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I am super excited! Laura and I are headed to Switzerland when we finish our house sit here in France. We are going to be hiking the Haute Route which runs from Mount Blanc in Chamonix, France to the Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland. That’s 2 weeks of trekking in the Alps! Cute little Swiss villages nestled in the valleys, mountain huts perched high above, mooing cows, lush green meadows, and craggy snow capped mountain peaks. Who wouldn’t smile thinking about that?
All the prep for Switzerland has me thinking about the trek Laura and I did last summer, the John Muir Trail. I even went back and re-watched the video we made at the end of it all. Watching the video takes me back and remembering the experience brings on such intense feelings of joy. The smile on my face is so big that it almost makes me cry. It really was one of the best experiences of my life.
Every day on the John Muir Trail went something like this.
The alarm goes off at 6:00 am and even though we’ve slept hard for 9 hours both of us want to keep snoozing inside our warm sleeping bags. I hate climbing out of the tent into the cold morning, but I get up because I’m excited for the day. To help fight the cold I warm my clothes in my sleeping bag a little before slipping them on and hopping out.
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Sapphire Lake, our camp spot for the night.
Out of the tent we work on our respective morning jobs. I work on stuffing the sleeping bags away. Laura works on pushing the air out of the sleeping pads and rolling them up. We work together to break down the tent, shaking it out to get some of the dirt and condensation off before rolling it up and pushing it in it’s stuff sack.
I’ve been hungry for breakfast since the alarm went off but I still have to wait. The water must boil before I can have my oatmeal. On the really cold mornings, or mornings when we want to get a quick start, we eat a Clif bar instead.
With a full belly, I hoist my pack up and on and begin walking. It feels good to get moving because the air is crisp and walking will get the last of the cold out of me. The mornings are always the best because it’s quiet and still. The sun hasn’t blasted everything in a white light yet, there’s color to the landscape. And most importantly, we still feel refreshed and our legs are strong after the night’s rest.
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On our way up to Muir Pass.
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Foxtail Pine.
A couple hours in I begin to feel hungry. We stop at an amazing view, take the packs off, and eat a small snack while looking at the map to see where we are and how much we have left to do for the day. Then the packs go back on and we walk for a couple more hours.
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Dollar Lake.
Now it’s lunch time and we stop, take the packs off, and eat in front of another stunning view, studying the map to check our progress. After lunch we walk more, repeating the stop and eat routine yet again for an afternoon snack before walking the last leg of the day.
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Evolution Lakes.
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The expansive meadow leading into Lyell Canyon.
My legs are tired when we reach the day’s destination, but it feels great to have the packs off. We scout out a site for the tent and pitch it. Again, we have our assigned camp jobs, Laura stakes out the tent while I blow up the air mattresses. And let me tell you, blowing up 2 mattresses at 10,000+ feet can leave you a little light headed!
Grabbing a slightly cleaner set of clothes than the ones we have on, we head down to the lake or river to wash off and maybe do a little laundry. The water is freezing! And I mean freezing! This is snow melt from high up in the mountains and it leaves you numb within a minute. But when I’m done I feel so refreshed, the grime from the day is peeled away and the aches and pains have been soothed.
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Blinded by the afternoon sun, but squeaky clean after our dip in the river.
Now that I’m freshened up all I can think about is dinner. It’s my favorite meal of the day, since our breakfasts, snacks and lunches are more or less the same day in, day out. They all consist of some combination of bars, nuts, dried fruit, nut butter and quesadilla shells. Blah!
We have freeze dried lasagna, pad thai, ramen or split pea soup for dinner and devour it. I know freeze dried food probably doesn’t sound good right now but it tastes amazing after the long day. Dinner is topped off with a Snickers, Reese Peanut Butter Cup or chocolate brownie Clif bar for desert. I’m full for now, but I’ll probably feel slightly hungry by bed time.
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Sunset on the mountains above Guitar Lake.
By 8:00-8:30 pm we climb in the tent and into our sleeping bags. I write a little about the day and then we look at the map and discuss where we’re headed to tomorrow. By 9:00 pm the headlamps are off and we’re out!
Ok, now repeat the above for 18 days. Yep, that’s what we did, and those 18 days on the John Muir Trail were amazing.
It might not sound fun to you. Or you might not understand why it is one of the best experiences of my life and why when I look back on it it almost makes me cry. Everything about the experience was cathartic. It’s life at it’s most basic. The routine is simple and yet everyday you wake to a new and utterly breath taking view. You complete something that you weren’t sure you were capable of, more mentally maybe than physically. Even though your legs are tired and you have aches and pains you feel light and alive. It melts the stress away. I see the same in Laura. Her face radiates joy.
If you haven’t seen the video of our trip you can see it here (the John Muir Trail starts at 1:18). Look closely at Laura’s face in her last interview on the top of our final summit, Mt Whitney (the interview starts at 9:57). Do you see the joy and glow? I do! We did it!
So stay tuned for upcoming posts about our time in Switzerland on the Haute Route. I’m pretty sure you’ll see those same smiles on our faces.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
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