Forrest, Sara, John Muir and 100 miles

We are about to begin our hiking adventure into the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks along the John Muir Trail. Distance to hike is estimated at the end of each day. We won't have cell phone service, but will be transmitting our GPS location to a few family members/friends so they know we are safe.

We will start at South Lake trailhead on August 4th or 5th and hiking over Bishop Pass

Day 1: Le Conte Canyon, John Muir Trail junction, 11.5mi
Day 2: Palisade Lakes, 10.0mi
Day 3: Lake Marjorie, 11.0mi
Day 4: Arrowhead Lake, 12mi
Day 5: midway up Bubbs Creek Canyon, 10mi
Day 6: Tyndall Creek / Shepard Pass trail junction, 9.6mi
Day 7: **floating rest day** (i like this idea, perhaps if i made the schedule i would have increased it's frequency)
Day 8: Guitar Lake, 11.4mi
Day 9: Whitney Portal parking lot, 9.9mi (w/ side trip to Mt Whitney summit, +3.4mi RT)

End at Whitney Portal on August 12th or 13th

We're carrying everything on our backs (food, cooking and camping gear, clothing), I will post later the division of weight per person. I suspect John Muir won't be carrying much. Most of this is hiking at about 8,000 ft or above, which will be a new adventure for me. I am most excited about the possibility of no mosquitoes.
The photos below are a food/drink items for our packs!

Blisters, Bridges and Bumpass Hell

Forrest and I returned to San Jose from our adventure in the Klamath National Wilderness volunteering with the Pacific Crest Trail Association. Our original start date was July 24, however on our drive up to NorCal we received word that our work would be postponed until July 25. So we stopped by Chico to see Amy, Chris and Toby. Our gracious hosts showed us a few prize spots in Chico such as Burgers and Brews, Sin of Cortez and Bidwell Canyon park.



After our weekend in Chico, we drove almost to the Oregon border to Seiad Valley, CA and then drove back-country on a dusty dirt road for 2.5 hours to our waaaaaay back-country "front-country" campsite (we had our car nearby but still had to dig our own "restrooms"). We joined an existing 5 person crew that was part of the Student Conservation Association working on PCT locations from May through December 2011 for about $2000 total stipend (let us pause to reflect on how happy we are that we are not still college aged and impressed with $2000 total salary for 6 months!!!) The trail maintenance is being funded in part through the governments American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which is also fueling public works projects throughout the country, including some infrastructure improvements I've worked on in Boston.

The work days started around 8am and ended by 5pm with almost non-stop sweat dripping labor. We worked on trimming trees, clearing brush and weeds, building rock walls and retreading trail sections. As a reward for volunteering the SCA crew fed us for the week. We were informed that the menu would be vegetarian, so we were unsure what to expect. Breakfast was pretty basic with bagels, fruit and coffee. Lunch was a random selection of cheese and vegetable sandwiches (I missed the meat) and also fruit and trail mix. Dinners were fish tacos, egg sandwiches and roasted potatoes, tofu lasagna and tofu vegetable stir fry with quinoa. I was most impressed with their use of a dutch oven over the open fire, wise purchase. I was left to wonder how the tofu made it through the scorching summer heat, my stomach thought perhaps it had reached it's prime sometime before I consumed it (read into that what you will).







Forrest and I ended up with about 8 total blisters on hands and feet, not too bad. One of the volunteers asked me if I would ever consider committing 6 months to this type of program and I answered pretty quickly "no..... but I'm impressed that you are doing it." I guess since I've been in grown-up land I have come to appreciate my bed, toilet, shower and non-cowboy style coffee.

We headed south on I-5 on Friday since my glasses melted in the car one of the days. After getting them replaced at LenCrafters ($$$), and checking out the famous Sundial Bridge, we crashed for the night. Redding isn't such a bad place, we made it out alive.

Saturday we checked out Lassen Volcanic National Park, since it was "on the way" home to San Jose. The park was quite busy but very beautiful and worth the trip. There was a significant amount of snow melt left (even mid summer!) and we enjoyed the cool temperatures. It is exceptionally ironic that we could not hike to the top of Mt. Lassen due to .... trail maintenance. We did hike to Bumpass Hell, an active geothermal area.







Today we checked out the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, CA. We tried some calamari, garlic fries and garlic ice cream! In case you are wondering, now, 8 hours after consuming that much garlic, I can still taste garlic.

3,505 miles

Monday July 18
States commuted through: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri
Notable Sites: Mississippi River, St. Louis Arch, 10,000 Adult XXX Shops, 10,001 Pro-Jesus signs
Notable Culinary Adventures: Backyard BBQ, Greenup, IL and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, St. Louis Ghetto
Baby Hats Knitted: 3
Notable Photos:





Tuesday July 19
States commuted through: Kansas and 1/2 of Colorado
Notable Sites: Amazingly vast Farms, 500 Adult XXX Shops, 501 Pro-Jesus signs, Thunderstorms and hail in Denver, CO
Notable Culinary Adventures: Java Break, Lawrence, KS for amazing iced coffee and not amazing service (if you work with the public you should actually like people) and Noodles (chain noodle house, probably will never go back). oh and Fat Tire Beer.
Baby Hats Knitted: 2
Notable Photos:





Wednesday July 20
States commuted through: Other 1/2 of Colorado and Utah
Notable Sites: Utah. The whole thing. It's beautiful. Great Basin National Park was amazing too.
sidebar: **Notable Strangers** : The nicest thing happened to Forrest and I as we entered Great Basin National Park, extremely tired from a long travel day. The welcome center host told us that we could find camp sites in one of four sites and if the camp was sold out, a sign would be posted at the base of the park. We wanted to camp at Wheeler Peak campground, at 9,800 ft knowing that we certainly didn't want to sweat any longer and need to escape the heat wave of the previous three days. Forrest drove the car up an extremely winding 8-mile road to the Wheeler Peak campground. We drove through the campground and did not find any open sites even tough the sign 8-miles earlier said there were vacancies. I was pretty upset and completely exhausted. I thought perhaps we should chat with the camp host, an extremely nice couple that had just retired out of North Carolina and were camp hosts for the summer. The host said that he was very sorry, the campground was full and i explained the story of our long travel and just passing through for one night. He understood my disappointment. Forrest and I decided to park the car anyway, and take a short walk in hopes of viewing the ancient Bristolcone Pines, that only grow in this park. We only did a short walk, since it was getting late and we still needed a campsite, and i was more upset by the minute that we wouldn't be camping in such an amazing place. We walked back to the car and the camp host was parked next to us, waiting for our return. He said, "so you like it here?", Yes, very much, i replied. "ok then, follow me! I have a site for you!" i know it may sound extremely dorky to be so jazzed about a campsite, but i was so excited!!! Turns out some picnickers were parked at a campsite and the area is not for day use. Regardless, we felt very fortunate to have camped in the cool and for such hospitality from the amazing camp host. what luck!
Notable Culinary Adventures: Forrest made Eggplant Punjab and Rice at the campsite and he made me oatmeal and coffee the next morning. He's all over campsite cooking.
Baby Hats Knitted: 1
Notable Photos:







Thursday July 21
States commuted through: Nevada and most of California
Notable Sites: The loneliest highway in America (US-50), Sand Mountain, Nevada and Lake Tahoe in Nevada/California. oh San Jose (the end of the road).
Notable Culinary Adventures: Nothing really tasted good today. We are tired of Subway, no offense.
Baby Hats Knitted: 0.5
Notable Photos:









Friday July 22
Today the relo-cube arrived, we unpacked it in about 30 minutes, we're professionals. We also did laundry and packed for next weeks trail maintenance experience.

Of course I took at least 200 more photos, when i sift through them I'll post the link.

Lastly: This morning Forrest said to me, "can you believe we did that? we drove here, from Boston, we didn't even take an airplane." Yes Forrest, I believe it. It was a long experience, but America is truly a beautiful, magnificent place.

First 900 Miles

Forrest and I left 02138 (Cambridge, MA) yesterday at 8:30am. Sometime later, and through MA, CT, NY and PA we ended at my Aunt's house between Dayton and Cincinnati, Ohio. Even though we arrived around midnight my love for hot air balloons propelled me awake at 6am today. My Aunt recommended we view a portion of the Mid-USA Ohio Challenge.

Perhaps I should take you back to when I first fell in love with hot air balloons. Once (as 12 year old Sara) I was stuck in the very back bench seat of the 15-passenger van owned by my parents to lug all (six) of the Gulick kids around to various campgrounds and miscellaneous after-school events. One trip, completely nauseated in the back of the van, I gazed longingly outside the window hoping for either a smaller van, less kids, or time travel. Instead I saw a hot air balloon and grabbed our video camera and filmed the (not so eventful) path of the hot air balloon. 20 minutes later i knew the giant floating nylon orb was for me. and that I'd probably get busted for wasting 20 minutes of tape and battery.

Knowing my back-story on the balloons, my Aunt recommended this mornings event, and I'm so glad she did, it was probably the most spectacular sight I've seen in a long while. At least 25 balloons emerged from the mist and floated past us, simply amazing. Photos

Tomorrow our goal is Kansas. Watch out Dorothy and Todo.

Finishing Touches

We checked out a baseball game at Fenway Park last Friday night, special thanks to our neighbors. There was a fight.



The next morning we had a garage sale, where we worked quite hard to earn a dollar, but were overall successful.



Now, we are frantically packing our most treasured (might not feel as treasured after we shuffle them from MA to CA to NZ) possessions into boxes and further into our relo-cube. Forrest has been doing most of the work, as I am still working. He's the greatest.



Last night my neighbors held a goodbye bbq for us. It was quite nice, and they presented me with a lovely parting gift. I will sincerely miss them.




Oh and, I have a new job! Hooray! I will be working for Opus in Christchurch New Zealand as a Senior Environmental Engineer.

Blue Eyes, S'Mores Cookies and Lobster

We were lucky enough to travel to Maine for the Independence Day holiday. My Aunt and Uncle have a beautiful home-away-from-home in Maine. If you'd like to check out their site and book a week please let me (or them) know.



My older sister and her family also came up from the greater NYC area. They brought the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen, which belong to my niece, Claudia Jean. She's very lucky because her parents (and all of us) love her so much, and also her parents have lovely eyes that they have passed on to Claudia.



She tries to keep her smiles from me, that's ok. I can wait while you try a pickle, Claudia.



Also I will keep waiting for my smile while you swim in the lake.



Don't mind me, Claudia, I'll just be eating lobster and clams, and making s'mores cookies.









time for a bit of holiday merriment ...





oh yeah, Forrest was there too, relaxing.


I'm probably not going to win Aunt of the Year award with this next photo, but I find it extra hilarious. We're "celebrating" the first birthday, or practicing for the first birthday, since it technically isn't scheduled to occur until July 12. Note the "Happy Camper" bib.



But hey, this morning, I finally got my little smile. Precious.

Post Massachusetts Pre New Zealand Trip

In case you are recently joining the Sara and Forrest news feed, we are relocating to New Zealand in early September! We're extremely excited for this opportunity to assist in the rebuild efforts from the recent Christchurch earthquakes.

Prior to our relocation we will be taking a trip to the west coast. We are going to volunteer for trail maintenance with the Pacific Crest Trail near Seiad Valley, CA. Then off to hike a portion of the John Muir Trail, and for my birthday a trip to Moab, Utah. The last two weeks of August will be spent in Michigan for some R&R on the farm where I grew up. After attending a wedding in CA for Labor Day we're off to Christchurch.

Below is an image of our trip route!