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Our Wooing into the Wilderness...
"And now, here's what I'm going to do:  I'm going to start all over again.  I'm going to take her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I'll court her.  I'll give her bouquets of roses.  I'll turn heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope...And then I'll marry you for good-forever!  I'll marry you true and proper, in love, and tenderness.  Yes, I'll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go.  You'll know me, God, for who I really am."
Hosea 2-The Message
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The second half of the High Sierras: rugged, fall colors, mountains of rock, cascading waterfalls, hot-springs, wild-animal sightings, highest elevations of the trail..Forester Pass at 13,200 ft., the highest point on the PCT,  loomed in front of us, begging us to pass before winter storms set in...But what happened?  Los Angeles received record-high temperatures and we traipsed through the Sierras with beautiful weather, day and night!...Until we reached Forester Pass and snow started to fly!  Other southbound friends of ours were days behind us and were unable to cross the Pass due to the weather...we had just made it!  We flew down from Forester Pass across a barren landscape to find shelter from the storm within tree-cover...then on to Kennedy Meadows to resupply, chow down, and where we would run into Giraffe and his wife Zookeeper (Dick and Heidi); a great treat to have new friends to hike with!

To see the pictures, click on the link below and scroll down until you find the corresponding journal entry!

See more photos here!

Much adventure and love!
Cassandra
 
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Posing for a photo near Silver Pass-10,900 ft.
I'm so excited to finally show you our High Sierra pictures!  I hope you'll fall in love with what you see and journey out there for yourselves :)   

Click on the link below and scroll down the page until you see the related entry:

Photos from Tuolomne Meadows to Vermillion Valley Resort

-Cassandra
 
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Overjoyed to be with friends again!
Happy New Year everyone!

Jason and I have made it through the push of the Holiday season at work and finally have had some days off this past week...glorious!  It's like a town stop with no hiking to do!  We enjoyed a nice Christmas morning with our dear Rich and Cindy and celebrated the New Year by staying warm and cozy in our apartment, watching the New York ball drop on the tele.  We've also had some fantastic company in the last couple of weeks, and really enjoyed their presence in the midst of the craziness.

Life is so different off of the trail.  We've adjusted but Jason and I still think of our hike everyday.  :) Our hearts are still drawn to backpacking, and the new map on our wall for inspiration is of the Ice Age trail in Wisconsin...fun to think about...

We've gained all of our weight back :(  and Jason still finds his feet sore in the morning...I just feel out of shape...need to go hike again.

During this season last year, we were scouring the internet to read other's accounts of their hikes and doing general preparations for our own...and now I think of the next round of thru-hiker-hopefuls and I beam at the thought of their anticipation  and how exciting it is to have such an adventure on the horizon!  

We hope this finds you in anticipation of an upcoming adventure, however big or small!

For now, here are new pictures from Echo Lake, CA to Yosemite Valley.  I again, placed them with my accompanying journal entry...here's the link:

http://aboyeslife.weebly.com/1/archives/09-2010/1.html

Cheers,
Cassandra
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A stunning view of Half Dome
 
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Enjoying each other with Lake Tahoe and a beautiful sunrise in the background.
Hi everyone!  

We're back into the swing of things here in Plain, WA and I finally got some more pictures for you to see!  I added them to the past entry that goes along with my journals that Rich uploaded:

http://aboyeslife.weebly.com/1/archives/09-2010/1.html

Scroll down to the third entry and
enjoy a trip down PCT Lane :)

-Cassandra
 
Hi everyone!  As you know, we're all done with our PCT adventure....Oh my goodness!  We still can't believe it, but we've really enjoyed some time together on our very first cruise and also with our friends Josh and Sara here in San Diego. 

We still  wake up everyday with sore muscles and find any small amount of physical exertion completely tiring!   But we've definitely been able to relax and rest in a horizontal position, and we've put back on all our weight ;)  Well, maybe not exactly!

We'll be putting on the rest of our journals and pictures, and I know it may seem a bit anti-climactic, but I'm going to try and put at least the pictures on chronologically...so stay tuned for the finale pictures!  We had some fun celebratory items to use for our pictures and Sara was able to have a little photo shoot with us-so they're pretty good! 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours-we're heading to Arizona to visit Jason's brother and his family, and then soon we'll be back home in Washington!  Home to the snow....yikes!
 
Rich here,
It is Saturday morning Nov. 13th at 9:15 right now.  I just got off the phone with Jason.  He and Cassandra and getting ready to head out the door in San Diego for a Cruise.  What a great way to finish the PCT adventure!!  Jason called Friday to see if they had availability on the cruise, since on Monday he was told they did not.  They had a balcony cabin!!  They booked it,
 
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Hot pool on the left, cold pool on the right-so amazing!
I am so pleased to be sitting here, drinking my coffee, and doing my last internet update before we reach the border...nearly five months have gone by!

It's our last stop, but what a great stop!  We only had to walk 10 miles yesterday, which when you're normally walking 25 seems like a walk in the park, so they just flew by and we were in town later in the morning.  We checked in to Warner Springs Ranch and found our really cute little cottage, showered, took a tour around the grounds (we think it's like an amusement park!), then came back and got ready for the hot springs...

So amazing-these pools are huge and they play peaceful music over speakers and provide noodles so you can just lay there and soak it all in...and that we did!  Satisfied from a good soak,  we went to the golf-course across the street and ordered our lunch and dinner for the day.  After I ate, I had to lay in bed to keep myself warm-I was chilled from the soaking!  I ended up falling asleep and Jason went to do our laundry and catch-up on internet-stuff.  We later went to the T.V. room and watched the Seattle Sounders lose to L.A. and got caught-up on Prince William's love-life.  All in the name of "rest".

Sleeping these last few days has been torturous...we're in bed around 7, and when we awake in the night, we usually find that it's only 10:30 or something, and it feels like we've already slept all night!  We toss and turn the rest of the time-our bodies are achy so it's hard to lay in one position for long-the night just drags on and on...It's horrible.  And now that the time has changed, mentally it's going to be even more maddening.  But alas, FOUR more nights!  We slept very well in our comfy beds last night, thankfully.

A couple of days ago, while we were at Paradise Cafe eating dinner, I was telling a gentleman that we were planning on walking 25 miles a day so that we could be done on Friday.  He said "Now don't miss the journey!", implying that we were rushing ourselves.  And I was like "Our 'journey' has been almost five months long!  We haven't missed anything!  We want to get this thing done!"  So that was that and we're very happy with how all of this has come together.  We've given it our all-and let me tell you, there have been some days where "all" has be A LOT.  We've gone through so much, seen so much, felt so much-we're ready.  Standing at that monument at the Mexican Border...while being surreal I'm sure, is going to feel SO DAMN GOOD!  Ha ha :)  

Sara & Josh Morrill, friends of ours from our first year together at YD Adventures, will be involved with our big Hurrah at the border, and we're so excited for that!  We're trying to be done as early as possible on Friday, which will be sometime either late morning or early afternoon-so celebrate with us!  Raise your glasses high and praise God for a safe and beautiful adventure for the two of us!  Thank you all for being here, checking in and leaving your comments...We've felt supported and encouraged the whole way!

We LOVED this message from our friend Curt:

"Loved the notes, soon to be none... You'll finish quickly with faces smiling in the sun. Your feet so sore, and bodies weary, your adventure is almost done. Family and friends are thankful your trip was full of fun. Next time you write, your packs light, you'll leave us with great news. Your trips complete, you're northward bound, I-5 never felt so sweet. Enjoy the ride, and the rest, you hucked it huge on the Crest."

So until San Diego...
Cheers everyone!
Cassandra
 
Cassandras note with the Journal entry says they will likely just bring the next Journal Entries with them.  Only about a week to go now!!
 
Just in from the USPS ...