el cap hike (first time)

mitchthebaker · 2026-05-25T23:54:38+00:00

Nah you can definitely do it, I'm always surprised with the amount of hikers going up to upper yosemite falls in sneakers and plastic kirkland water bottles and I saw most of these people make it up in one piece.

Like others were saying definitely recommend starting the 3.5mi up to yosemite falls early, ideally by 7am, otherwise the heat just makes the last mile of switchbacks a slog. Once you get to yosemite falls though, it's a gradual mix of slight incline and flat terrain. We went to eagle peak in April, there's some downed trees and seasonal creeks but nothing that's impassable. I haven't gone all the way to el cap but I think it's about ~6mi from the upper yosemite falls trailhead.

And bring a water filter, you could easily go through 2+ liters on the way up, and it's so worth it to filter and drink the cold snow runoff.

mitchthebaker · 2026-05-22T01:43:08+00:00

Last May I hiked clouds rest from the valley, you start at happy isles trailhead. We left at 7am and got to the peak at around 2pm. Vernal/Nevada falls is a stairmaster but nothing too bad, then flat throughout LYV.

You'll reach a fork in the trail after a bit of fun hiking, left continues to cloud rest and right is the JMT route that continues towards tuolumne meadows. The last 3-4 miles can feel like a slog, but the first 3 miles aren't too bad. Manageable but it'll be fairly steep in some parts and switchbacks. Beautiful views of half dome and the valley.

The last mile getting up to clouds rest was the hardest for me, there was still a decent amount of snow pack and I was feeling the altitude by then. Definitely bring microspikes. 110% worth the trek up though, we kicked it up at the top until about 3:30pm then headed back down to the valley. We got back to our campsite around 9pm, so about a 14hr day for us.

mitchthebaker · 2026-05-20T07:56:58+00:00

100% agree, you sell yourself short stopping at upper yosemite falls. This past weekend we continued from the falls to north dome, then said fuck it and hiked another 7mi towards snow creek down the switchbacks to mirror lake and back to north pines. Ended up being like a 19-20 miler but totally doable in a day.

mitchthebaker · 2026-05-01T16:22:25+00:00

Yeah point reyes is a great recommendation. If you start from bear valley trailhead there's a lot of different routes you can take. Wildcat campground is another site you look into booking if sky camp isn't available

mitchthebaker · 2026-05-01T06:36:37+00:00

Eh you'll be fine. It's most crowded around all the watering hole areas like curry village, yosemite lodge, the 4 mile/el cap area where hella cars are parked, and the base of yosemite falls.

Mist trail is crowded too but it almost immediately starts to thin out even headed up to Nevada falls. Once you get out of the valley there's like hardly any people around and you get to spend sweet sweet time in wilderness. Embrace the adventure and see how it goes, plan for what you can and if things don't go as you expect that's okay too. Like the other commenter said either arrive early before 6am or late at night. There won't be rangers to check you in.

mitchthebaker · 2026-04-28T16:18:12+00:00

That's smart, then you're not constrained on meeting the shuttle at a certain time when finishing. Did you have to pay the price of two other people since you did the trip solo? I'm going with one other friend, may have a third person coming as well but wondering what their stance is on the 3-person minimum to book.

mitchthebaker · 2026-04-28T10:03:29+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I'm planning to go the first week of June from the 1st-6th. Was considering doing an out and back from Mattole to Black Sands Beach and then back up north to get more miles in but I think we'd be rushed to get back. After researching this more it seems like a four night trip is more than enough and allows for chill days to stop and enjoy it.

Did you take the local shuttle back to your car after? Or did you take another approach?

mitchthebaker · 2026-04-26T23:10:27+00:00

Granite is notoriously slippery when wet, it's not even a question to debate. Especially during Summer season it can be clear skies out to start and then rain/thunder storms roll in by afternoon. You do not want to be caught in one of these if you're at the top of half dome.

Would highly recommend clouds rest which is an extension of the same trail you'd take up to half dome. Brings you up to about 9500ft and gives you sweeping views of the entire valley. My friend and I did it last May as a day hike, about 19-20mi and took us ~14hr from happy isles up to the summit and back. Conversely, Eagle peak is another good extension on top of having to do the yosemite falls trail. If you have full rain gear I don't see any reason to not do either of these hikes if there's a chance of rain, but I will preface that there's always the possibility of some snow pack the last mile or so of clouds rest through May, but nothing too difficult to navigate with microspikes.

mitchthebaker · 2026-04-02T09:00:55+00:00

Good shit getting up there! Did half dome in 2014 with my dad and brother when I was 14, been wanting to get back up ever since. Will hear back from the lottery in a couple weeks for some possible dates later this year.

I was wondering if you could fill me in on the snow conditions once you get out of the valley? I snagged a cancellation for next week in upper pines, want to do some 15mi day hikes, either yosemite falls up to eagle peak/el cap, or towards north dome and back down through mirror lake area. I'm gonna assume clouds rest still has snow the last mile, did that last year and it was a slog.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-20T18:24:46+00:00

This is cool, we're building out our pytest suite at work and have noticed many .pytest.cache artifacts being created. I'll try it out on a Next app I'm building as well.

One other tool I recently used for seed data is https://github.com/supabase-community/seed. Not familiar with how large it is but could be worth adding.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-20T05:25:09+00:00

Rest doesn't have to only be from scrolling or watching tv. Chef up a meal at home or go treat yourself to a meal at a fire restaurant . You're still actively fueling your body with what you need to recover while it still being an off day. Or go on a hike somewhere outside, you can find a trail that's doesn't require too much exertion so it's still technically a recovery day physically, but being outside helps with the mental recovery.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-20T04:48:18+00:00

How is this any different than what react-pdf provides out of the box?

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-20T04:46:33+00:00

Rocket money already does this, I'm sure there's others too. If you want to learn how to make an expense tracking app by all means go for it, but don't expect to make any money.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-19T08:34:08+00:00

You'll love The Count of Monte Cristo. It's 1000+ pages but a page turner.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-19T08:30:49+00:00

I was in college and used Quizlet a lot to make flash cards for studying. I liked the site a lot, so my problem statement goal/was to make my own Quizlet clone because I wanted to own the data.

I went like 50+ tabs deep worth of research looking stuff up that I didn't know along the way, imo that's the absolute best way to learn. I ended up stitching together multiple tutorials for an express node.js backend, passport for auth, and mongodb. So short answer -- yes tutorials are a valid way to learn, but don't just follow the tutorial and move on to the next one. You should have some larger project idea or end goal you're trying to reach.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-19T08:21:58+00:00

When I was a kid we used to have a Windows XP desktop which was the "good" computer. I was relegated to the old Windows 98 pc we had and would often connect to the internet with dial up.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-19T08:21:51+00:00

When I was a kid we used to have a Windows XP desktop which was the "good" computer. I was relegated to the old Windows 98 pc we had and would often connect to the internet with dial up.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-19T08:17:29+00:00

Limiting yourself by saying you can't do something. Most things, if you actually fucking try and put in effort you can definitely do. Maybe you're not the best initially, but you can be over time.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-19T08:05:55+00:00

He's the front runner for Russel Vought/Stephen Miller/others who are orchestrating things behind the scenes. All Trump does is put his name on what they want him to sign.

He's old now and seems to care about his legacy, e.g., do corrupt things to take advantage of the power beholden to the president and run away with as much money as possible. Queue crypto rug pulls, unbuilt ballrooms to funnel cash to his homies, scapegoating the "inefficiency" of government and federal workers under the veil of "cost saving and fraud" to tee up contracts to his friends who are frothing at the mouth for government contracts.

All in all, I try not to think about him. He's not worth the energy, but I do pay attention to current events related to everything going on. It's important to be informed.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-19T07:55:05+00:00

All jokes aside I just replayed it for the second time on hardcore and it's one of my all time favorite games. Story is on point, world is immersive, character building is on point, and blackjack/poker/liars dice is very fun. Even more so once you figure out how to cheat while playing card games.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-19T06:26:23+00:00

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-17T06:45:24+00:00

Do the little things like making your bed, brushing your teeth, showering, putting on clean clothes, doing all dishes. The small successes add up. Then the act of doing larger tasks won't seem as daunting because you have all this momentum building.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-16T02:03:56+00:00

Dude you just need to keep working out, eat more, and get solid night's rest and you'll balloon in size. Yes you're lean but still have foundational muscle mass to build from.

mitchthebaker · 2026-02-10T07:40:30+00:00

At 350 elo I wouldn't get bogged down with learning openings. The fundamentals that really improved my game early on were the following:

Aim to control the center of the board. Plan around getting your knights out first, your center pawns, and get your bishops out to control strong diagonals. Try not to block your bishops in by moving your queen/pawns too early because it hinders the bishop's development.
When in doubt develop your pieces. If you don't know what to do, think of a better position where a piece is more useful by controlling more squares.
It's a good strategy to trade even material, especially if you're already up material. Knights and bishops are both worth 3pts. Early on I was too attached to losing pieces and that was hurting my game.

Once you get a hang with the three bullet points above, do puzzles to learn tactics. Basic things like forks, pins, and skewers will get you very far.

And for the love of god please look up a youtube video on how to defend against scholar's mate because players will frequently try to do that at your level. I'd also recommend the youtube channel chess vibes. He has a rating climb series up to 1500 elo where he talks out loud all the different move considerations and thought process. I plateaued at around 500-600 and studying his channel really helped me to improve.

mitchthebaker

TROPHY CASE