JMT: Early Morning Wake-up - 18 of 20

Hiking the JMT: Early Morning Wake-up - 18 of 20
Uploaded by mutcluck

The morning we climbed Mount Whitney we woke up at 5:30 in the morning. Originally Smelly wanted to get up at 2 or 3 in the morning to avoid potential storms that could prevent us from making the summit. With no clouds and good weather, we all agreed to nix this crazy idea. The night before we changed our exit plans a couple times after some lively text conversation with Kenji (our original ride) via our satellite phone. He originally said he'd rather not hike the mountain if he didn't have to. The Angler had driven up Smelly's car to the Whitney, so we had transportation home. Instead of camping on the summit (our original plan) and seeing Kenji in the morning, we decided to book it home fast instead. Dreams of milk shakes, beer and burgers were too much for us.

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Hiking the JMT: Dinner in the Shadow of Whitney - 17 of 20

Hiking the JMT: Dinner in the Shadow - 17 of 20
Uploaded by mutcluck

Just some contemplative footage from dinner the night before we ascended Whitney. We had tons of pad thai and the last quesadillas of the trip. I'm also having some issues with Divx. You'll notice the audio goes out of synch. Sorry bout that, but after 4 attempts to correct it, I gave up. 3 more videos to go and 10 days until I head out for my international adventures.

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Hiking the JMT: Baywatch Dives - 16 of 17

Hiking the JMT: Baywatch Dives - 16 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

After arriving at Guitar Lake below Mount Whitney, the Angler and I decided to dive into the freezing cold tarn. As you can see, my heart almost stopped from the cold. Definitely a refreshing way to wash the sweat away though. Clearly my "Baywatch" dive was pretty pathetic, but the Angler delivered with a quality Hasselhoff inspired dive. Bonus videos are coming.

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Hiking the JMT: Pinchot Pass and the Resupply - two videos today

Hiking the JMT: Pinchot Pass - 13 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

Hiking the JMT: The Resupply - 14 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

We had a tough day hiking up Pinchot Pass, but the view was beautiful. A couple days later, we were resupplied at Charlotte Lake by some of Smelly's friends. We had two members of Pasadena's Search and Rescue Crew and two international paragliders. They brought a box of wine, a couple bottles of beer and the first true dinner we'd had in awhile. We had ground beef, bean and cheese burritos. They were absolutely delicious. The next day, The Angler joined us for the final trek toward Mount Whitney. As we climbed out of the Charlotte Lake Valley, we caught a glimpse of our friend the Paraglider, jumping off a cliff and flying across the horizon. At that moment, paragliding was officially on my lifetime to-do list. Seems like a serene way to take in the world while simultaneously getting an adrenaline rush.

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JMT: Tickling the Fish, The Thin Man, and a Creepy Grad Student

JMT: Tickling the Fish and Creepy Men - 11 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

Freezing once again, so I'm going to be quick. Same night as Boy Scouts and Pyros. Since it isn't explained in the video, "The Thin Man" was a very tall very thin hiker who creepily snuck up on Smelly and Jekyl in Mammoth. He also had a knack for silently creeping up on you on the trail. Part of our motivation for our brutal 17 mile day was to ditch the Thin Man and the Israeli (Another creepy solo guy). Hope you enjoy.

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JMT: Boy Scouts and Pyros - 11 of 17

Hiking the JMT: Boy Scouts and Pyros - 11 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

Down in Lower Pete Meadow I followed a use trail to this little campsite. It had nice benches and was close to a stream. We did some bathing and then started a fire to get warm. I though a little Melly Cam might warm your heart as well.

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JMT: Evolution Lake and Muir Pass - Two videos today

Sorry I'm not writing anything today. I'm sitting outside of the Canada Lake store and freezing my ass off. I forgot my fleece. I'll do better tomorrow. Since it was raining yesterday and I didn't make it out to the only internet connection for miles, here's two videos today.

Evolution Lake Videos

The JMT: Farts, Shits and Giggles at Evolution - 9 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

Muir Pass Videos

Hiking the JMT: Pulmonary Adema on Muir Pass - 10 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

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JMT: Lancing the Blister - 7 of 17

Hiking the JMT: Draining The Blister - 7 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

We arrived late at Red's Meadow. After the grueling downhill, Jekyl's Blisters had gotten pretty bad. She was contemplating getting new shoes at Mammoth the following day, and decided to lance one of her blisters using a sanitized safety pin. I went ahead the next day while Smelly and Jekyl took the bus into town. We bought a bunch of beer and washed our pain away that night. Also hung out with some fellow JMTers going in the opposite direction. A bear had ripped through their "bear can". It was the kevlar bag type. Clearly they are no longer on the approved list this next season. I guess several people encountered the same problem. I had a pretty leisurely day finding a suitable camping spot while the girls were in Mammoth, although the trail was a little bit tricky, so I trekked back, read some of Moby Dick at a river crossing and waited. They had 2/3 of the food and part of the tent. Would have sucked if we hadn't found one another.

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JMT: Bad Blod at Devil's Postpile

This day was the closest we came to blows. Jekyl confessed later that night that she was ready to smash the camera in if I had kept filming her. After a grueling day of downhill, we got a little lost in Red's Meadow which compounded or stress. For some reason downhill really punishes the feet more than uphill. I'm still recovering from what is most likely stress fractures in my feet. Stock up on arch support and good insoles if you hike the JMT.

The Devils Postpile formation is a rare sight in the geologic world and ranks as one of the world’s finest examples of columnar basalt. It towers 60 feet high and displays an unusual symmetry for such formations. Established in 1911 by presidential decree after John Muir and the Sierra Club lobbied to save it from being inundated with water from a proposed damming project of the San Joaquin River. I wish we had gone to the top of it. I hear it looks like a flat hexagonally tiled floor.

Also, it seems dailymotion looks better, so I've linked to it below and I've heard good things about bliptv too. I'll try uploading at bliptv in the coming days/weeks.

Hiking the JMT: Bad Blood at the Devils Postpile - 6 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

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JMT: Salty Nuts on a Mountain Pass

The fifth video in the series. I feel like the new settings are even worse on this one once it's recompressed. I kinda hate youtube right now. Hopefully by the end of this, I'll have figured it out. Tomorrow, Devil's Postpile.

This is what it looks like on Dailymotion. Not much better.

Hiking the JMT: Salty Nuts on a Mountain Pass - 5 of 17
Uploaded by mutcluck

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JMT: Garnett Lake and a Toe Condom

The 4th installment. Still haven't figured out how to make the footage look better. Earlier that day we did some swimming and then made a fire. The clouds made for a pretty beautiful sunset but it drizzled later that night. The minuscule amount of rain drove me into the tent. Best night's sleep of the trip, so after that, I slept in the tent rather than under the stars. I wasn't the mountain man I thought I was. Another video coming tomorrow.

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More JMT - Time Lapse Fun and Quesadillas

Here's the 3rd installment of the travel footage. Hope you enjoy. I don't have time to write more today. Next post will be Monday.

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Hiking the JMT: The Filter is Dying - 2 of 17

Here's the 2nd video, "The Filter is Dying" Still trying to figure out if I can use a different site that has better quality to host these videos. The best thing about them is the views and the HD, and you can't get a great sense of this after the youtube compression. I'll keep experimenting with the settings and some different sites.

I also wanted to link to our JMT Adventure Report that ML put together. It has all our mileage and daily comments along with links to a photo album documenting the trip. It's worth checking out as is ML's Blog which never fails to put a smile on my face: an article or some rant every day or two. Always fun, especially if you know her. Time lapse in tomorrow's video.

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The Blog is Back! First of the JMT Videos

After a two month hiatus from the blog while hiking the John Muir trail and hanging out in Upstate New York (don't have a great excuse for not blogging recently), I'm back to blogging for at least 3 weeks before I leave for London, South Africa and Rwanda. I'll be posting a video a day for the the next 17 week-days. All pretty basic footage from the 220 miles on the John Muir Trail. Simple conversations and nice views. Hopefully it will give you a sense of being there on the trail for 20 days and won't bore you too much. It's definitely a trip worth taking. I highly recommend it. I've been promising Smelly and Jekyl, who joined me on the hike, that I'd finish the videos. Encountered some serious problems compressing the files though. I hope they look okay after being recompressed again by youtube. They 're nothing special, but they are done. Hope you enjoy them. Now it's time for me to get back to why I took the year off. Writing is a calling. Until Tomorrow.

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