John Muir Trail Start

Having said a tearful farewell to the San Francisco Bay Area which has been a good home, preparations have been completed for the start of the Trip. First up is the John Muir Trail, a 23 day, 230mile hike in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, and it starts tomorrow when we arrive in Yosemite valley.

A large quantity of provisions have been prepared for those on the trip - not just us 2, but up to 8 of us at times - and it has been split into 4 parts. The first of these we carry with us, the others get posted to locations along the Trail where we can pick them up. At all times (other than when we are eating it) the food has to be stored in bear-proof containers, which is awkward to say the least.














1 Carrie perusing the collection of dried commestibles in the Berkeley Bowl (supermarket).

2 Using the dehydrator to dry meals prepared at home. The dehydrator comes in layers and a fan blows heat and air over the food for 12-18 hours per meal resulting in something appetisingly called 'leather'. Makes the house smell. Not all things work well in here (sch as beer and ice cream) but most vegetables, fruit and sauces work well.
3 One layer of delicious dehydrated food. Mmmm!
4 Carrie homemade nut and raisin mix. It consists of cashews, peanuts, raisins and plain, peanut and crunchy M&Ms. The orange bucket holds 5 gallons - which proved to be way to much.
5 All the food for a 8 day section of trail all packed up in ziploc bags. The orange drums are what was sent through the post/mail. (note feet for scale).

There are of course many other non-food items taken on the trip, but the food seems to be the most important thing. Never fear - they'll be more pictures after the trail, in just less than a month.

Read this first

Hello readers,

These postings are based upon email messages we sent out while we were on our Round the World trip from 28th June 2003 to 13 July 2004. Since returning I have changed a couple of minor items, and inserted a whole load of photographs that were originally included in a link to another, now defunked, website. Some comments may sound quite naive, but I like to think the record stand the test of time very well.

I am working on a book about the trip, but it seems to be a long time coming. If anyone, particularly those who do not know us, would like to know more about this trip, I'd be very glad to talk about it. We loved the whole thing, and we have been asked hundreds of different questions about it, but I still enjoy explaining how or why we did things, or what our impressions were of a certain place.

Enjoy,
Adrian