We're definitely not in the desert anymore

So as it turns out, I actually really really hate blogging. You know, the actual act of sitting down and typing away on my phone for however long it takes to summarize what we've been up to. In short, every minute I spend blogging is one less minute I get to truly enjoy this time that Mike and I are lucky enough to get to spend together. And I know, I know, haven't we spent enough time together this summer? Aren't we sick of each other yet? Yeah, we don't get it either, but somehow all of this 24/7 time spent together never. gets. old. And blogging takes away that time from me. So I haven't put any effort into doing it for about the past month. BUT, a lot has happened in the last month. We've had so many good times and seen so many incredible things. And I would kind of like to share those things with you, if you're willing to listen. So here we go.

Yosemite! My oh my, what an incredible place. We set out to do a 3-day backpacking trip through some of the most scenic areas of the park (like it's not all super scenic). We hiked most of the first day on the John Muir Trail, which our friend Kylie is actually currently thru-hiking (you go girl)! 

Some views from the JMT.

We were having such an amazing time, experiencing this incredibly beautiful area of the country. Expansive views abound in this park. The exposed granite rock faces provided such dramatic definition to the views we were enjoying, and it was indescribably beautiful. Then the mosquitoes came. Now, keep in mind that Mike and I are thru-hikers. We have dealt with plenty of discomfort in the backcountry. Simply put, we are not wusses. But there are mosquitoes. And then there are MOSQUITOES. And these were MOSQUITOES. Seriously guys, if we stopped moving for more than literally 5 seconds, we were absolutely swarmed with these guys. I can't even describe how many there were. So, we kept moving. And moving. We scooped up water as we passed over it and filtered it as we kept moving. We didn't have any idea how to handle this situation, as neither of us had dealt with anything like this before! We finally decided to set our tent up at a nice overlook to wait for the sun to set and hope that the mosquitoes would die off. This was a mistake. Despite setting up the tent quicker than we ever have before, we both got bit probably dozens of times prior to hopping inside. We hung out in our tent, playing Bananagrams and waiting. But in our haste, we had set up directly in the sun. And we started to boil. We made the decision to momentarily leave our things and run down the trail to find a campsite with a fire ring to create a lot of smoke to dissuade the millions of our tiny, biting enemies from eating us alive. Luckily, we did find such a campsite. Which led to us doing one of the more ridiculous things I have ever witnessed/been a part of. We ran back to our packs and tent, hoisted it all up, and walked down the trail with our still-assembled tent between us. If we hadn't been soooo miserable, I'm sure it would have been hilarious. We did make it to the next campsite and created a fire. It certainly didn't make the bugs go away, but it diffused them just enough to allow us to make dinner and eat and immediately get into the tent. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the worst afternoon of our entire trip. 

Mike reacts to mosquito bites...just a little bit

The next day, we hiked about 5 miles or so before getting out of the mosquito cloud. We were finally able to sit, eat, and think. It was a lovely turn of events. In this moment, we decided that we would hike over Cloud's Rest later that morning and continue on to climb Half Dome in the afternoon. It was gonna be a big day. Cloud's Rest is at a much higher elevation than Half Dome, so we were able to look down on the climb we would be doing later. We even watched a couple get engaged up there, and then I got to take their first engagement photos for them. It was pretty cute. Then came Half Dome. Aka the CRAZIEST thing either of us had ever done. Climbing Half Dome isn't like summiting a regular mountain. It's at about a 45 degree slope, up smooth, slippery granite. Metal cables run along either side of the "trail," and 2x4s are spaced about 15 feet apart as rest spots all the way up. There is only one trail for upward and downward hikers, so you have to coordinate with oncoming traffic to determine who is going between the boards at each point in order not to accidentally push each other off of the mountain. You have to rely completely on arm strength to get between the boards, because without the cables, there is no way you'd be able to get up. It was insanely difficult and terrifying at the same time. We finally made it to the top, and oh my gosh you guys, I have never felt so accomplished (other than Katahdin, obviously) or relieved to be on flat ground. The views were indescribable, as was the feeling of making it to the top. We explored the summit plateau for a good while, which ended up with us actually being the only people on the whole of Half Dome. There's the upside to hiking a ton of miles early in the day and arriving at the main attraction late afternoon. Most people had already vacated the premises and headed back to their hotels/campsites. All in all, the mosquitoes, the long miles, the crazy crazy climb...it was all worth it. Yosemite is certainly a park that will stick with us for a very long time.

The view from Clouds Rest. There's Half Dome on the left!

Oh my.

Thankful for the rare opportunity for a non-selfie photo together.

After Yosemite, we got to drive through San Francisco and visit my good friend Nick, who is currently a grad student in urban planning at UC Berkeley. It was so fun getting to introduce one of my first friends from my undergrad days to Mike, and the delicious meal he made for us just added to the enjoyment! After this stop, we headed to Redwood National Park. Experiencing the ancient giants in the park there is something you certainly can't imagine until you see it. The old grove trees are just unfathomably huge, beautiful, and awe-inspiring. We did an out-and-back hike along the Redwood Creek. It was a nice change of pace to slow down, enjoy the little things, and pay attention to the details. Even if the details did include banana slugs. 

The next day, we completed our time in California and crossed into Oregon. Our first stop in that beautiful state was Crater Lake National Park: again, beautiful. But FREEZING. This was definitely the coldest park we'd been to so far. Cold enough that when we woke up at our campsite the next morning, everything was covered in snow. Fresh snow, you guys, in the middle of July! And it was still coming down as we hiked back to the car. We were grateful to have gotten a view of the lake the day before, because that morning when we got back to the top of the rim, we were completely socked in. 

Checkin' out the crater

What is this madness

From Crater Lake, we headed through Bend into Portland to visit my dear friend Laura (who is also in a master's urban planning program) for a day. It was nice taking a full day to explore the city and eat good food and catch up with an old friend. Portland really was quite awesome, as well.

Bananagrams in the park!

We also passed through Mt. Rainier National Park and hiked in and spent a night there. Unfortunately, we didn't actually get to see the summit of the mountain. It was rainy and totally socked in the entire time we were there. But we still got to check another park off of our list. 

The next park we headed to was Olympic. We planned two separate trips in the park, one along the coastal region and another in the mountainous Hoh rainforest. For the first section, we hiked down a few miles to Shi Shi beach (pronounced shy-shy, not she-she. She-she apparently means pee in the local language and would get us laughed at. Shoutout to Patrick at the Quinault Ranger Station for saving us that embarrassment). We got a great spot to camp along the beach, made a fire, and ate dinner while we watched the sun set over the Pacific. Our hike the next day was definitely not the type of backpacking that we're used to! We hiked through sand and tidal pools, up and over highland areas using ropes straight up the side of hills, and raced the incoming tide so as not to get stuck for hours in a corner out of reach of the waves (p.s. we failed--said hours of being stuck were passed with naps and Bananagrams). It was really an awesome hike, though. We hiked back out the next day the way we came in, and we successfully beat the tide this time. 

Hiking or climbing?

Our next hike brought us to the High Divide Trail, still in Olympic. Once we got up out of the dense forest, we had panoramic views for the rest of the day. And let me tell you, they were incredible! Our heads were on a swivel the entire time. We even came around a corner and got some beautiful views of Mt. Olympus and the surrounding peaks just before the clouds rolled in and swallowed them whole. We had a beautiful campsite by an alpine lake at which to spend the night, and it was the perfect end to a perfect hike. Between the beach, alpine meadows, and the rainforest, Olympic was certainly the most diverse park we visited. 

Home :)

Mount Olympus is hidden somewhere in those clouds

Ok y'all, as much as I want to finish what I started and catch you up fully on our adventures thus far, I also want to get back to socializing with Mike and competing with him while listening to Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me and Ask Me Another (NPR podcasts are life). One of these days, I'll finish this all up. Just not today. 

On next week's episode: Canada! Wildfires! And grizzly bears! Stay tuned.

Roadtrip 2016: Desert Phase

Before beginning our national parks grand tour, Mike and I made a stop in Oklahoma to visit my alma mater and introduce him to several of my friends from college. We spent a couple of nights in Oklahoma City with my good friend Scotty, and spent the entirety of those days meeting up with various people. It was great getting to catch up with everyone, and I was glad to have the opportunity to finally introduce Mike to all these people I've been talking to him about for over a year!

And then we went to the Grand Canyon. The morning that we got there, we went straight to the backcountry permitting office in order to get our camping permit for the following night. Despite the employee's best efforts to deter us from our trip with warnings of lack of water, extreme heat, and lightning strikes, we obtained our permit and went to explore the South Rim for the day. Walking along the Rim Trail at the top of the canyon was certainly beautiful, but it was so packed with non-hiker tourists (filthy casuals, as we so lovingly like to call them) that it was hard for it to be too enjoyable. This just made us even more excited to get down into the canyon and away from the crowds the following day.

We drove into the Kaibab National Forest and camped by our car for the night, and we were up and heading back to the park to begin our hike at 4 am the next morning. We shuttled to the South Kaibab trailhead and started down the trail in the dark. About 20 minutes in, a mule train passed by us, carrying supplies down to the lodge at the bottom of the canyon. We enjoyed the sunrise a few minutes later and then continued our trek down, down, down without the use of our headlamps. The entire trail was absolutely breathtaking. We compared it to when we hiked Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire last year--expansive, incredible views in every direction, every step of the way. 

We reached the bottom at about 8 am and had the rest of the day to relax in the creek or by the Colorado River. It was about 100 degrees during the heat of the day, which was lower than it had been for the previous couple of weeks. We tried to consider ourselves lucky, but it was still rough on our bodies being out in that sort of heat for the entire day and night. At no point did we regret our descent, though!

We got up at about 3 am again to begin hiking back out. We hiked up the Bright Angel Trail this time. It was a bit longer than the South Kaibab, at about 9.5 miles, but it was more gradually graded (that's still almost 10 miles of constant uphill in 80-90 degree heat, though). It also had water at a few points along the way. We crushed all of those miles by 8:30 am and celebrated by getting showers at a campground within the park! Clean and invigorated from our hike, we said goodbye to the Grand Canyon and made our way towards Havasu Falls. 

Havasu Falls was the destination that sparked this entire trip. I stumbled upon it back in November while traversing some travel blog, and Mike and I decided to travel out to Arizona for that hike this summer. It started off with us thinking we would fly out, do Havasu and the Grand Canyon, and then fly back. Then we started adding. And adding. And adding. And before we knew it, we had spiraled this trip completely out of control, decided to drive all the way across the country, and visit about 10 more national parks than we were originally planning on. So goes our life. 

We slept in our car the night before our hike down into Havasu, and once again, we were up in the wee hours of the morning preparing to hike. We basically flew down into the canyon, far speedier than our Grand Canyon descent had been, and we were into Supai Village within just a couple of hours. The campground was about two miles past the village, and before we even reached a campsite, we came upon Havasu Falls and its bright turquoise blue waters. We had seen plenty of photos of it before our arrival, but as always, those could do the landscape no justice. It was an absolutely amazing sight. And for about 30 minutes that morning, we had the falls entirely to ourselves. We couldn't fathom why more people weren't enjoying the beauty of the falls in the early morning light, but we enjoyed it while we could!

Later that morning, we hiked down to Mooney Falls, which was the next set down from the main Havasu Falls. They were even larger than Havasu, and far less crowded due to the descent through caves and down ladders to get there. Mike and I spent most of our time down there, jumping off a rope swing into the crystal clear water and sitting in the mist from the huge falls. It was, in a word, perfect. 

We ate dinner down by those falls and were ready for bed by the time the sun set again. One last morning of 4 am wake up calls rolled around again, and we booked our way back out of the canyon. We made really good time despite it being all uphill again, and we were back to the car by 8 am! This time, our post-hike treat was getting our laundry done in a town north of Las Vegas (which we drove through without getting off of the highway. Needless to say, that city's not quite our style). From there, we drove through Death Valley National Park, aka a literal oven. We got out of our car at one point, for about 3 minutes, and that was all we could stand. It was heat like nothing I've experienced before. The only thing I can compare it to is the rush of heat on your face you feel from opening an oven door while baking. It was around 115 degrees, and we were roasting. Then, we got caught in a huge dust storm while continuing our drive. We had to slow down to about 10 mph until we got out of it--visibility was basically nonexistent. Maybe sometime in the middle of winter we'll revisit that park, but I can assure you I'll never drive through there in the summer again. 

Now we're into the Sierras, which are a whole 'nother world! We're spending tonight around Mono Lake and will be headed into Yosemite in the morning! Everything we've encountered so far has been incredible, and we feel positive that trend is going to continue. Until next park!

Hip & TR, on the Trail Again

Well hello again! The last time we spoke, I was getting off of the AT for a couple of weeks so I could travel to Canada to attend my dad's memorial service in his hometown. I knew I was going back to the trail afterwards, but beyond that I hadn't determined any of the details. Well, spoiler alert: I finished the trail. I skipped ahead and met back up with Hip (now more commonly known as Mike) in Vermont and hiked the rest of the trail to Maine with him. We summited Katahdin together, which was just an incredible experience that I can't really put into words. Despite not having hiked every mile of the AT yet, standing on top of Katahdin at the northern terminus of the trail was still a feeling like none other. After summiting, my mother met the two of us at the bottom of the mountain and drove us around Maine/Acadia National Park for a few days before taking Mike back to his home on Long Island. This was right by where I had gotten off trail before Canada, so I just hopped back on and picked it all back up. My mom slackpacked me for a few days so I could crush some miles (which I did), and then she left me on my own and I kept pushing hard by myself to get up to Vermont where I had met back up with Mike. After yet another terrible physical experience where I unknowingly got some sand in the waistband of my shorts and subsequently rubbed both of my hips entirely raw (I'll save you the disgust and not share those photos), I made it up to Vermont and Mike came to pick me up! So despite it being a little out of order, I did complete the AT that summer. Woohoo!

So if you haven't picked up on this yet, I'll let you in on a little secret: Mike and I finally realized that we were kinda sorta meant to be, so we adjusted our life plans to fit each other into them. Post-trail, I abandoned my plan to return to Oklahoma and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia with the intent to attend UVA for grad school in Fall 2016. Mike got a job in Blacksburg, Virginia, which was the closest together that we could get while still accomplishing our current professional goals. We traveled back and forth for the last year, hiking as much as possible and adjusting to post-thru hike life together. Plans changed again, as they tend to do, and I decided on VCU's urban planning program rather than UVA's. It might have helped that Mike decided to attend VCU for a master's in public administration for the fall, too. We now have classes we're registered in for August, an apartment in Richmond we've signed a lease on, and, oh, no jobs again. 

We like to say that we failed at the real world after getting off of the AT. It's a super hard adjustment returning to a desk job after living in the woods for 5+ months, and both of us being in jobs we didn't enjoy made it even harder. So after we decided that we were quitting our jobs and moving and going to grad school in the fall, we realized that we were presented with an interesting opportunity. If we quit our jobs a few weeks earlier, we could have the entire summer to ourselves to do whatever we wanted. And, as is typical for this couple, "whatever we want" is traveling and backpacking. Which leads me to the purpose of this post: we are road tripping around America, visiting at least 13 different national parks, and backpacking or day hiking in all of them (Happy 100th Birthday, NPS). We're taking a couple of days to visit my alma mater and my friends in Oklahoma, and then it will be backcountry time once again. Our big stops will be Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Redwood, Crater Lake, Olympic, Banff, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Badlands. There are a few more parks and stops that will be scattered in there, plus a drive up Highway 1 and visits with some more of our friends and family spread out along the way. All in all, it's going to be another incredible summer for the two of us, filled with hiking and climbing and backpacking and joy. We just know for certain we're ending up together at the end of this one. ❤️

Follow along for Hip & TR's next big adventure. It should be quite the ride.