Category: general

Well, if you haven’t heard by now – we had to cut our epic hike short. A mere two and a half days and twenty-five miles in, we called it quits.

Snow.

That’s what ultimately halted our progress. Not actual falling snow, just the threat of it. For the past few days on the trail, talk from fellow hikers (of which there were very few) was ominous and forboding: an unexpected and early snowstorm was moving into the high Sierras.

It was the same “rain on Thursday” we’d heard about earlier in the week, but it had now turned into something worse – at least from the mouths on the trail.

Worried, we continued on. We made great time on our second day, hitting all the planned stopping points and making it to our camp by about 4:30pm. Being our first ~12mi day, we both felt pretty good about our pace and strength, although, truth be told, we were both fairly well beat down as we rolled into camp.

We pitched tent at Upper Cathedral Lake and immediately jumped in to “bathe” before we lost the sun. After washing ourselves and our clothes, we ate a hasty dinner and climed into the tent to escape the growing cold.

Talk before bed was all about the storm. “What are we going to do?”. “How and when do we make the call?”. In short order we had decided that we were most definitely not prepared for snow, and we could not continue the hike if snow was coming. We didn’t have the right gear or clothes, and we’d soon be too deep in the high country to escape if caught by weather.

Before a fatigued sleep took us, it still a pale light outside, we agreed that, if there were more than a 50% chance of snow at our elevations, we’d have no choice but to call off the remainder of the trip. We’d confirm early Wednesday morning when we got to Toulumne Meadows, where we could get a more accurate forecast than the game of “telephone” that is trail communication.

We hit Toulumne Meadows earlier than expected, settling into a brisk pace on well-rested legs in the morning. Our first stop was the visitor center, where our fears were confirmed: Snow above 8,000ft forecasted Wednesday evening through Sunday. We’d already agreed that this confirmation would be the death knell for the trip, so it was done.

We hitched a ride down to the valley with a Japanese couple we’d met on the trail who we’re also high-tailing it away from the weather, and called for a ride from Anthony’s dad.

It was sad to have to leave, as we we’re both still feeling pretty good and confident. But, I am glad we got word of the storm when we did. Had we not got word at all, or had we got into the high country without warning, we could’ve been in serious trouble. In the end, I suppose it was good we found out when we did, while we still had an out.

And now we’re watching TV at Anthony’s folks’ place.

The hike is over. Sucks.

I’m ready to see my wife and daughter, anyway. Goodnight.

Well, day one of our John Muir Trail hike went better than we could have hoped.

Although the lead-in to hitting the trail didn’t go at all as we’d planned, I won’t attempt to do the story justice by thumb-typing it here, let alone without a full pictorial accompaniment. Just know that it involved a bar, 2am four-wheeling, a huge pit of mud, a stuck truck, two frontend loaders (one which also got stuck), a tractor, a hefty amount of future body work, and, of course, a late start on Sunday’s drive-a-thon to park our exit car and get to Yosemite.

But, we made it after all. And, since you’re reading this now, you’ve likely figured out that we ended up having cell (and data, of course) conerage at our first camp location. As an aside, we met a fellow here at this same campsite who camped last night near wher we intend ro camp tomorrow (providing things go as well as they did today), and he said he had coverage there too. So, seems like I may be able write fairly often in these first few days.

As for trail-talk, today was all about ascent. Some 3,100 ft in only 6.9 miles. Both Anthony and I felt good along the trail, although I did sikn a bit near the very end. After that climb, I think I was just raft for some food and a lie-down (lay-down?). Either way, after getting some lunch n me I felt much better. Tomorrow we cover roughly the same vertical distance, but over nearly twice the mileage. The guy at camp who came down that way said the climb is fairly gradual and not overly-taxing. We’ll see about that.

We’ll get to have a fuure at camp tonight, the last place we’re permitted to do so for the remainder of the hike. Stinks, too, since we’ve heard from other hikers that nighttime temperatures in the higher altitudes are dipping into the low twenties. We’re a little concerned about that, and the fact that there’s supposedly a chance for rain on Thursday, but we’re not letting it bring us down.

Well, I suppose that’s all for now, gotta conserve BlackBerry battery. We’ll see what tomorrow holds for cell reception. Until then, sore-muscledly yours…

It’s Saturday now as I write, early morning. I’m about to mow the lawn and fix a sprinkler before college football starts. I need to get this “housework” done today because Anthony and I are leaving for our week-long hike tonight. We’ll drive down to a nice staging point where we’ll stay the night with some friends. We’ll then hit the road early Sunday morning to drop a vehicle at our exit point, and get a ride up to Yosemite Valley. Then, after one night spent camping in the valley, we officially hit the trail Monday morning with the sunrise. Monday-to-Monday, seven days. I did decide, in the end, to take along my BlackBerry, and just leave it switched off. I do plan to use it in the evenings, however, as a way to capture some quick thoughts for the blog. If all goes well, you should see this post Monday morning, a post Wednesday, and something on Friday or Saturday.

But, in those dark days when I’ll be miles away from everything – you can come back here and track me using the table below. It’s not a “must” kind of table, but more of a guide. The schedule purposely leaves room for bettering (or worsening, I suppose) our mileage each day, which I figure will be wholly dependent on how we feel at the guesstimated end of each day below. Again, it’s not set in stone, but I’d say you should be able to use the timeline below to figure out where we are (plus or minus 5mi) on any given day. Heck, if you use an average hiking speed of 2mph, you can even check this table to guesstimate where exactly we might be along the trail. If you’re nuts, you can then plug in coordinates from this table and look at our terrain on Google Earth. Whatever you do with the data, though, here it is.

For food we based our meals on about 2000-2500 calories per day.

• Breakfast consists of an assortment of flavors of those instant oatmeal packets (interestingly enough, the “weight control” kind, which has double the protein and fiber, but the same amount of calories) with dried berries mixed in (a mix of raisins, cranberries, and blueberries), a cup of hot mate/tea with honey, and a Cliff bar. We also bought a single dehydrated bacon and eggs meal, just to try it out one morning.
• Lunch is one of two options, both served on tortilla: tuna (in the little packets, not the cans), or salami and cheese (both the “dry” Italian kind that don’t require refrigeration). For those wondering about condiments: we stopped by Kentucky Fried Chicken to fill our pockets full of “free” mustard, mayo, and honey packets.
• Dinners are completely made up of those dehydrated “hiker meals” you can get from REI, and another Cliff bar. We bought and assortment of meals, so we’ll have something different to try each night. I don’t have high hopes for flavor, but the they should sustain. Like our rogue dehydrated breakfast, we bought one single dehydrated dessert, perhaps for some special night when we kick butt on the trail, or maybe when we’re calorie-starved and cant’ take it anymore.
• For snacks we are bringing jerky, dried mango, and more Cliff bars, all calorie-big. We also have a small reserve of those nasty energy/protein “gel shots” we can suck on if we hit a serious sinking spell.
• Liquids will be filtered water, supplementable with either powdered Propel or Gatorade for flavor (and yummy bonus electrolytes).

We bought and will carry about 10% more than what we thought we’d need in terms of daily calories, just in case. The entire eight days worth of food weighed right around 23lbs; I have no idea if this is a “good” weight for eight days of food or not. We mailed about two-thirds of the food ahead to the Tuolumne Meadows Post Office (13lbs and change worth) for a mid-hike resupply on our third day. We did do a “rough” volumetric check on our foodstuffs, because we do have to get it all (and our smells-like-food-to-bears toiletries) into two bear cans… but I’m still just a little leery that we can cram it all in. In the end, we’ll have the option of renting an additional “spillover” can, albeit at a pretty hefty weight/load tax – so we’re hoping not to have to. Here’s a picture of our entire spread before we unpackaged it all, separated it, and shipped the resupply package:

For gear, we’re both bringing only the essentials, in an effort to hike as unloaded as possible (although we realize there’s tons of room for improvement, we have the luxury of going “halvsies” on a lot of items we can pickup at the resupply point). I have a much more detailed by-weight breakdown of the gear in a spreadsheet (yes, I’m that nerdy), but you don’t need to see that here (maybe I’ll post a readable Google Spreadsheet when I get back, if I feel like it). For now, here’s a rough list of the gear we’ll be taking with us on our trek:

• Clothing: Two short-sleeve shirts; one long-sleeve shirt; three pair underwear; two pair thin/short socks; two pair thick/tall socks; one pair convertible shorts/pants; regular tennis shoes for me, hiking boots for Anthony; a thin-but-warm jacket/fleece for cold nights; bandanas for headcoverings; and ponchos for the freak rainstorm. All of the “daily wear” items are the super-expensive lightweight synthetic/polypro breathable/wicking kind, purchased expressly so we can be fancy and feel like “real” hikers.
• Gear: Backpacks; bear cans; sleeping bags and liners; tent; sleeping pads; camp pillows; water bladders and bottles; one bowl and universal spork/knife each; campstove; two white gas bottles; water filter; trekking poles; headlamps; and one large pot with lid.
• Various Sundries: Sunblock (the cool and easy sprayable kind); bug spray; first-aid kit; handheld GPS (extra batteries mailed ahead to the resupply point); camera; sharp knife; magnesium flint/steel firestarter; spade (for latrine-digging); 50-count wet-wipes (“septic friendly” for faster biodegrade); cash (for incidentals when near civilization, and the ferry ride to the car); drugs (we have a veritable pharmacy, including Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Vicodin, Excedrin, Sudafed, Claritin, and, of course, multivitamins); sunglasses; cellphone/BlackBerry (for thumb-blogging at night and the occasional phone call when we can); paint filters (to strain out beasties from our no-filter electrolysis style water treatment); soap (a small bottle of Dr. Bronner’s peppermint-hemp, for showers and laundry); bungee cord (for attaching bulky bear cans to packs); and extra moleskin.
• Total pack weight for first half of the hike: ~35lbs
• Estimated pack weight after resupply: ~40lbs

Well, that’s about all the pre-hike information I’ve got for ya. As you can see, we did a fair amount of planning for this. I only wish we did as much training and conditioning. But, I think we can hack it. I plan to have tons of pictures to post when we return (still need to swing by Best Buy to pickup an extra camera battery), a lot of fancy GPS profiling data and imagery, and hopefully some good stories to tell. Wish us luck, and tune in here periodically through the week to look for some quick updates.

Until Tuesday next week, I’ll be on the trail.

Monday in Florida and it’s hot. I’m sure it’s been hotter, and muggier… but as I was packing Keaton’s things into the trunk of the car afore we left Sharaun’s grandmother’s house (where we spent the night last night), I was sweating. Seems like, with this Florida heat, I alternate between loving and hating it. The other day at the beach, for instance, I recall thinking that the wet heat was rather enjoyable – almost like a free sauna. Something about the humidity and the thin sheen of sweat it fosters make me feel “clean.” Then again, that same thin sheen of sweat and oil also makes me feel like I need a washing up. So it cuts both ways, I suppose. I think I can see, though, why so many old folks move down this way – the heat is good for the joints, and the humidity makes my skin feel good. I figure I could be old here…

Looks like we may get another afternoon thunderstorm here in central Florida today. The thick and dark clouds are rolling across the sky so quickly that they alternately block and don’t block the sun like they’re sending some kind of divine morse code message. For a while there I thought I might jump in the pool while Keaton napped, but then the clouds rolled in and I thought better of it. I’m home alone with Keaton, if you couldn’t tell. Sharaun’s gone to get a pedicure or some such womanly nonsense with her mom. I took advantage of the situation and hooked the iPod to the stereo for some jams.

Some guy knocked on the door, and when I answered it he stood there in a well-worn t-shirt, torn jeans, and bare feet. The bike he’d rode up on lay on its side down the footpath, and he had a small hacksaw and a pair of hedge clippers in his hand. “You guys by and chance want your bushes trimmed up there?,” he asked, motioning to the hedges around the front of my in-laws’ place. “I’m trying to earn some money to get my kid some food to eat,” he finished. “I’m sorry man,” I say, “I don’t live here and honestly don’t know if they’d want it or not.” “No problem,” he says, and moves on. Admirable, says me. No sedentary cardboard-sign holding for that guy – just some feet-on-the-street effort to try and make a few honest dollars. After I’d sent him off, I almost wished I’d just given him a few bucks… but, I didn’t.

The final details of the John Muir Trail hike Anthony and I begin exactly a week from today came together over the weekend with the response to a mail I’d sent to Vermilion Valley Resort inquiring about long-term parking of our exit vehicle there while we hiked. The resort is the planned terminus of our hike now, for many logical reasons, most of all being that it’s the only really “convenient” exit point accessible to vehicles around the length of trail we’d like to cover. We plan to leave Anthony’s car there for the week. The folks at the resort replied that it’d be fine, at the modest rate of $2 per night.

The plan now is to drive down to Anthony’s folks place (much closer to where we want to be) on Saturday, staying there that night. Then on Sunday, a local friend of Anthony’s will follow us on the three hour drive to Vermilion Valley Resort at Lake Edison, where we’ll leave Anthony’s car, and then that same friend will drive us another three and a half hours up to Yosemite where we’ll pick up our passes before he drops us off to spend the night in backpackers camping that last night. We’ll be near Curry Village that last night, so we’ll have a chance to eat one final “real” meal and purchase any last-minute items we may find we’ve forgotten at our last gear check. We plan to depart from Happy Isles trailhead sometime around six or seven that morning – with the best intentions to maximize our mileage on that grueling first uphill day.

If all goes well, Anthony we’ll rejoin his waiting vehicle back on the shores of Lake Edison some seven days of walking later. That is, unless we die or give up before that; in which case – who knows how we’ll get to a vehicle.

Well, Kyle’s coming over at six o’clock to pick me up and ferry us over to Orlando for The National show tonight. Hoping the show will be good, as I’m pretty beat from running around like crazy over the past week – and I’d hate to be bored to tears and an hour from a bed at 1am tonight. The company should make it worthwhile though, I always have liked hanging out with Kyle.

Raining now in Florida. Later.

Our second full day in Florida was another nice and lazy one, spend nursing yesterday’s sunburn and still shaking out all the lack-of-sleep cobwebs from Monday. Sufficiently decompressed and recuperated, I began calling all the old buddies and relatives, setting up rendezvous later in the week for dinners and lunches and catching ups. Yesterday we hit the beach in the morning, and met up with my oldest buddies for a few pints and some mexican food in the evening – twas a good night, which saw us home in time to play with Keaton for a half hour before putting her down (having left her with the grandparents while we drank and dined).

This weekend we’re getting together with Sharaun’s sister and brother and heading up to the alma mater Gainesville to see the Gators play in The Swamp. Tyler’s gonna cart up the smoker, and we’re gonna get out on campus early for the 6pm game with a pork shoulder over some hickory. A day of reminiscent tailgating, pulled pork, and football – just like old college Saturdays. I’m actually super-excited about going to a game. It’s something Sharaun and I have been talking about doing ever since we graduated, but it’s always been sort of elusive, as I figured it would require a trip to Florida just to make it happen. Thank goodness for the awesomeness of sabbatical.

Well, I’m off to take a nap (I can do that, any time I want to). I’m about 50% done with a huge batch of pictures I’ll be uploading later this evening, if all goes right. Here’s something to whet your appetite, though. It’s a picture I snapped recently when we went to the beach, and Keaton was mobbed by the paparazzi. It happens; she’s that cute, y’know.

Until later.