What a donkey ride
Bouncing down the slope from Mintaka Pass to Misgar, riding the beast... Oh no!
By Salman Rashid
The best way to go is by one's own shanks or one's own wheels. Riding camels, donkeys, horses what have you is unnatural business: if Nature had meant humans to ride these creatures, She would have fitted the beasts with handlebars. On a bicycle the handle bar lets you steer quickly this way or that and you can hold on to it in order to prevent a fall in case someone knocks against you or if you have to brake very hard.

Through the Wawona Tunnel, following in the footsteps of Major Savage, one sees a giant chalice -- that's Yosemite, where one is rendered speechless by the rising stone giants and ringing sound of waterfalls

By

Kristina Petrochenkova

Wonder Land

Hail thee, Yosemite, park of

sublimity!

Majesty, peerless and old!

Ye mountains and cliffs, ye

valleys and rifts,

Ye cascades and cataracts

bold!

None, none can divine the

wonders of thine,

When told of the glorious

view!

-- Lafayette Bunnell

One day, when my husband and I visited our friends in Fresno, California, they suggested, "Why don't we go to the Yosemite tomorrow?"

"Where?"

Our hosts exchanged glances.

"You'll see."

Next day we got up before dawn and after 3 hours drive entered Yosemite Valley.

Yosemite (pronounced Yo-SEM-it-ee) national park is located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, about 240 km from San Francisco. Native Americans have lived in this region for as long as 8000 years. The local tribe called their village 'Ahwahnee' and themselves 'Ahwahneechee'. In 1848 California Gold Rush started and people from all over the United States were travelling to the West Coast in search of gold. The conflicts between natives and miners soon erupted and the volunteer Mariposa Battalion was formed by California State as a punitive expedition against the native tribes.

The discovery and exploration of Yosemite Valley was not planned or prepared. It happened spontaneously. The Mariposa Battalion of the United States Army was pursuing a particularly aggressive and defiant tribe of natives, who repeatedly attacked, robbed and killed white settlers and miners. Major Jim Savage, whose shops were repeatedly looted, swore that he would capture the chief of the tribe even if he had to search all snow-covered Sierra Nevada range. The scouts had reported that about 200 of Ahwahneechee Indians led by Chief Tenaya intended to return to their village. Major Savage and his battalion were pursuing them. Suddenly the trail completed one more loop and the soldiers stopped abruptly. They were the first white people to see the valley, which among the neighbouring Indian tribes was called 'Yoh-he-meti' -- 'The land of killers'. Hardened settlers, who became soldiers to defend their property, were rendered speechless by the tranquil beauty of rising stone giants and ringing sound of waterfalls under the slowly falling snow.

Major Savage captured Chief Tenaya and his warriors and burnt their village. The Ahwahneechee were forced into reservations. However, the members of the Mariposa Battalion became so fascinated with the area that they explored it, made sketches of its most prominent features and wrote numerous letters and articles describing it. Doctor of the battalion, Lafayette Bunnell, wrote a book about the discovery of the valley -- 'Discovery of the Yosemite and the Indian war of 1851'.

In June 1855 Yosemite Valley welcomed first tourists -- the publisher of Hutchings' California Magazine James Hutchings sought new material for his magazine. Intrigued by the stories of the Mariposa Battalion he came with the intention to write an article about the Yosemite and brought along artist Thomas Ayres, who made sketches of Yosemite Valley. The books and articles of Hutchings and drawings of Ayres generated a lot of interest and tourism to the valley steadily increased.

Fearful of tourists' destructive attitude, environmentalist Galen Clark and Senator John Conness lobbied for the state protection of the area. In 1864 President Abraham Lincoln created a Yosemite Grant -- for the first time in the US the parkland was specifically set aside for preservation and public use. Presently about 89 percent of the park is designated wilderness, protected from any commercial or industrial activity.

Unless you are an experienced mountaineer, the only way to reach Yosemite Valley is through the Wawona Tunnel, following the steps of Major Savage. From the entry point Yosemite Valley looks like a giant chalice. The synergy of water, rocks and vegetation peculiar to the Sierra Nevada creates the landscape, which at times looks surreal and unearthly.

About 10 million years back the movement of tectonic plates uplifted granite rocks and formed the picturesque deep and narrow canyons. Snow and ice slowly accumulated on the summits. After millions of years the glaciers started moving down. They polished sharp edges and created the unique rounded U-shapes of Yosemite canyons framed by numerous waterfalls.

Every year more than 3.5 million people come to see Yosemite Park and its centrepiece -- Yosemite Valley. Yosemite Park attracts both leisurely tourists and rock-climbing fans. Camp 4 training ground in Yosemite Park was the cradle of the modern American rock-climbing after World War II. The names of Yosemite cliffs are known all over the world. El Capitan (Captain) -- a vertical rock 3000 ft high, named by the Mariposa Battalion as a translation of the local name -- was once considered impossible to conquer, but now it became a popular route for big-wall climbing. The cliffs of Cathedral Spires, Sentinel Rock, Three Brothers, Royal Arches and North Dome are familiar to many rock climbers. The granite crest of Half-Dome is probably the most recognisable feature of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It rises 4,737ft above the valley floor. Although it looks like its northwest part split away due to some cataclysm, geologists proved that it was created this way. The image of Half-Dome appears on the coin of California State quarter (25 cents). The highest point above the Yosemite Valley is Clouds' Rest -- the mountain in the shape of a sharp knife-edge 9,930 ft tall.

The Merced and the Tuolumne are the main rivers of Yosemite Park. The water from the northern part of the park drains in the Tuolumne and from the southern part -- in the Merced. Melting snow of Sierra Nevada feeds numerous cataracts and waterfalls.

Bridalveil Fall is the first waterfall welcoming visitors near the Wawona Tunnel. It is considered to be the most beautiful waterfall in Yosemite. The Ahwahneechee believed that Bridalveil Fall was the home of a malicious spirit -- Pohono. Pohono closely monitored the Wawona Tunnel and could curse anybody he didn't like. To avoid the wrath of Pohono, an Ahwahneechee leaving the valley would never look in the waterfall. However, sometimes young people tried to solicit Pohono's help -- it was believed that if you inhaled the mist of Bridalveil Fall, you would be married soon.

In spring and early summer hundreds of tourists come to Yosemite Valley specially to enjoy water exuberance of 3,200 lakes, two reservoirs and 1,700 miles of streams, drops, falls and cascades, among them the falls of the Giant Staircase and the highest waterfall in North America -- Yosemite Falls.

Another attraction of Yosemite Park is three groves of giant sequoia -- the Mariposa Grove (200 trees), the Tuolumne Grove (25 trees) and the Merced Grove (20 trees). Sequoia trees were commonplace before the last Ice Age, but now they grow naturally only in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Giant sequoias can live up to 3,500 years. The bark at the bottom of their trunk is 3 ft thick. The only way these trees can propagate is through fire -- the sequoia wood doesn't burn, but fire opens the cones and clears soil for young saplings.

In 1857 settler Galen Clark discovered the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia near the village Wawona (native name for sequoia) and by 1879 the grove became the frequented tourist destination. Many famous sequoias of Yosemite Park have names -- the largest in the park are Grizzly Giant and Washington tree. The photographs of vehicles passing inside the tunnel cut in the Wawona tree (fell in 1969 after a heavy snowfall) -- from horse-drawn carriages to 1960s cars became a symbol of California.

The Yosemite Museum is remarkable not only for its collections, illustrating the history of the area, but for the building itself. It was constructed in 1925, and all its visible parts are made of rocks, logs and wooden shingles -- exactly like the first settlers' houses. There is also a reconstructed Ahwahnee village just behind the museum.

Yosemite Park has mild winter and long hot summer. The best time to visit is April to June and September-October. We visited the park in August. It was still too hot and many springs and waterfalls were dry, but the scenic beauty of the place makes it worth visiting in any weather.

Although everything in the park suggests abundant animal presence, we were not lucky and couldn't see anything alive except the ravens. We didn't even see the famous Yosemite bears stealing food from tourists. Nowadays the management of the park obliges the visitors to use special bear-proof containers for storage of eatables and the bears are busy searching for their natural foods instead of parading before the tourists. The only deer, racoons, squirrels, coyotes, bears and bobcats we could befriend lived in the souvenir shop. Perhaps the real ones were afraid of hordes of visitors?

Nevertheless, Yosemite Valley with its breathtaking rocks, waterfalls and canyons makes an unforgettable destination. If you can't afford to visit Yosemite Park in person, a video tour available on YouTube is a must to see.

The best way to go is by one's own shanks or one's own wheels. Riding camels, donkeys, horses what have you is unnatural business: if Nature had meant humans to ride these creatures, She would have fitted the beasts with handlebars. On a bicycle the handle bar lets you steer quickly this way or that and you can hold on to it in order to prevent a fall in case someone knocks against you or if you have to brake very hard.

But what is a flimsy bridle? It cannot keep the rider steady. It cannot prevent a fall and I have never been able to figure out how polo players and other equestrian experts bloody well stay in the freaking saddle.

I have ridden a horse in the Hindu Kush in Chitral (at least been on one being led by the bridle), camels in the mountains of Sindh and Balochistan, a yak across the Braldu River east of Shimshal and double-humped Bactrian camels in the Shaksgam River valley of Xinjiang. But I had never been astride a donkey in my life.

Now at the fag end of my hill walking days I had to face this ignominy. Returning from Mintaka Pass to Misgar just over 40 kilometres away was beyond me with my large weeping blisters and so I requested to be carried down on the donkey.

The beast that had borne me to the base of the pass was a gelding and therefore of gentle disposition. Even so, on the way down, negotiating the long descent into Murkushi with the path strung out on a steep talus slope and the river bounding along 300 metres straight below us, I was terrified out of my wits. Holding on to the buckle at the top of the surcingle, I cast fearful glances to my right wondering how I and the donkey would go bouncing down the slope were I to cause the animal to lose its footing.

At Murkushi, we found two other donkeys minding their own business. That, thought Irfan, was not good enough. He cajoled the larger one, a spirited jenny as I was soon to discover, for my riding (dis) pleasure. But having noticed how terrified I had been on the donkey, Irfan wished to show me riding was no big deal at all. He arranged the blanket on the animal, tightened the straps and jumping on thrashed the animals rump with the withe he carried.

The beast bucked so hard that Irfan who had been riding since infancy was thrown off. And now to get even with the beast (and perhaps with me as well), he prepared it for me to ride! This animal trotted along at a neat clip, but it had one bad habit: it braked very suddenly. Now, all donkeys sniff every bit of donkey dung they come against. This jenny did too. Only trotting along merrily, she would suddenly stop dead to do the needful. Amanullah observed that she had servo-assisted brakes.

Every time she did that, I very nearly somersaulted over her head. And one time when I was not especially mindful I did take the dive flying straight above the animal's head and landing on my knees in front. Thankfully, no patellae were fractured.

Though I eventually reverted to the gelding, by the end I was so terrified of being on its back that I balked every time we approached a particularly steep section with the river running below. Despite my painful blisters I dismounted and walked. If that was bad enough, the worst was riding pillion on the motorcycle of Naib Subedar Iftikhar Ali.

Upon Amanullah's request and in view of my horrid-looking blisters, the good man kindly acquiesced to drive me the last eight kilometres from Qalandar Chi to Misgar. And what a drive! Evel Knievel would have marvelled at the skill of our Multani in Misgar. He would gun the Honda 125 for all it was worth on the upward slope and we would take curves at something like thirty kilometres an hour. And these were curves on an unpaved road sprinkled with loose pebbles on which a motorcycle would skid like a dream. A good way below us on the right was the frothing stream.

It was not without a great deal of relief that I espied the first trees of Misgar. My relief was even greater when I was deposited in one piece in Misgar outside the home of my host Ataullah Khan.