Mom Says I’m Running Away

Before Day: 287

Just a hello to tell everyone I am still alive and set off on a new journey tomorrow morning.

The John Muir Trail is most likely 225 miles of hell, but I’ll bring you the entire walk in one day, feet blistering, increments starting in August. Until then I am actually going to be on this trail, writing out my entries by hand to upload later.

Great pictures and me bitching about my feet sure to come.

xoxo

-Rob

P.S. The picture above is from a wedding I shot yesterday. It’s the groom and his dog. The dog, Hercules, unfortunately has leukemia and is being put down today (although everyone at the wedding knew this, so the dog must have eaten 15lbs of chicken and pork).

Day: 286

With 24 days of hiking the Sierras coming up, piles of new (i.e. untested) gear, and a plethora of free time on my part; I decided to convince my mother and Mike (my step-father) to load up their backpacks and run a test hike just to be sure everything works and we haven’t forgotten anything before we start what is called the “most beautiful” trail in North America.  The John Muir Trail is also the longest trail in the country that is not crossed by a road, meaning lack of civilization if we did happen to forget a vital piece of gear.

We decided on a short section of the Pacific Crest Trail (which the JMT is a part of further north) and since I didn’t get home from work until 4:30am this morning we got a late start and didn’t quite make the trailhead until 3pm.  Giving ourselves only enough time to get about 5 miles in before we set camp and cooked ourselves up some dehydrated mush (aka Beef Stew).

Now first thing first, after spending hours arguing with the shitty stove Felicia and I had in Mongolia just to get it to boil water, my favorite new thing in my backpack is the Jetboil, which lives up to its promise to boil 2 cups (like 0.5 liters) of water in two minutes and weighs barely anything.  Spectacular!

Other new toys I got which I am excited about:

-A carbon-fiber Gitzo tripod, it may only go up to 28″ but it’s rock solid and weighs slightly below a pound (meaning: not exactly cheap)

-New North Face one man tent, tiny and cramped, but when everything has to be on your back for a month you’ll deal, to save the extra two pounds (1 kilo) over my other tent (from the bike ride last year) which my mom and Mike will be using.

All in all the day/night went fairly well. We realized we might be planning a little too much food and our thinking about adjusting, and my boots which have spent the last two months all over Asia with me have been broken in nicely.

The countdown is two weeks until we begin in Yosemite Valley.

After Day 285:

Troll through any of the travel websites/forums online (Lonely Planet’s Thorntree, Bootsnall, Matadortravel.com) and you will find people complaining about being stuck in their cubicles, asking advise on how to free themselves from said cubicles, asking travel advice from the same cubicles, or just looking for more interesting travel sites to visit (much like this one, while wasting their bosses time. My cubicle is live production; a job I enjoy at times but one that I am in a constant struggle to be permanently free, to be replace by photography. Fortunately for me (and for you readers), I don’t submit myself to full time torture, but do make the attempt to pick up as much freelance work as I can on my brief visits home to help replenish the dwindling funds.

Today I was assigned as a last minute replacement to play Master Electrician at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. for Widespread Panic, a “Jam-Band” (which basically means everyone gets loaded and dances in the aisles of the theatre); since the band had brought most of their own crew on tour with them my primary obligation was turning off the house lights before the show and bringing them back up at the end of the show. Don’t get me wrong, I do have skills beyond those of turning lights on and off, but today that was all that was needed.

Fortunately this lack of work left me the better part of the show to take pictures of Widespread Panic’s performance (although the producers only gave me permission to shoot the first three songs), the audience, and the completely packed beer garden across the alley. I am fairly confident that even though I got some decent shots of the band my favorites of the night were from the beer garden and it’s crowd.

I know its not travel, but I hope you guys enjoy.