Detour

On any great adventure, you need to be ready to switch to a backup plan when conditions change.

 

The "Rough" fire is blocking the planned exit near Highway 180, which means that their permit is invalid. Luckily they were able to go to a ranger station and get new a permit.

This one is sending them back North toward the Yosemite Valley.

As I watch these blue dots appear on my computer screen, I'm thinking that they have either attached their satellite tracker to a confused mountain goat, or have decided to revisit some favorite spots now that Dana has joined the expedition.

Meanwhile, back here at the Basecamp, Mima has rented a vacation house on Carney Lake, and a steady stream of friends and relatives are drifting in and out. Drake has a new hero in his brand new cousin Kaiim (adopted older brother to Mason). JJ joins the party today, and Grace is coming tomorrow!



Smoky, but peaceful




Auntie Em spends LOTS of time upside down

 

Big Hero K (Watching "Big Hero 6")

Photos From The Trail

Camp 4

It's so fun being able to track this expedition from my desk (Really, I'm working hard!).
The red flags show their planned waypoints. It looks like they took a bit of a detour off the trail which slowed them down a bit, so they cut over the John Muir Trail so that they can pick up the pace and meet up with Dana at Red's Meadow on Friday.
Zooming way in on the map shows hard granite (and NO TRAIL) all day yesterday:

But now you can see that they are on a defined trail, and their speed has doubled!

Breadcrumbs

 

Updates from the trail:

 

 

Watch them drop the breadcrumbs - the tracker updates position every hour:

https://share.delorme.com/ExpeditionUke

 

 

Prototype

After many late nights, the carbon fiber Expedition Uke was ready for take off this morning:

Dad'n and David are Sierra bound for the next 2 weeks. Dana will meet up with them in the middle. I'll post maps when we get updates from the spot tracker! 

Meanwhile, the rest of the family is heading to the San Juans for my ...(gulp)...20 year high school reunion!

Expedition Uke

Dad'n is frantically trying to finish the ukulele prototype before the big trip to the Sierras:

He has lots of help. 

The shipment of resupply food has been mailed: 

For this trip, we all get to follow along on the map. The hikers will be carrying a spot tracker that will update their position periodically throughout the day (and also send rescue if needed!) 

Vancouver Island

We saw a little bit of everything on this trip (except bears).