We leave for Yosemite tomorrow, Saturday the 6th. We'll stand in line Sunday morning for wilderness passes. If we don't get them, we'll stand in line again Monday. I'm excited about taking a couple of weeks off work and unplugging. Maybe I'll tweet. I'm taking a digital audio recorder. This should be a lot of fun.

The Night Before Vacation

I'm still awake, it's past midnight Aug 6. We drive to Yosemite tomorrow. I have been preparing lots of food for the trip. This great recipe called Bill's Spaghetti. After I cooked the noodles and sauce I dehydrated it down to noweight at all. I hope it taste good. The recipe says its great. I'll show a pic of the dehydrator and the spaghetti dehydrated. Lots of planning I'm ready to relax! Here are pics of the dehydrator and spaghetti.

Practice blog.

Dry Run

We took a dry run with our backpacks up Bronson Canyon this evening. I added some canned food and a ten pound barbell to get a realistic weight. We don't have our food yet. We hiked for about an our. It went well. Lots of adjusting of straps and belts and whatnot. I'm sure there will be more of that. Brian just asked me to make sure to mention that his pack was 50 pounds. Mine was 39. He had the tent and stove and other stuff. We'll distribute it more evenly on the trip. Eating chicken and chickpeas with Brian now.

Another post from Frank

Brian's doing a lot of great work searching out food options.  Although I don't see a dozen glazed donuts on the list. My main task to date has been to get into shape.  I like the idea of doing a practice hike with our packs.  The deaths in Yosemite this week were sad.  Three people went over Vernal Falls.  Then again, they ignored posted warning signs and pleas from fellow hikers to stay out of the water.  Is anybody reading this blog. We have not really told anybody about it.

Trip 15 days away.

I'm anxious for the trip. I feel there is much still to prepare. Frank suggested we do a hike with the packs before we go. I think that's a good idea. Then I can get a feel for the pack on my back. I'm working on the menu for the trip still. Frank and I sat down a couple days ago and went over some ideas. I see at Trader Joe's they have vacuum packed steamed white or brown rice. That sounds easy. I'm looking for protein options. Tuna fish in the packs sound good and cheese seems to be a big option. There is a cheese that is not in the cold section that I also saw at Trader Joe's.

Here is a pic from last year. Near the falls on the Mist Trail, where the 3 people last Sunday went over the falls to there death. Crazy!!!

Last year (2010) Frank and I traveled to Yosemite. We had an amazing trip. I booked most of the accommodations withing 1-2 months in advance. We stayed 1 night at the Wawona Lodge, 2 nights at Evergreen Lodge in a pre-assembled tent, 2 nights at Curry Village in a tent cabin and 1 night in Tuolumne Lodge Tent Cabin. The trip was amazing. The tent cabin in Tuolumne had a wood burning stove which we got stoked early in the night. We made the arrangement at Tuolumne while we were at Curry Village, so we got lucky with availability!!

This year we are back packing the John Muir trail. We do not have a wilderness permit, however the following links states they reserve 40% of the permits for the day before. So we're going to push our luck and cross our fingers with a little prayer! Say a pryer for us, that we get a permit.
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wildpermits.htm
Part of the trip we will be in Tuolumne Meadows. I am having a hard time getting accommodations for Tuolumne. I just got to campsites at Tuolumne Meadows Campground, the following is the site location.
http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Tuolumne_Meadows/r/campgroundDetails.do?parkId=70926&contractCode=NRSO&chkAg=y

A few pics from the beginning of our trip last year