY DAY.  (And on none of those days did I climb Half Dome!) 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Hi Marc, here are your weekly stats. Sep 21, 2015 toSep 27, 2015 WEEK'S MOST ACTIVE DAY Mon, Sep 21 WEEK'S LEAST ACTIVE DAY Tue, Sep 22 TOTAL STEPS 180,754  DAILY AVERAGE 25,822 steps BEST DAY 50,013 steps TOTAL DISTANCE 86.81 miles DAILY AVERAGE 12.40 miles BEST DAY 23.95 miles TOTAL FLOORS CLIMBED 136  DAILY AVERAGE 19 floors BEST DAY 47 floors TOTAL CALS BURNED 38,660  DAILY AVERAGE 5,523 cals BEST DAY 8,330 cals CALORIES IN VS OUT -29340 WEEKLY TOTAL 38663 cals burned 9323 cals eaten WEIGHT CHANGE 0.0 lb LIGHTEST 226.6 lbHEAVIEST 226.6 lb AVG SLEEP DURATION 5 hrs 39 min  AVG TIMES AWAKENED 5 AVG TIME TO FALL ASLEEP 0hrs 7min Last week's step winners 1 Marc  180,754steps 2 Bobby 96,819steps 3 Andrew J. 87,990steps See current leaderboard Last week's badges See all of my badges