More than half way and still in California

We have finally surpassed our halfway point (unfortunately having to skip 100 miles to reach it, due to fire) and yet we are still in California. What an amazing journey it has been so far. I regret not having been able to write for sometime due to lack of access to technology. I won't try to re-cap everything here but just say that since my last post at Kennedy Meadows I have been witness to some of the most beautiful and spectacular landscapes I have ever seen.

Climbing snowy passes, slowly but surely, only to drop back down into hot, smokey and mosquito ridden valley's. Some days smoke so thick I could not see the mammoth mountains that lay in front of me. Eventually the granite rock yielded to the volcanic and I found myself walking over jagged hillside of strange rock formations shaded in red, green and brown. Growing throughout these hillsides were lush, bright fields of wildflowers and grasses. For three consecutive days rain pounded us as we walked over bluffs, at times with no tree cover, hiking as quickly as we could to avoid the thunder and lightning accompanying the dark purple/gray clouds and rain/hail showers.

We eventually hit South Lake Tahoe after our longest stretch without a town stop (only 7 1/2 days, but it feels like a long time when your pack weighs 40-45 lbs. at the beginning). Luckily for us Jeramy and I both had friends in the area. Our first day out of Lake Tahoe we hiked a mile and half before veering off trail to find the cabin of some old friends from Eugene. A little skeptical that we would find it with directions like "find the channel between the two lakes, yell across it and we'll come pick you up". Luckily we found the channel with a little help from one of the neighboring houses and sure enough on my second shout they heard me. It was a beautiful cabin on a rocky bluff over looking Upper Echo Lake. We joined them for a delicious dinner, chatted and caught up and as tempted as we were to stay the night we knew we couldn't if we were to make it 30 miles to Tahoe City by the next evening to meet up with one of Jeramy's old friends. And so with the moon almost full we left around 8:30pm to hike a few miles, leaving us only 27 for the next day.

In Tahoe City we took a much needed full day off, our first since Kennedy Meadows, 100's of miles ago. From there Kate joined us for a 30 mile stretch, hiking 20 of it in one day! We hope to have her join us again as well as many others once we get into Oregon and Washington. And now here in Old Station some 300 miles away from the Oregon border we have to hustle. Our goal is to make it to Ashland, Or by August 13th so that we can than head up north for the wonderful wedding party of Rochelle and Johan. Don't worry, we'll make it. Wish I had time to write more and share with you all more stories but I've got to get back on the trail and off the computer before it tries to break on me again.

oh, sorry for not posting photos but with this computer it would take about 2 hours. Kate did post some on the blog from the Sierra's. You can check them out at our website. www.walkforwild.org

Peace to all.

rambling on

friends,

we're back for another brief taste of civilization, in old station, california staying with the wonderful heitman family amidst tents, treehouses, and hammocks nearly 1400 miles into the trail. not much time to write with a line of folks waiting for the computer, so just a quick little recount of our experiences in the high sierra.
walking the mountain peaks and shining snowmelt waters through in a world coming to life for another season. snow giving way to wildflowers and green meadows, clear cold waters with golden trout drifting the currents, marmots scanning the landscape atop the stones. silent alpine worlds through the sequoia and kings canyon park, sliding through the snow-ice and scrambling boulder channels we crossed the storied passes of the john muir trail. forester, glen, pinchot, mather, and muir. each with its own beauty and silence, snowbound at the highest points scraping into bright blue skies.
after leaving kennedy meadows we headed into the just burned clover wildfire, smoldering stumps beside the trail and gray dust ash covering the hillsides. a sunrise scramble up olancha mountain was our first high peak at 12,000+ feet. to the south smoke from the fire curling, east a barren desert valley, west the mountains of the kern plateau, and north the black snow-capped high sierra. we spent the summer solstice sitting below mt. whitney, beside timberline and guitar lakes, fresh crisp air, surrounded by granite walls. climbed to the peak the next day with clear morning skies and vivid clouds rolling in as the day passed.
the beauty continued to unfold as we walked through the sub-alpine forests, huge half-snag foxtail and lodgepole pines, bright red in the sun, somehow rising from the sand and stone slopes. desolate high lakes frozen and still and others glistening in the light, valleys carved by rumbling rivers deep below the peaks...much more beauty and peace than can be put to words...thats all i'll try for now. peace, jeramy