Our Current Hiatus

I extend my apologies to everyone who's been attempting to contact us in the last two weeks. Our last hiking days have been interesting to say the least. On May 15th we decided that it would be best to let Amanda's feet heal up for a few days and so we stopped around 50 miles from Idyllwild in the town of Banning, CA (very close to Palm Springs, CA).

On the hike from Idyllwild on, Amanda got the chance to take her new shoes for a spin. We climbed several thousand feet from the highway (and delicious Paradise Cafe) to Mount San Jacinto, where Idyllwild sits perched between two beautiful mountains. Eager to start our first true mountains of the trail, we evening hiked the first day out, practically skipping the whole way. However, when day two and three and four came along, Amanda's blisters started to re-appear, deeper and more painful than ever. On our last day of hiking before we paused, we strained to complete a 29 mile day from the back of San Jacinto Mtn., all the way around and then down the 15 mile stretch of sandy mountainous terrain to the desert floor. Why, you may ask, did we push so far? Simply, water. Glorious water. That's what we get for hiking a dry year.

Amanda and I hitched a ride into Banning with a great couple (sending them some great karma...) who bought us coffee at Starbucks, and then spent $8 on 2 tickets to The Great Gatsby, a large popcorn, 2 large sodas, and 2 boxes of candy (Yes, all of that for $8 thanks to the door man who "put  us on his tab"). Tipping my hat to you, Banning, CA for treating us so well.

Moving on: Over the last few weeks this is essentially what went down. Amanda's blisters healed (as best as they could), we attended my brothers college graduation (Congrats Tim and Jackie!), I got terribly sick with Tonsillitis, we found out Amanda has had Strep Throat for the last 2 months with no symptoms, I read a book, we hung out with my younger brother who's shipping off soon, we slept on the hammock, went to REI  and rotted away at my mom's house in Moorpark drinking red wine and beer, and eating every fresh vegetable we could get our hands on.

So what now? Today we are leaving again to resume hiking, both on antibiotics and ready to get the hell out of the Southern California suburbs. However, we aren't starting where we left off, but instead jumping ahead 500 miles to Kennedy Meadows at the base of the High Sierras. We will continue from there, on up (doing the entire John Muir Trail from Whitney to Yosemite Valley while we are at it) to Canada... hopefully.

Additionally, a part of the PCT was closed this year due to the Powerhouse Fire, which has now burned over 20,000 square acres and 5 homes. Our thoughts go to those affected, and good luck to all the hikers behind us.

Cheers,

-Mark (actually, Amanda wrote this... hehe)

P.S. Amanda has new shoes.... again.... this time back to Merrell lightweight hikers so thin you can almost see through them. Third time's the charm!