Just got back from the beautiful (and "strenuous", as my co-hikers described it) Half Dome hike.

We hiked a little over 15 miles both ways and went from 4000 feet to almost 9000 feet in about 5 hours. It started raining when we were at the top of half-dome having our sandwiches; so we had to climb down as soon as we could to avoid the slippery rocks. In a nutshell:

"We looked death right into the eyes, and dared him to come and take our lives."

Of course, swimming by the Nevada fall on our way back and having New York steak in the camp site were the real fun activities of the day.