half-dome epilogue and essential gear round-up

as i have put a little distance between myself and the recent yosemite trip, and pondered the successes and shortcomings of the trip, i have had occasion to review that gear which was absolutely essential to our expedition.
i remember listening to an interview with gary snyder once about his own planning for treks and wanderings. he said that after returning from any journey he would lay out his pack and examine every article he had brought along with him and lay two piles. one with each item he had used, and the other with any unused items on that particular trip. he said this exercise, which he still uses helped him to hone in on what was absolutely essential to his travels, and which items he had simply carried along as dead weight.
using that metric i'd have to say i think we did pretty well. things unused but still necessary included some tools for the bike, a first-aid kit and some leftover food. but some things we didn't have before the trip proved totally essential.
first, I picked up a pair of first rate hiking shoes for both of us. originally I thought I could have made this hike with a pair of converse all-stars, or at the very most a new pair of hiking sandals. but i realize now this would not have been adequate. at rei where we got our shoes, the salewoman tried to upsell us to hiking boots, both more expensive and more constriciting. the shoe turned out for us to be the perfect balance.
second, we both carried hydration day-packs, which again struck a wonderful middle ground. along the way we saw folks with school backpacks and jugs of drinking water, and although this certainly is an option, in the end i think we saved ourselves a lot of grief in carrying a ready water source on our backs, that belted across chest and stomach and gave us maximum freedom and minimum distraction.
and finally we invested in a really good water filter. although the hike to half-dome follows a water route most of the way, and most of that very clean, there is always a small chance of bacteria. in our case as we were coming down the mountain, we found we had completely exhausted our water and ended up having to pump from a very small runoff, that i would have had second thoughts about without that filter. as it was, it tasted refreshing and delicious, and i was love to watch us pull clean drinking water from that muddy trickle.
in a couple years i may make this same journey again with my second son, aaron. hopefully the lessons learned on the first trip will serve us well, and yet still offer enough spontaneity to make the trip fresh all over again.