In the company of giants - pics from the John Muir Trail

Wanted to do a follow up pic based post for the JMT (http://livingthekoroldream.blogspot.com/2012/08/in-company-of-giants-john-muir-trail.html), i had my digital SLR camera and as a result got a ton of good pics.  Have picked out a couple of my favorites from each day and hope you enjoy them.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

In the company of giants: John Muir Trail summary

Muriel and I wanted to really, truly unplug from our lives and hence decided to do the John Muir Trail - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir_Trail (at least 165 miles of the 212 total) in the Eastern Sierra mountains. Our section started in Mammoth Lakes, Ca and went south until Mt Whitney, which is the highest mountain in the continental United States. The trail is almost entirely above 8,000 feet and traversed 5 passes that are just about 12,000 feet.

Considered by many to be the premier hiking trail in the continental United States, the JMT hugs the Sierra Crest and alternates between high-altitude forest and above-timberline terrain. Eleven of California's thirteen 14,000-foot peaks are located on or near the trail, which crosses or passes near the headwaters of a more than a dozen major Sierra Nevada rivers.

http://trails.sierraclub.org/trails/default.aspx?name=john_muir_trail

The trip was amazing, we did the 165 miles in 10 full days of hiking and this was the hardest sustained physical challenge of my life. We worked so hard to get in the miles needed for our plans and say some of the most beautiful high mountains. We were blown away by the raw power and beauty of this country and blessed to be able to move fast and nimbly throughout. I think we ascended about 35,000 feet of elevation and descended about the same.

We are going to do a couple of posts, this one summarizing the trip and another with the best of pictures. The below is based off notes Mu took along the road.

Day 1

We got on the trail in Mammoth, from the Mammoth Pass trailhead. Since we left a wedding that morning north of Reno, it was quite a haul to get down to the trailhead. As a result, we got on the trail around 4 and hiked for a few hours before pulling into our first campsite of the trail around 7. It felt great to finally be on the trail, with the multitude of planning becoming a reality. Honestly, the act of getting on the trial trumpet the beauty this afternoon.

Day 2

Deer Creek to Squaw Lake

The continuous physicality of the trail becomes a reality pretty quick, with the 50+ pound backpack and such. Today was highlighted with a really pretty sunset at squaw lake, looking out across a large river basin. Overall: we we're super pooped from the first full day on the trail.

Day 3

Squaw Lake to Bear Creek

We went over a large pass (silver pass) first thing in the morning and were pleased that to get that completed and under our belt. In fact, the real challenge of the day was a different assent, about 2k of switchbacks in the forest and high country. Night fall found us at a lovely campsite, right by the river with delicious water and perfect light.

Day 4

Bear Creek to San Joaquim (aka the mud springs)

Today was our re-supply from the muir trail ranch, meaning we have covered 50 miles of our trek. The ranch is way in the back country, and very thankfully offers a service to backpackers with re-supply. There is also a mud springs bath, which we really appreciated to rejuvenate the muscles, especially the legs. Of course, we thought it was a rest day and hiked about 12 miles. Some rest day.

Day 5

San Joaquim to Darwin Creek

Another amazing campsite brought the end of a day moving steadily up first tributary of the Kings river. We crossed into Kings canyon National park in the morning and started the traverses over the high mountain passes and descents down into the river valleys. The campsite was Mu's favorite, as we had stunning vistas of evolution valley and privacy. Overall, today felt more mellow because we our packs were heavy from the re-supply and wanted to built our energy reserves for the next several days. Our intention is to hike around 80 miles over the next 4 days, traversing 5 really tall passes and through some of the biggest and baddest mountains in the US.

Day 6

Darwin Creek to Deer Meadows (21.5 miles)

We went over our first big, big pass, named for John Muir. This country was spectacular, jagged and rugged with many miles above treeline. Thankfully, the rain held off until we had gotten back into the cover of trees and did not let up for hours. We kept hiking, finding it better to be hiking as opposed to setting up camp while it is raining and getting everything wet. By the end of the day, we had hiked for over 12 hours, and were exhausted. Camp was right by a Kings creek, and was made right as night fall came. I slept like a baby, but it took awhile to get to sleep as my mind was churning about the exertion of the day and the plans for the upcoming days. Part of me wanted to get up in the middle of the night and keep the movement going. 

Day 7

Deer Meadow to Sawmill Junction (21.5 miles)

Today we charged, going over two passes about 12k high with a little late start due to my jury rigging of new shoelaces when mine broke. The first pass, called Mather and named for the first supervisor of the national park system, was rugged. We were in the company of 6 or so mountains that top out over 14k. Our 2^nd pass, Pinchot, was completed after a drizzly day and topped by a superhuman push from Mu that covered over 2 miles and the last 1200 feet of the pass in an hour. I could not keep up, but sure tried. This pass was different from the rest, as the mountains are metamorphic rock as opposed to the glacial granite that has been our world for the last 100 miles.

Day 8

Sawmill Junction to Bubbs Creek (16.5 miles)

This pass, called Glen, seemed like it would be easier but ended up being the hardest. Wr moved a bit slower than would be ideal and hence had a storm beating down on us as we summited the pass. The lakes on the north of the pass, called Rae Lakes, were really pretty but my mind was focused on the weather to be sure and keep us safe.

Day 9

Bubb's Creek to High Sierra Junction (17.5 miles)

Today was dominated by passage over Forrester Pass, which tops out at 13,200 feet. The pass was actually sort of easy, despite the altitude, as the trail was pretty even all the way to the top. This highlights the overall quality of the trail, which is in amazing shape from north to south, surely the best maintained trail in America. It was a great pass, as the summit comes and an amazing vista across Sequoia national park, with a bunch of lakes and several jagged mountain ridges. The alpine country is really stunning, and this is after days upon days of stunning, rugged country.

Day 10

High sierra junction to Alpine lake

A rest day for us, with time to dry out our stuff and enjoy the high country. We didn't even break camp until after 1 and it felt glorious. The hiking part of the day took us up to the high alpine basin of Mt Whitney, with an amazing sunset across alpine lakes and big ridges.

Day 11

Alpine lake to Whitney Portal

Today was the last day of our trip, with a last 3k climb up to the top of america. Mt whitney is 14,500 feet and it actually felt surprisingly easy after all of our acclimatization. Mu led us to the top of the mountain, charging up the hill. We ended up on top of Whitney around 8:30 and had a blissful fifteen minutes of peace and solitude before others came up to the summit area. I felt so peaceful, strong and happy to be at the top of the mt, looking out to the north across the many passes and high country that we had traversed over the the last several days. The sense of purpose included simplicity of purpose and shared accomplishment with Mu. It was also a HUGE relief to have her (and both of us) make it through the hike safely, considering her nasty ski accident only 15 weeks ago. We had 10 miles to go to the trailhead, and then hitching it up to Mammoth but it all felt great, doable and with a deep sense of simple, straightforward purpose.

More pics to come 

Our (rough) itinerary

Mu and I get ever closer to our departure date (Sept 6th from DC) and things are really coming together.  I am writing this from my parent's house in little, charming Wayne, Maine and Mu is in Nashville visiting her sister and her family. 

Thought it would be a good idea to put up our rough itinerary, so you can see what we are planning.  Much of the below is tentative in the sense that we don't have hotels and transport sorted.  However, quite a bit of thought has gone into the route and we feel really good about hitting as many places that we can along the way.  Also and most importantly, we are open to moving around the details to accommodate your schedule.  Come on, burn the vacation days and hit the road for a bit with your dear friends.

First leg: Middle East and Europe

Week 1 (Sept 7 -14)

We fly from DC to Tel Aviv to arrive on 7 Sep 2012. From here we will spend a couple of days in Jerusalem and then make our way overland to Jordan to see the wonders of Petrahttp://whc.unesco.org/en/list/326.

Week 2/3 (Sept 14-28)

Fly up to Antalya, Turkey from Amman, Jordan

Antalya is on the south coast of turkey and has excellent rock climbing: http://www.climb-europe.com/RockClimbingTurkey/antalya.htm.

From here we will make our way to Kalymnos, Greece right off the coast of southwest Turkey via bus/ferry for some more climbing:

http://www.planetmountain.com/english/News/shownews1.lasso?l=2&keyid=39544.

Week 4 (Sept 28 – Oct 5)

Then, we hope to head to Istanbul for some conventional travel as we make our way from there overland via Greece to the Ionian Sea.

Week 5/6 (Oct 5-20^th)

Make our way across the Ionian sea via ferry and overland in Italy to Naples. From there a ferry to Sardinia to meet friends (yeah!) in Sardinia around the 9^th for a week of climbing (http://www.climb-europe.com/RockClimbingSardinia.html). Then we take a ferry to Corsica around the 17th, and make our way back to mainland Europe on 20^th.

Week 7 (Oct 20-28)

Up in the air, we need to get over to Lisbon, Portugal by the 30^th(10 days or so) and are still figuring out how and when we want to enjoy this period. Want to have a few days in Lisbon for sure but beyond that we are flexible. Have talked about a bike trip (mountain or road) in north Portugal, for example.

Week 8 (Oct 28-Nov 4)

Lisbon and London

We fly from Lisbon to London on the 30^th and hang out in and around London for the rest of the week, staying with Jeff (thanks buddy!)

Second leg: Africa

Weeks 9-17 (Nov 4 – Dec 31^st)

We leave Europe and head to Africa, flying from London to Nairobi on 4 Nov 2012

Mu and I are doing an overland trip from Nairobi to Cape Town (http://www.oasisoverland.co.uk/trips/Africa/details/30/). These overland trips are pretty rustic and a great way to see the enormous continent up close and personal. If interested, you can probably join the trek for a week or two along the way, but it might be complicated.

Locations: Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa

An overland journey encompassing many of the incredible landscapes & cultures you imagine with Africa. From the tropical waters of Zanzibar to the austere Atlantic Ocean of Southern Africa - the contrasts abound. Masses of wildlife in the Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Etosha National Parks, to the playgrounds ofVictoria Falls and Swakopmund will leave memories that last forever.

Week 18 (Jan 1-7)

The tour is scheduled to arrive in Cape Town on New Year’s Eve, and we would love to travel for a week+ in South Africa if anyone is interested and able. Could go a bunch of directions, from climbing to wine country to trekking.

Week 19-23 (Jan 7-Feb 3^rd)

Madagascar. Mu did the peace corps here and it is the place I am most excited to visit in the world as a result.

Lots of cool stuff to see and experience, including: lemurs throughout the island, tsingy in the north, spiny forest in the south, beach everywhere and also on small adjoining islands, rain forest in the center and the east, baobabs in the west, and rich malagasy culture.

Week 24 (Feb 3-13)

Our last 10 days of the trip will likely come fly into Jo-burg for another week+ in SA. Have talked about a brief safari but beyond that have not spent much time thinking about this period – wink, wink.

Right now, we return to the US on a flight from Jo-burg to Vegas to arrive on 13 Feb 2013 but my parents are going to join us and hopefully head to Kenya as well so this will change a bit.

Third leg: ski season

Upon our return to the US: we have Epic ski passes (http://www.snow.com/epic-pass.aspx) that cover Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, and A Basin.

Assuming decent ski conditions we are hoping to post up in Breck or some other CO mountain town in Summit County for the rest of the month and all of March. Might end the ski season in Tahoe.

Visitors are highly encouraged and expected.

From there - ??? 

Blog basics

As promised, I wanted to get up a breif tutiroial about blogs in general and this one specfically: http://livingthekoroldream.blogspot.com. As the intro states, this blog is set up to share our journey over the next several months as we travel and explore.

Blogs are basically simple websites, that have a easy to use backend system that allows for posting of writing, pictures, video and other media. These individual messages are called 'posts' and can vary from a single picture to thousands of words (probably not on this blog). These posts are displayed in chronological order, the most recent being at the top of the blog. Each post has its own unique url web address, but they can all be located within the homepage (the link above).

 

There are a ton of blogging platforms out there, and we have gone with one hosted by Google, called blogger/blogspot. The simplest way to follow this, or any, blog is to bookmark the web address (listed above) and check it periodically. We can't/won't be posting daily, due to availability of the internet, and timer, but we are planning on posting at least a couple of times a week.

 

We are using this blog as our primary method of communication from the road for a couple of reasons. 1) Email is clunky and we don't want to be filling up your inbox with updates. 2) Blogs are on-demand for the reader, so you can read when and what you want. 3) The ability to embed multiple forms of media is great. We hope you enjoy these posts and want to hear from you in comments below and throughout the posts.

Other points of interest

- Contributors: this blog has 2 contributors, muriel and me. You can always tell who wrote a post by looking at the bottom of any single post and seeing who is the author. This will be right next to a timestamp that documents when the post went live on the site.

 

- Hyperlinks: we will try and add links for additional details and background info that we might not have on hand. These will appear in the post as standard links and we highly encourage you to click through, even if it is just taking you to a wikipedia page.

 

- Comments: we really, really hope this is not an entirely one side conversation. Every post has the ability to be commented on, you just click on the 'comments' hyperlink in the post and type away. We will get back to any and all comments as soon as we see them, so if you want to learn more about a specific place or experience just let us know and we can do a follow up post, shoot you an email, etc.

 

- Sharing: there are a number of ways you can share single posts, and all are available at the bottom of each entry. You can share via facebook, twitter, google+ and email, and for each just click the icon and follow each platform's format.

 

- RSS feed: this is a tiny bit more advanced, and is the way i consume my daily/weekly blog reading. An rss reader (like google reader) aggregates all of the blog feeds you follow in one, easy location. Since some blogs post dozens of times a day, this can be a pretty big list. For those already plugged into a RSS reader, you can enter in the blog url above add us to your reading list. I did this an hour ago for my own reader, so i know it works.

 

- Lastly, who anyone interested in the technology we are using to stay connected on the road, we are bringing out an ipad2 with a bluetooth keyboard. Then, we are posting via the app Blogsy.

 

That is all I can think of, did i miss anything? Any other good tips out there?

An introduction: Wilson

Hi, this is Wilson. Muriel and I are safely back from a very challenging and amazing experience on the John Muir Trail. The long and short of it is that we were able to keep our plan, putting in 10 very full days of backpacking, while covering a bit over 160 miles of the High Sierra country. A full post, with pics will be on the way in the next few days. Writing this post from Newark airport, awaiting my flight up to New England to visit my family and friends before we head.

 

As promised, I wanted to get up an brief introduction, for those that Mu and i meet along the way as well as people that might not be as familar with my interest and background.

 

Travel

Considering the travel that is in front of us, it is pretty obvious that it is a big part of our life. Travel was a big part of our lives before we met each other and we have upped our game together. Within the first couple years of being together, we had been to the 6 habitable continents (damn you, Antarctica), with extended stints on a couple to pursue graduate work. I think the crazy place we have been thus far is the Congo, which is truly a world unto itself.

 

Costa Rica - 2011

 

I love travel for a couple of reasons, first being experiencing new cultures and lifestyles, it is such a huge world and there are so many ways that people live happily and successfully. Secondly, i love seeing the beauty of new places, especially if it is unexpected. That feeling of discovery along the journey really gets my blood flowing. Lastly, I enjoy how travel is a challenge, operating in an unfamiliar language, navigating a new and confusing city, for example. In a world with so many ready answers via our smartphones, Google and the like, that feeling of uncertainty and discovery hold a great deal of personal appeal.

 

Sports/Recreation

An enormous part of my life is composed of sports and recreation. Playing sports has always been a deep part of my psyche, and that compulsion has not mellowed in as i have gotten older. An ideal week includes playing hockey, basketball, soccer, yoga, nearly daily trail runs, a bike ride (road usually, but also mt biking is super fun), skiing and several rock climbing sessions.

Mt Shasta

 

The good life in the Bay

Mu and i were married in 2007 and have been living in San Francisco for roughly the last 4 years. We love this city, with its great food, abundant outdoor opportunities and so many great friends. Living in SF, you alos get to host a ton of people visiting or coming through. SO many treausred memories, whether heading to day/weekend adventures, big group meals at our apartment, spending time with family, trying new restaurants/foods. SF is a special city and one of the best in my view.

 

Professional/Education

Lastly, thought it would be a good idea to have a brief bio about my work life. For roughly the last 5 years, I have worked in the coporate sustainability and responisblity feild. The first half of that time as a global CSR analyst at a firm called Nortel and the 2nd half as the Busiess Sustainablity Leader for Avaya. Working in this space has been an amazing expieirnce, with such diversity of challenges and opportunties. Loved having days that traversed from IT, to carbon/climate, employee communications and product compliance across a global footprint, to name a few common work topics.

 

On the education side, I hold masters from Duke in Public Policy and Environmental Management, having graduated from there in 2007. My undergrad degrees are from Claremont McKenna College in econ and history. My stuides and researcvh have thankfully taken me all over the globe, from Brasil, to Geneve to Vietnam, fueling the wanderlust that is embeeded in my DNA.

 

Long kiss goodbye to the Bay

Well, it has been a pretty momentous last couple of weeks.  With the travel, moving, leaving our jobs and getting ready for the John Muir Trail, things have been a tad bit on the busy side.  Just the way we like it.

Just wanted to get something brief up, heading into our very last night in San Francisco.  That statement fills me with sadness and many, many wonderful memories.  It has been an unbelievable four year run and we treasure so many people and things in this city by the bay.  Considering how much we have been fitting into our days, there has honestly not been proper time to reflect on this time and the inflection point we inhabit.  That will come in the next weeks.

Also coming in the the next few weeks;
- Introductions to Muriel and Wilson
- A little blog tutorial (primarily for my mom and anyone else in need)
- Brief exploration of how and why we are making the leap and living our dream.

Until then, know that we really appreciate you following along and hope to do proper justice to the experience and interest.

Lots of love and see you from the top of Mt Whitney.