This weekend was one for the books! It has been a solid week since I got back to Stockton and returned to live with my roommates. This weekend one of my roommates planned out a trip for the five of us to Yosemite National Park. It has been the one thing I have looked forward to this past week.

The week was extremely long, until Saturday night when my four roommates and I gathered in the living room to talk. We sat in the dark with the A.C. blasting and talked for a while. When we finally decided to go to bed we all agreed on waking up at 5 in the morning to take a long hike in Yosemite. We fell asleep at midnight.

The next morning, three out of the five of us were up by 5am, while another roommate and I slept in until around six. Well, since we woke up late, we didn't have time to pack proper food or even eat something before leaving the house. That was mistake number one.

Mistake number two was drinking coffee on an empty stomach. I usually have something to eat in the morning when I drink coffee but that day, I just drank a grande vanilla iced latte from Starbucks. I didn't feel the effects of the coffee until we hit the trail; suddenly, I had an upset stomach . However, I was not about to let this small stomachache deter me from hiking. So, after driving for about three hours from Stockton to Yosemite we finally arrived at 9:30 in the morning.

Mistake number three happened as we were walking up the trail. The night before, my roommates and I had decided to hike Upper Yosemite Falls trail. None of us had ever hiked that trail, so we decided to give it a try. Well, mistake number three was not only hiking that trail, but not wearing the proper support or hiking shoes.

A word of advice: always wear proper shoes!

Then came mistake number four. Never underestimate a hiking trail, and always do some research about the trail first. The Upper Falls trail was a great trail to hike. However, the trail was 15 miles total. There were so many times I was ready to give up, but my roommates and I decided, "We're already this far..." Once we got to top of the falls, the views were great and the water was nice and cold.

In total, the trail took us about 4 and a half hours to climb up, and about 2 and a half hours to climb back down. It felt like forever to get back down to the end of the trail, but man was I relieved once we got into the car and drove off.

Overall, my first trip to Yosemite was a success. I can't wait to go back again and hike another trail. Just give me a week or two to recover from this one first!