our mail drops

they're in the mail! got paint buckets at true value. filled them to the brim with non-perishables. we're only doing two- red's meadow and muir trail ranch (decided that we were going to drop a bear canister off at tuolomne). woman at the post office in chicago thought we were crazy, but gave us no trouble getting them in the mail. they were both around $30 to mail.

Trail Food

Here's an ad for Ziploc that we found on our kitchen floor, with some cross-marketing for Clif, Emergen-C, and Swiss Miss. These are our dinners, breakfasts, and energy bars for the entire trip (they're piled up a little bit). I wasn't aware of caffeinated Swiss Miss before Lucy went shopping, but it sounds way better than instant coffee.

We used Lip Smackin' Vegetarian Backpackin' for almost our entire dinner menu, with some variations courtesy of Lucy. The book has a bunch of easy recipes for minimal trail-preparation meals that are collected from hikers.

Although the book doesn't mention this, anyone looking to make spaghetti leather (dehydrated pasta sauce) in the oven, should not start making it at 10:30 at night. After spreading a jar of pasta sauce evenly on a cookie sheet, setting the oven to 200 degrees (or lower), and leaving the oven door slightly open, the dehydration process takes an extremely long time. So at 2:30am, the question you have to ask yourself is, "Do I feel comfortable leaving the oven on all night?" Well, I did. Spaghetti leather done!

Planned Mileage

In preparation for sending our resupply packages, we planned out our route. Although we don't have an elevation chart for the route yet, a similar trip with an elevation chart can be found here, and a similar trip with descriptions of route and elevation can be found here. We're planning resupply packages for Tuolumne Meadows, Red's Meadow, and Muir Trail Ranch. I can think of no more official way of stating our intended route than by writing it out on a blog, but we're going to remember to stay flexible. Like a gymnast.

8/2 - Start Yosemite Valley - End Forsyth Trail (0.0-8.7 - 8.7m day total)

8/3 - Start Forsyth - End Cathedral Lake Trail (8.7-17.8 - 9.1m day total)

8/4 - Start Cathedral Lake Trail - End Lyell Fork Base Trail (17.8-32.8 - 15m day total)

8/5 - Start Lyell Fork Base Trail - End Thousand Island Lake (32.8-43.0 - 10.2m day total)

8/6 - Start Thousand Island Lake - End Gladys Lake (43.0-50.9 - 7.9m day total)

8/7 - Start Gladys Lake - End Reds Meadow (50.9-57.3 - 6.4m day total)

8/8 - Start Reds Meadow - End Deer Creek (57.3-68.3 - 11m day total)

8/9 - Start Deer Creek - End Silver Pass Lake (68.3-80.5 - 12.2 day total)

8/10 - Start Silver Pass Lake - End Cascade Creek (80.5-87.6 – 7.1 day total)

8/11 - Start Cascade Creek - End Marie Lake (87.6- 99.3- 11.6 day total)

8/12 - Start Marie Lake - End Piute Pass Trail (99.3 -109.8 - 12.1 day total)

8/13 - Start Piute Pass Trail - End Evolution Lake (109.8-121.9- 12.1 day total)

8/14 - Start Evolution Lake - End Little Pete Meadow (121.9-134.5 - 12.6 day total)

8/15 - Start Little Pete Meadow - End Palisade Lake (134.5-145.7 - 11.2 day total)

8/16 - Start Palisade Lake - End Taboose Trail Pass (145.7-155.1 - 9.4 day total)

8/17 - Start Taboose Trail Pass - End South Fork Trail (155.1-166.8 - 11.7 day total)

8/18 - Start South Fork Trail - End Kearsarge Pass Trail (166.8-177.9 - 11.1 day total)

8/19 - Start Kearsarge Pass Trail - End Lake South America Trail (177.9-191.4 - 13.5 day total)

8/20 - Start Lake South America Trail - End Guitar Lake (191.4-205.7 - 14.3 day total)

8/21 – Start Guitar Lake - End Whitney Portal (205.7- 222.4- 16.6 day total)

Half Dome

Here are some of the pictures of our Half-Dome training hike. We're both really glad we didn't try to do this as a side trip while doing the JMT, because the few miles of the trail that lead up to Half Dome from the JMT are really difficult.

We got to the top pretty early after starting the trail in the morning in the dark.



Getting there early was crucial, since the cables get pretty crowded in the afternoon. And they're pretty terrifying as it is.



And the only thing worse than going up the cables is having to pass people while going up the cables.

Yo! semite

We spent the fourth of july weekend in Yosemite at Matt's family's cabin with 22 of our closest friends. While we had high hopes of hiking a ton everyday and being in tip top training condition, most of the weekend was spent drinking, eating and swimming. We did do some nice hikes though- Tuolomne to Glen Aulin, and Halfdome. Halfdome kicked my ass, and the cables were utlra terrifying. Matt was a trooper and practically didn't get scared at all. Much of the 16.4 mile halfdome hike is on the JMT, so it was nice because we were getting a little bit of a preview of what is in front of us.

ALSO- I'm in Oregon right now, land of no sales tax, so I bought some cheap mountain house meals and other trail food. We need to get out maildrops out in the next two weeks- all these things that seemed so far away are now right in front of us!