9-1-00
Day of travel- Met up with Mark at LAX. We picked up the rental car and headed toward our destination. We ended up crashing in a parking lot near Denny’s. At this point, Mark and I could tell that CA was a great place by the bright lights and nice cars. However, the scenery was lost in the darkness. For awhile, we toyed with the idea of trashing Sequoia plans, renting a convertible and cruising the CA coast, but we ended up sticking to plans.

9-2-00
After eating breakfast at Denny’s, we drove to Lone Pine, stopping occasionally for good photo opts. (We didn’t want to miss our last opportunity to get a good picture of a Joshua tree). In Lone Pine, we ran all necessary last minute errands and got bear warnings and precautions crammed down our throats. Luckily, Mark was able to secure us a permit since there was a cancellation. We started at Onion Valley. Before leaving we attempted to cram all of food into two bear canisters. We had to leave some behind, but don’t worry there will be more rationing yet to come. We hiked for about 3 hours (including long breaks) until we found a campsite. On the hike, we gained a friend who joined us part of the way. To sum him up……. he was mid aged, hasn’t hiked for 27 yrs, has a pulse of 40 w/his heart meds, and recommends a radio comedy routine called- “the 2001 yr old man”.

At about 5pm, we set up camp. Actually Mark set up the tarp while Jenny played Jervis trying to remember how to tie bunny/X-men/tension knots. We had re-fried beans and tortillas for supper. The beans were a little soupy due to too much water. Afterward, we began our attempt to fit all items into 2 bear canisters. Some stuff had to go. We are both still mourning the loss of 4 pitas. We then went to bed to experience the tarp, sleeping quilt, and bug insert for the first time. The tarp is cool but the bug inset was a little cramped. The quilt was nice and allowed me to cuddle with Mark lots (for the sake of body heat of course). I wasn’t too cold, but Mark was chilly. I think I must have sucked the heat out of him . We made it through the night without getting eaten by bears even though we were sleeping with a cliff bar .

(*Realized that I have SLIGHT bear paranoia)

9-3-00
We broke camp at 6:30am. Neither of us got very consistent sleep that night. We both were cold and some of us were bear paranoid . Mark even considered pulling out the emergency mylar bag at one point since he was so cold. We hiked to Kearsarge pass this day. It was beautiful at the top. We ate lunch below at a pond/lake. We walked out to the middle on a rock to eat lunch. It was our own little rock island. Lots of sun, good scenery, and sausage and cheese. Life is good. We had a great view of the trail and were able to “people watch” as hikers went by with packs that looked 2x/their body weight. We felt pretty good about the weight of our packs . After lunch, we were on part of the John Muir trail. Mark gave me a crash course in the life and history of John Muir. Lots of trees along the trail looked charbroiled from the past fire (we aren’t sure when the last one occurred). However, the burned trees scattered throughout the non-burned trees was actually quite beautiful. That night we ended up setting up our tarp in an area that had designated sites with bear boxes. We ate a delicious supper of ravoletti, tomato sauce, and grated cheese. It was the best meal that we had so far. Right around dinnertime, I realized that I was suffering from dehydration. To compensate, I swear that I drank at least a platypus of water. I think Mark was worried I would get sick that I drank so much . As a result of my large water consumption, I went to the bathroom 3xs that night. Mark claims that one of the times that I broke the world record for the fastest pee.
(* Used bug insert as a ground cloth)

9-4-00
Headed to Forester Pass that morning. Stopped at a sunny rock for breakfast. Realized that Mark was a sun worshiper and came to life when exposed to the sun. Before lunch, we ran into a blaze of fire that was a hiker who was an ex-marine traveling along w/a go-light pack, 2 trekking poles, 30 lbs total, and a goal of 30 miles a day. You may ask how I found all this out him? Well, actually I didn’t. He left me in the dust while Mark kept up with him to pump him for info. Shortly after, we broke for lunch by a nearby stream and had cheese, sausage, and crackers. Then began the rest of our trek up forester pass, which ended up being quite a hike. At one point, we decided to take a different trail that we saw in the distance that looked like a little more direct. We attempted to go on this trail and it wasn’t long before we lost part of it. We could see the trail above us, so we climbed up to it. This was a little more challenging for some than others . When we finally reached the top I remember Mark making a comment that if he ever struck it rich that he would buy a team of horses to ride and carry our stuff. I’m not sure what that means, but maybe Mark was tired too . We tried to get down the pass as quickly as we could since it was getting late and we needed to set up camp soon. We cruised down. Saw lots of tools etc. left on the side of the trail by trail maitanence crews. We attempted to set up the tarp next to a big rock. It was SO windy. Mark was amazing and used his McGaiver(sp?) skills to get it up. I was impressed! We cooked and ate in the tarp since even a bear would sleep in this altitude . We slept in Mylar bags with fleece shirts on our heads. We looked like aliens, but kept fairly warm considering the conditions (got down to 15 degrees).
*(Need attachment on belt or hip pack for water bottle. The water bottle pocket in my pack is hard to reach)

9-5-00
Woke up with frozen water and frozen Mark. The sun slowly came down the cliff toward us. W e didn’t move until the sun touched our tent. As a result, we got going late, but a little warmer (I mean little). We ate breakfast next to a beautiful waterfall. Most of the day of hiking was on the straightway and we just flew! Mark practiced throwing rocks at marmots. I noticed that he doesn’t seem to like the little furry animals that we run into (mice, chipmunks, marmots etc) . We made the decision not to head to Lucy’s foot pass and take a more direct route to Whitney. The goal was to climb Whitney on Thur. (9-7-00). The easier hiking day allowed for soaking in the scenery and good conversation. Mark’s going to do a workshop on pack -shui and I’m writing a book on fashion do’s and don’ts of hiking.

We set up camp about 4.5 miles from crab tree ranger station and 11 miles from Whitney. There were bear boxes and a few other hikers around. We ate lasagna for dinner. VERY yummy! Could have had more. It helped a little that we grated cheese over it. Mark set up the tarp and built a stone wall around it to protect from the wind. We went to bed early secure with our fleece shirts on our heads (Mark took a picture of our fleece heads. I’m sure the blindness is only temporary). We didn’t sleep in our mylar bags. We only had the quilt and shared body heat. A little cold- temp in morning 15 degrees.
*(Foot powder has been working great. Still no blisters )

9-6-00
Broke camp in 37 minutes and set off to find a sunny spot for Mark to come alive in. Our goal for today is to reach Guitar Lake and set up camp early to prepare for Whitney. We met several people along the way and at camp. We ate lunch with a couple -Warren and Nancy who were quite nice. Warren was a boyscout leader and Nancy, a 5th grade school teacher. We also ran into a couple of guys that we had met the night before. They wanted us to hike up Whitney with them the next day. They were even willing to give us an extra fleece for the night. The only glitch is that they wanted to be up and hiking by 4am. After reconsidering their proposition, we decided against it. We were going to get up at 4:30am with the goal of starting hiking at 5am. We also met a group of foreign (mostly Hungarian) YMCA workers who invited us to hang with them. We turned them down that night, but don’t worry you’ll hear more about them later. From all the people that we talked with, we found that we were the most unprepared for the cold conditions. However, I think that we were very creative in making due with what we had. Mark did an amazing job setting up the tarp and creating a wind barrier using rocks. He also made it with all the sides down so that wind couldn’t blow in. We ended up being pretty warm that night. We slept in the mylar bags and had the fleece shirts on the heads. This was a pretty warm formula .

9-7-00
The morning started at 4:30am. We were hiking by 5:30am. On the way up, we ran into all the gang that we had talked to the day before (Y-workers, Warren and Nancy, and the 2 middle-aged guys). The Y-workers packs were huge!!!! They had all sorts of stuff- cans of soup, an actual coin for there bear canisters etc. The Y-workers ended up getting to the top the same time that we did. They kept offering us all the guilty pleasures in life- chocolate, alcohol, weed etc. We did take them up on the chocolate at the top. It was a breath taking view at the top and a real feeling of accomplishment. I swear that I had a tear in my eye when we first got glimpse of the shelter. I also remember that a burst of wind coming from the back of us that helped push us up the last few steps. Mark and I got some good picture (I hope). I’m really not too worried whether they turn out well since I know that this is something I will always remember regardless.

On the hike down, we found an abandoned camera case. We debated what to do and eventually decided to leave a note and carry it down to the ranger station. Mark was the good Samaritan that carried it. The case was heavy and awkward. Luckily, we ran into its owner on the way down and Mark gained a new friend for life .

The way down was supposedly 8 miles and a few switchbacks. It was more like 8 gazillion miles and so many switchbacks that it was mind numbing (or feet numbing ). We ran into Calder (ranger) on the way down. It was nice to get a chance to see her in person. She gave us some good advice on how to get a ride to our car which was good considering that we saw the guys that wanted to give us a ride pulling out of the parking lot while we were still on the trail. I ended up persuading a father/daughter combo to give us a ride to Lone Pine ranger station. At Lone Pine we hooked up with a ranger named Bruce who Kalder advised would give us a ride to Onion Valley if we offered him $25 and called him a good Canadian. Bruce was agreeable to give us a ride and apparently not Canadian (Kalder set up ). He was a laid back, foot loose and fancy-free ranger guy type. At the parking lot, we found our rental car intact. Many of the cars around us had been damaged by bears break-ins (broken windows etc). We ate at the Rock’n Rhino that night. We ate in there outside area since we still hadn’t showered (although we were told by Kalder that we still looked pretty clean for being in the woods for 6 days). We were very beat. We tried to have an intelligible conversation about the rest of our trip plans, relationship stuff, and communication. This might have not been the best timing since we hiked up the highest point in the contiguous US this day and had gotten up at 4:30am. This conversation was like Mars vs. Venus on crack . It was clear as mud, but eventually we came to the decision to sleep in Bishop that night with the plan to climb Nevada’s high point the next day. We slept in the car and hoped that we didn’t get the “knock” in the middle of the night from one of the many police officers that we saw patrolling the area .

*(Mark REALLY likes car remotes )
*(Next time take permit along instead of bear canister rental agreement )
*(Jes’s advice to have no major relationship conversations until we were both out of the woods and showered should have been followed )

9-8-00
High Point #2-Boundary Peak-Nevada. Stopped at Bishop Ranger station to get info. Found out that the main road leading to Boundary Peak was washed out and we needed to take an alternative route. We asked a very nice homeowner (beautiful ranch home w/horses, rose gardens etc.) if we could drive on his private road to get there. He had no problem with it. The road was something else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Parts were washed out. There were lots of huge stones on the road and brush right alone the side. It gave new meaning to “gravel road” . Mark was in a "driving zone" and got us there. A couple times I got out of the car to move rocks. I have no idea how the rental care made it! We got there eventually and filtered some water before we took off. We only took hip packs with us and a small amount of water. We left around noon. At first, the walk was thorny with lots of low brush. The trail was easy to loose. We put our pant legs to keep from getting too cut up. The walk up the saddle was sandy/rocky. The trekking poles helped, but we only had one pair. It would have been good if we would have had 2 pairs so that Mark had one to use also. We realized part of the way up after running into a couple hikers that we had a lot more ahead of us than we had thought. Mark debated going ahead with the trekking poles to complete it since he probably could make better time. We ended up deciding to turn back since we were both tired and had gotten a late start. The ride back to Lone Rock was long with both of us dehydrated, ½ starved, and very tired. We decided to get a motel that night which I think that we really needed. We showered, slept like rocks, and planned on hitting Sequoia tomorrow to see big trees.
(*Carl Jr.’s hits the spot for greasy food when REALLY hungry. It is also the only fast food place in Lone Pine)

9-9-00
Renewed to the point that we were pretty slaphappy, we headed toward Sequoia National Forest. We sang Boy Scout songs in the car, ate lots of junk food, and stopped at a delicious fruit stand. We both experienced fresh figs for the first time and realized how delicious they are. We also tried a sip of the fresh squeezed orange juice. We ended up buying a quart since it was so good. When we reached the park. Our goal was simple- see BIG trees (Mark also wanted to drive through a tree). We drove on the windy roads through some construction. We saw some big trees. Mark was doing his Chevy Chase impression from the Vacation movies . We camped at Stoney Creek camp ground in the park. Mark made an awesome fire. We drank tequeza, talked about tattoo designs, and told a few urban legends .

9-10-00
Destination- Buenaventura beach to see the ocean, enjoy the sun, and try to get rid of our funky tan lines (I also had a hidden agenda to see Mark in a swim suit ). Very relaxing day! Also, starting to get bummed that our vacation is coming to an end. Spending the past week with Mark has been wonderful! I’m not sure that I’m going to be ready to let him go on Mon. I’m trying to not think of that and focus on the present though. That night we stayed at Super 8 in LA. We ate at the Olive Garden for supper (it took us a little bit to find). Mark was wiped out during dinner. I’m not quite sure why, but let’s just say that I’m not at all concerned that we don’t have an adequate level of passion in our relationship. We set the alarm clock for 4:30 am the next day so that we could drop off the car and get to the airport on time.

9-11-00
Flight to Detroit went well. I’m still writing in my journal since I’m technically on vacation until I get back to Madison. My plane to Chicago was canceled altogether due to bad weather. I ended up getting booked to leave the next morning into Madison. This was one of those VERY good delays by the airlines!!!!! Mark and I had an extra night together. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……. Life is good.

(*Must think of master plan that allows Mark and I to be together all the time. We keep growing closer and it is getting harder to be apart )