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(mid-tempo pop-rock plays)

JASON: Sometimes you need to get away, you need to get out into nature.

And you need to cross rivers, and climb mountains and breathe clean air,

and really experience something special that, you know,

in the modern world not really many people take the time to do.

Honestly, if anyone anytime is like, "Hey, let's get outdoors for the weekend,"

I just... I can't get out enough.

JEN: I wanted to do something for me, and so that's what this trip is:

It's for me, to show that I can.

I hope to have a lot of fun with some good friends, and capture it all.

RIC: Either a documentary, or an art exhibit.

We weren't quite sure what we were going to finish with,

but we knew what we wanted to get.

(Opus Orange's "Nothing But Time" plays)

* Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! *

* Oh, oh, oh, I've got nothing but time *

* Oh, oh, oh, I've got nothing but time *

* Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! *

JASON: "Wander a whole summer if you can.

"Time will not be taken from the sum of life.

"Instead of shortening, it will definitely lengthen it

and make you truly immortal"-- John Muir.

Really excited.

Four weeks on the trail, I guess, but it's gonna be great.

There's not a better place to start than right here.

And what a great way to start it-- going out in the truck, too.

Hell, yeah!

This is... this is epic camping style. This is the way I like it.

I'd like some of your fresh lemonade and a Hotdog on a Stick, please.

Look, guys. Zee's ready.

I was telling Zee that he's about to do something

that I've dreamed about for many, many years.

Hiking the John Muir has always been one of my desires that I never...

never got around to.

But he gets to do it.

Take care. Be safe.

-Thanks. -Bring me back pictures.

Goodbye, cruel world. Hello, cruel world.

Yeah, hello, cruel wilderness.

It's amazing that in a state like California

that has nearly 40 million people, you can hike this trail

through pristine wilderness that's nearly the same distance

as Los Angeles is to Las Vegas or New York is to Boston.

For about ten years, I'd been dreaming

of doing a documentary on the John Muir Trail--

to basically take several of my friends who are amazingly talented artists,

and to capture all of its beauty and its grandeur.

This is my... my masterpiece that I created via an old tripod

and Home Depot on a stereo mic stand, so... and attached to a trekking pole.

Pretty excited.

My mission on the trail was to go out and capture the wild sounds

in places that are starting to disappear

as civilization starts to encroach on these spots.

I think it's really important to get this down while there's still an opportunity.

(whispers): Be vewy, vewy quiet.

We're hunting wabbits.

My job on the trail? Try and keep up.

MARTIN: What really comes to mind is his favorite childhood book,

"The Pokey Little Puppy."

He's excellent at conserving his energy,

and I think "Pokey Little Puppy" would really fit.

ZEE: Even under the best circumstances, this isn't an easy climb.

It's 50,000 feet of elevation change over 211 miles,

and it presents a serious challenge.

All right, we're off.

Zee with his, uh, Pokey hat,

and me in my captain's old lady granny underwear on my head.

And the trail begins

RIC: When we picked up the permits from the ranger station,

they were giving us some pretty dire warnings.

There was heavy snow pack, there were high river crossings.

Hikers had already turned back.

RIC: So when we got to Illilouette Creek, it became very clear

that this was not going to be an easy year to complete this trail.

But we had spent six months planning for this trip, so there was no turning back.

The first real crossing.

Being the only girl and height- challenged, as well, I know it's hard

for everybody to try and find the path that we can all... all master.

Everything I do in my photography involves people.

It's portraits and commercial work.

It's not just this nature that surrounds us, so one of the challenges,

creatively for me on the trail, was just capturing the landscapes.

Granted, there's a little bit of a "Where's Waldo?" effect.

You look deep into the picture and you can see, "Oh, there's a person!"

But I want to show you that scope. I want you to see the grandeur of it all.

And then also just the simplicity of life on the trail.

JASON: Next time you get a hold of the California quarter,

flip it over and you'll see the likeness of the man

who founded the Sierra Club and dedicated his life

to the preservation of wilderness and natural beauty.

So when the 211-mile trail was completed in 1938, it was named in his honor.

ZEE: "When one tugs at a single thing in nature,

he finds it attached to the rest of the world."

John Muir.

JASON: We're right off the Panorama Trail.

I actually have not been where we are standing right now.

I've been down there at what I'm shooting which is Nevada Falls,

and I think as Jen said a few minutes ago, it takes your breath away in a really good way.

For all the physically-challenging things that we did on this trail,

I still think the hardest thing was actually getting a permit out of Yosemite Valley.

JEN: We ended up getting a permit to start south of the valley,

so we met up with the John Muir Trail at Nevada Falls.

ZEE: What you're seeing is my view.

Watching where my feet go.

Make sure I don't twist my ankle on those rocks.

After Nevada Falls, the trail gains a good deal of elevation really quickly

leading up to the back of Half Dome, and it hit Zee pretty hard.

And because I'm so far behind the whole time, I rarely...

give myself the chance to look up.

So what's the hardest part so far?

-ZEE: Walking... uphill. -Your breathing?

-Huh? -Your legs? Your breathing?

Um... I think mostly legs.

Although stopping because my legs are wobbly gives me a chance to breathe, so...

RIC: There was this gorgeous meadow with purple flowers,

and off to the right there's this amazing, amazing vista.

And I just kept thinking, "There's nothing more beautiful than this."

At that very moment I happened to check my phone,

and I got this text message in from my mother-in-law.

-From Grandma? -Yeah.

-Every Monday, we have a care package for her. -Oh, nice.

So, this... this Monday, I got her the hat that I made.

Oh, that's so adorable.

JEN: Isola is our daughter. She is three and a half.

And she is even more awesome than Yosemite, in my opinion.

RIC: It's not easy, but it's so great to know that she's with family that loves her,

and I know that we're missing her more than she's missing us at this point.

Every day with Isola we're doing something new, and we see something new in her eyes.

And I get to see something new every day here,

and to not be able to share that with her... that's hard.

JASON: Leading up to our departure, I became obsessed with reading

the snow reports, and it ended up being a 200% snow year, meaning there was

two times more snow than there was in the average years in the Sierra Nevada.

And over the first couple of days we ran into several hikers

who had turned back because the snow conditions were so harsh.

Let this be the point where it is made known

that all those crampons are just going to be dead weight.

Some of us are gonna man up and just hike right through it.

JEN: "Some of us" meaning only...

Only me!

JASON: Day three was pretty hard.

We started the morning with a good thousand-foot climb

pretty much straight up over a pass.

ZEE: Here's a sight you're not going to see too much.

It is everybody catching up to me.

Then the snow started. We had our first stretch coming down Sunrise Pass.

And that was pretty much snow-hopping.

RIC: Oh, look at the captain making a nice slide down.

DURAND: The trail into Sunrise Meadow vanished almost immediately into the snow.

It quickly became apparent that a 200% snow year was gonna be interesting.

(shouting, laughter)

The best way to get down the mountain.

Boy, this stuff is not for everybody.

Um, truth be told, it's not really for me.

Zee mentioned that he really loved hanging out with us.

Um... but he never got a chance to really hang out with us that much.

He said he didn't have solitary moments;

he pretty much just had solitary confinement all throughout the day.

You go to Yosemite Valley and you look up

and there's this beautiful waterfall,

and you think all that water is coming off the top.

The thing is, that's not the top. It's the top of that cliff.

Behind it, there's a dozen mountains that are much taller,

and it really drives home that the top is not the top.

I think one of the biggest challenges about doing this trail

and trying to document it as well,

is you just come across so many beautiful moments

and there's only so much that you can do because you have to make your miles.

And it was... you know, it was tough... it was tough for Zee.

I appreciate what all these guys are doing.

They are... kick-ass,

and I really do feel like I'm dragging them down--

probably 'cause I'm dragging them down.

It started getting dark, and so I headed back up the trail to look for Zee.

And on my way back down, I noticed this junction

about a hundred yards from the bear boxes.

We must have all missed it.

It could either take you to the bear boxes on Highway 120,

or along the John Muir Trail to the Tuolumne Meadows Ranger Station.

And I realized that's what Zee did. He stayed on the John Muir Trail.

ZEE (sighing): I think that pretty much seals it.

Ric just headed up into the woods looking for me.

I think this just goes to show how big of a liability I am on the trail.

I don't want to die out there. I don't want to get lost.

I don't want to break a leg. I don't want Ric having to chase after me.

It's tough. I'd like to do it, and say I did it, um...

but I don't know if that's enough.

(slow pop-rock song playing)

* I think I see a little sunlight underwater... *

All right, man, we'll miss you on the trail. I'm so sorry.

I totally get it, but...

Please meet us at Postpile if you can, and definitely

meet us at Muir Ranch if you can't make Postpile.

I ain't got no other plans this month.

(laughing)

JASON: Zee, unfortunately, when we woke up this morning...

You could kind of tell, kind of early on, he was pretty done.

He looked pretty banged-up, he was coughing, and he was pretty exhausted.

See you later, Zee.

RIC: He never complained, and he did it.

And he really had an amazing third day,

and it was just a shame that it ended the way it did.

And I respect him for making that decision. Nonetheless, we're still gonna miss him.

Thank you, Zee. This is going to a good home.

-Durand's gonna drink it all. -Yeah.

JEN: "Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows,

"in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees."

John Muir.

Let's go.

RIC: We were hiking along Lyell Creek,

and there's this massive pass covered in snow way beyond.

Jen and I kept asking each other, "Is that really what we're crossing?"

JASON: The first thousand feet of it was just trail,

and then you cross a bridge over the creek.

And then basically it was just snow the whole way up.

I stayed back and got this shot of Durand and Jason and Jen

starting to climb it, and they were just dwarfed

by the enormity of the climb and of the snow and of the bowl.

DURAND: The snow made it a little more challenging

than I was initially expecting, uh, but it was fun.

JEN: Donahue Pass was sketchy!

Hi, Iz. We are really in snow.

RIC: Love you, LaLa.

-Daddy's here. -Love you.

Love you. Talk to you soon. Bye!

For me, honestly, it was one... one step at a time.

Jason made perfect tracks for me.

And I just had to follow in his footsteps, and then I was good.

JASON: It was basically mountain climbing,

'cause you're kicking your steps into the snow.

No one would really die falling off that, but you could certainly hurt yourself,

and you know, it would be a pretty scary slide on the way down.

RIC: It's amazing when you go up in the snow like that.

All of a sudden your pack doesn't weigh anything, and your breathing's fine.

It's all about putting one foot very safely in front of the other.

And that view behind us is unbelievable.

JASON: Donahue Pass was tough.

It was like five hours of climbing straight up through the snow.

And I don't think any of us had really expected that

when we signed on to do this trail.

DURAND: This little guy... creeping up on our lunch.

That's right, buddy, I'm on to you.

You're not as sneaky as you think you are.

Apparently, the marmot was as sneaky as he thought he was.

JEN: So tell us the situation, Durand.

DURAND: We're under attack by marmots.

I think the best meal we've had so far was some kind

of spicy potato mixture that Jen made that was so tasty.

Unfortunately, I get up to the top of Donahue Pass,

and there's a marmot with his head buried into the bag

chewing on the potatoes.

DURAND: He already ate part of our lunch.

I put the lid back on the bear bin but didn't screw it tight...

and these evil geniuses managed to open it up.

It's so funny how, earlier today it was like how cute they are.

They're little trail bandits is what they are.

Get!

JEN: Heading down from Donahue Pass,

we actually enter into Ansel Adams Wilderness.

And I don't know how you can be a photographer in nature

and not be inspired by his work.

So, heading into one of the places that he considered his favorite--

that is truly thrilling.

RIC: Going through the snow, carrying that weight

just slows you down, and it's exhausting after a while.

JASON: When hiking through snowy conditions,

one, you have to be very careful where you step.

Two, the snow really bogs your feet down when you're moving through it.

So I think we probably, at best, could make about one mile per hour.

DURAND: There was no trail for a while.

The footprints disappear really fast,

so we lost the trail a couple times, which sucked.

It's really frustrating and mentally exhausting.

JEN: If I were doing this on my own,

I don't know that I would have lasted past day two.

I can't seem to find a trail.

It's been good to rely on the eyes of Jason and Durand to either

find the trail or to figure out where it is we're

supposed to head, and then just head in

that general direction, and by hook or by crook we get there.

RIC: When we were going over Thousand Island Pass,

Jen actually had located the trail,

but Durand at that point in time was just so over it.

DURAND: I was following a trail of footprints

which apparently was not "the trail,"

though I knew we had to get over a pass

and that pass was sitting right in front of me.

And there was no way you were talking me down to go back up.

JEN: By the time we got close enough to think,

"Oh, we're a few miles from Thousand Island Lake," it was gorgeous.

The pinks and the reds in the skies...

we had to stop and shoot some more,

and even though we were headlamping it in

to Thousand Island, it was worth every step.

LaLa... it's at night and we're getting ready for bed.

There's Daddy, and we're in our tent,

and I just wanted to tell you we had a crazy day today!

But we did good, and now we're ready for bed,

so we can see what awaits us tomorrow.

RIC: I think my first memorable moment on the trail

was the morning we woke up at Thousand Island Lake.

It was the first morning we woke up knowing we had a reasonable day

ahead of us, so we didn't feel quite so pressed to get on the trail early.

And we had some laundry to do, and it was the first opportunity we had to do it.

Thru-hiking isn't all going over passes and seeing beautiful, amazing scenery.

It's mostly that, but there's also little mundane things like doing your laundry.

RIC: The sun was shining, we all had a good night's rest.

It was just a really relaxing morning.

DURAND: We were really hoping for a snow-free day.

Unfortunately, we didn't get our wish.

RIC: There was this huge slope, and I looked down

and noticed that there was just water at the bottom of it.

And I mentioned to Jen, "Don't look down"

and see what she could possibly fall into if she slipped.

JEN: That was the most nerve-wracking, and probably wouldn't have been

if Ric hadn't said, "Hey, look down, there's water below. "

Might not have been the smartest thing to do at that particular moment in time.

(Jen shouts)

We got to this pass and we had cell reception, so as Jason said it perfectly,

it was like a Starbucks because all of us were standing there with our iPhones.

Yeah, there's a lot of snow up here, so a lot of it's been hiking through snow.

Then we looked over and there was no snow on the way down, and it was heavenly.

It's the only time we're grateful for switchbacks,

is after we've hiked through snow.

RIC: A couple of years ago,

Jason and Jen and I had done a stretch of the John Muir Trail,

coming in at Thousand Island Lake and going through Devils Postpile.

That was the first incarnation of shooting something on the John Muir Trail.

But doing that stretch of the JMT a couple years ago

was so different than it was this time around

because of the snow, because of the heavy water flow.

I remember we had met this couple that was hiking the JMT northbound,

and I think it sort of inspired us to want to take on the trail

in its entirety down the road, and we finally had the opportunity.

RIC: We only hiked for seven hours, and we probably did eight, eight and a half miles,

as opposed to, uh... 11 hours of hiking through snow.

Uh... (chuckles) But it was awesome.

JEN: Our spirits were high at Rosalie Lake,

despite the unfortunate state of our feet.

DURAND: Looks like Jen has a little situation that's popped up.

Oh, my goodness!

JEN: I now have 12 toes.

It was either day five or day six when everyone's feet just hit the absolute worst.

Yeah, I know this is gonna hurt.

Oh, oh, Kelly Clarkson!

Look, these are old blisters that already popped.

DURAND: Oh, my God!

Kind of reminds me of the pickled ginger you get when you eat sushi.

RIC (laughing): It does!

That right, sweetheart?

JEN: Tree, yeah, from the middle and now out.

DURAND: Like a young bird...

-Tree pose! -...this awkward creature.

(laughter)

RIC: As we were nearing Devils Postpile, we came across

what should have been a log crossing, but the heavy water flow

had washed out the log downstream, so we had to cross it.

JEN: Devils Postpile is a National Monument.

It's actually the last place that you can drive to along the trail,

and we were there to stock up, 'cause they have a store

and a restaurant, and you can have a shower if you get lucky.

JASON: Don't get me wrong. Jen did an awesome job with the food.

But the bacon double cheeseburger and root beer float

were a great reward for five days of really hard work.

Ric had asked me to come up to Devils Postpile.

We were gonna do a media dump, give them some supplies.

Because it was Jennifer's birthday,

I decided to also bring some steaks for everybody to enjoy.

DURAND: I think we're all pretty goddamn excited about this.

Everybody looked a little thinner in the face, but still everybody was

in great spirits, so it was really nice to see everybody.

One of the few things I was hoping to have for my birthday

was a real conversation with Isola.

ISOLA: * Happy Birthday to Mommy

* Happy Birthday to you.

RIC: What's your treasure today, Durand?

The greatest thing ever.

Mount Hagen, I salute you.

Oh, my God, there they go.

-Oh! -JEN (laughs): Pick 'em up!

It's still good... It's still good.

Ain't none of this going to be used as suppository.

RIC: "I only went out for a walk,

"and finally concluded to stay out till sundown.

For going out, I found, was really going in." John Muir

DURAND: We hit the trail the next day, which is good and bad.

You're happy to be back out and one day closer, but...

it is hard to leave civilization sometimes.

This is a backcountry iced coffee.

I feel like I'm in a cafe in Verona, sipping cappuccino.

RIC: It was just one of those days where you have to make your miles,

and for that reason we didn't shoot a lot.

But one of the great things that comes out of those exhausting days

is the silliness starts to surface.

Day five of my, uh, no deodorant experiment...

(sighs)

(sniffs)

-Yep. -DURAND: Results?

The results are, I think I stink so bad,

and the rest of my group stinks so bad, it doesn't really matter.

Right, honey?

I'll disagree.

Whoever you are in civilization

is who you're gonna be in the backcountry, as well.

(howling)

So if you're a huge goofball back at home,

you're going to be a huge goofball in the backcountry, too.

DURAND: Jason is preparing for his outdoor GQ photo shoot.

Sandal socks: By the way,

a quick message to all of our viewers about sandal socks.

No-no in the city, okay?

Out here, perfectly acceptable in the wilderness, all right?

You have to be at least two miles into the wilderness, though, to wear sandal socks.

The easiest way to make a tough day a little more bearable

is with a heavy dose of smart-assery.

What are you up to down there, Emmett?

-Just drinking my colostomy bag. -(laughing): Oh, God!

JASON: How much does your hearing aid from the 1950s weigh?

RIC: What's been your favorite moment so far?

I think it's this one coming up here.

Uh... we got some water left in the bucket here.

Jason asked me to get the coffee off the rock.

JASON: We had, I think, seven days worth of food.

Our packs were heavy with all the camera gear and the food before,

but we probably had twice as much food per person from that drop.

We're having a pissing contest to see whose bear canister weighs the most.

I'll tell you what: The packs weigh a ton!

We're all gonna close our eyes and Jen's gonna move the canisters around,

so we have to find out who has the heaviest bear canister.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, three, I think it's heavier than three, yeah...

Three or four.

Four, dude, for sure!

Four! (chuckles)

Oh!

JASON: I may have lost because my bear canister was the heaviest,

but really we all won, because Jen's food was just excellent.

I made homemade sauce at home, and then dehydrated it for two days.

RIC: Tell me how it is, Jason.

Good.

Like everything else Jen's done.

Really, really good.

It is delicious.

JEN: Okay, the truth is, the only reason I volunteered to cook

every single night is then I didn't have to do any of the dishes.

JASON: We broke through that foresty ridge that we were climbing on

and looked out and we saw this amazing, amazing valley called Cascade Valley.

So, we came around the ridge and saw Purple Lake, and it was really windy that day.

And it was just amazing, 'cause the wind was just dancing across the surface.

It was really a stunning view.

DURAND: I have a tradition of jumping into bodies of water while I'm out backpacking,

and I failed miserably for the first week on the Muir Trail.

So, coming into Purple Lake, I realized I couldn't let this

stand any longer, so we finally nutted up and jumped in.

It's cold! It's not... that cold!

Whoo!

(gasping)

JASON: From there, we headed through the John Muir Wilderness

and ended up at the headwaters of the Cascade Valley.

DURAND: I saw a trail at the bottom and I was like,

"Damn, I would hate to be the sucker that was gonna be on that trail."

And lo and behold, we actually went lower than that trail.

JASON: We hiked all the way down to the bottom

and then followed the stream a little ways down, uh,

to this just really amazing bridge.

And we had a good 1,200- foot climb to get up

to here to Squaw Lake, where we are right now.

My favorite day thus far of hiking was probably today.

One of the things that's kind of cool about this trail is you meet

a lot of really cool people that are kind of going along with you.

My name's Kelly Finlay.

And I'm Dave Finlay.

We're married, from Dolores, Colorado.

Kelly's a science teacher, and I'm a special-ed teacher.

We had the summer off, which made doing this a little easier.

We feel really fortunate to have met you all.

JEN: I think there's a little bit too much pepperoni.

DURAND: What?! You can put some on this pan.

(laughing)

KELLY: I think you have to be the funniest group on this trail.

JASON: Looks aren't everything, Kelly!

-I'm sorry. -Exceedingly good-looking.

The most attractive and funniest group on the trail.

DAVE: There s a huge panoramic view that is pretty awe-inspiring.

I m just kind of looking out right now at these high, snow-covered mountains.

Yeah, I m pretty impressed.

Being a Colorad, I m gonna give it up to ya, California.

These are solid! Some good mountains.

Our little family of four now expanded to six, because Dave and Kelly,

for some reason, decided to join us for the rest of the trip.

RIC: That evening at Squaw Lake there was this gorgeous sunset,

and to look down the valley and see your friends

silhouetted in this golden hour light...

There s something very pristine about that,

and it just makes the whole experience that much more real.

DURAND: Never while anything is left of me shall this camp be forgotten.

"It has fairly grown into me, not merely as memory pictures

but as part and parcel of mind and body alike.

John Muir.

RIC: You gonna miss this campsite, Durand?

It was a fine campsite.

Yes, I will miss this campsite.

I suck today.

All of us had one or two bad days, and going over Silver Pass I just felt awful.

But then in the afternoon we got to Mono Creek Falls,

and it was this giant cascade just coming over the rocks,

and it was just so beautiful that it really revived me

and saved me for the rest of the day.

DURAND: So Jen, what do we have in store for us today on the trail?

Apparently, Plus Hell.

-What is Plus Hell? -I think when we were writing it out,

there were so many ups and downs that we just decided to write Plus Hell.

I guess that was probably my executive decision.

So we got two miles, about a little over 2,000 feet up, at least.

DURAND: So how are you feeling about Plus Hell?

(whispers): Awesome.

(Opus Orange's "Nothing But Time" playing)

* Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! *

The climb was a little... a little hellish, but I feel great, man.

It was awesome.

I just think it just goes back to our theory

that Plus Hell, before we d done the first ten days...

DURAND: At what point did you find time to smoke meth on the way up?

Hell Schmell, that s what I have to say.

* Oh, oh, oh, I've got nothing but time *

* Oh, oh, oh, I've got nothing but time *

* Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! *

* Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh... *

RIC: When you re on a thru-hike like this, you have plenty

of opportunities to hike with someone and have great conversation.

But then you have a lot of opportunities to be by yourself, and I love those moments.

I love those moments to just think, and to be alone in the wilderness.

And there was this one moment on our way down to Bear Creek

where we passed through this aspen grove.

And we had not even seen aspens up to that point, so I had to stop.

The breeze was blowing, and when you look at aspen leaves up-close,

there s this really beautiful, subtle movement to them.

But then you take a step back and you look at the trees as a whole.

There s this beautiful poetry to the way the wind just flies through those leaves.

Those moments are amazing to me.

That absolutely captures what this trail is for me.

DURAND: So guys, it sounds like there might be a babbling brook behind us.

(laughing)

Perhaps just a little bit of water.

Bear Creek had a lot of hype to it. People talking about having to swim.

People talking about having to use ropes to get across.

DURAND: The first couple days we hear people telling these horror stories

about girls getting swept away down creeks and medevaced out.

I m gonna have to get closer.

I can t hear you over the small din of the babbling brook.

-Bear Creek. It's Creek, right? -Yes.

There was a really eerie energy in the campsite that morning,

because we didn t really know what to expect at Bear Creek.

We tried to find some other small woman to go through it for us beforehand,

so that we could be like Well, what does it look like with a woman going through? but...

-Apparently, they re not as handy. -No. There weren t any.

RIC: Obviously, we don t want anyone to go down.

But we also have our gear that we re all concerned about, too.

We put all of our electronics up top, and made sure that it was going to be really safe.

Oh, Dave, come back!

KELLY: I just got to that one section where the current was just really pushy.

And I just didn t really feel like I was very stable,

so I called out to Dave to come back and help me.

-I think Ric grabbed you first. -(laughs): I... I...

Somebody grabbed me, and then I immediately felt better.

Made it across.

JEN: The trail hype itself, I think, is real to whoever says it,

because, you know, on any given day I could do

the same water crossing, and would feel differently about it.

So I think that it might seem like hype, but for them it was real.

KELLY: It was exciting. I wouldn t say

that it was scary, but it was... it was pretty thrilling.

Crossing the snow field right behind us, these frogs started chirping at us.

Which was pretty cool, so I want to see if we can get a little sample.

Getting all the sound gear out was a challenge.

It took about 15 minutes with the mics and the cables

and getting them in the right pattern, so when I finally

decided to record stuff, I chose those moments very carefully.

Of course as soon as I had gotten all my gear out and the mics set up,

the frogs decided to end their conversation.

Just literally got all my gear packed away.

(frogs trilling)

Maybe they know I m leaving.

But I just said... if I didn t have my pack on,

I d come down there and beat the shit out of both of you.

I know there s two of you, 'cause I can hear two distinct calls.

There s A... and B.

Muthu....

Little known fact: Durand was actually

one of the most altruistic people we had on the trail with us.

Particularly for small amphibians.

-He s almost frozen. -There you go, buddy.

All right, dude, stay away from the snow.

RIC: The big news is, according to the chart,

this is the hundred-mile marker of the John Muir Trail.

(joyful shouting)

JEN: We saw Sallie Keyes, and it looked so welcoming,

and there was a great lake, and we figured we d

get to go swimming, and really enjoy this environment.

It was going to be our Indian summer.

It was just heaven, and then we just put

our packs down for one second and they swarmed.

(insects buzzing)

KELLY: The group was silent.

The mosquitoes actually had the power to silence six people.

DURAND: Sallie Keyes was both beautiful and awful.

The highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

The only way to escape the bloodthirsty cloud of mosquitoes

was to dive underwater.

I just crawled into my tent, killed the 20 mosquitoes that followed me in there,

and I did not appear again until dinner.

(mosquitoes buzzing)

JASON: So we had planned a rest day at Muir Trail Ranch,

which is a ranch in the Sierra backcountry,

which is privately-owned but anybody can visit.

KELLY: When we first got there we just wanted to unload our packs

and sit for a second, and then when we realized the buckets...

If you ve ever wondered what backcountry looting looks like.

DAVE: Hikers come through there

and they get resupplies and they don t take all their food.

And that s nice for other people coming through to resupply.

We just treated it like a lunch buffet.

-Just like Christmas. -What is that?

-I think it's M&M's. -Jellybeans?

And everyone was, "Look, Barbecue Pringles!"

-Ohh! -Can I steal some?

Can I get in on some of that action? I love barbecue Pringles. Thank you.

Side note: Barbecue Pringles, M & M s...

-And peanuts. -...and peanuts are a really good combination.

Excellent combination. Congrats whoever came up with that one.

Thank you very much.

We just picked up our food drop,

and we ve got all kinds of goodies and food in here.

It is a little bit like Christmas.

Oh, look at that-- toilet tissue.

-Fuel, more toilet tissue. -Dinners.

-Dinners. -Peanut butter.

I did have a care package that my brother had sent out.

-Is there just one? -That s it!

David s a pretty awesome younger brother.

-Oh, my God. -Oh, yeah!

-Look at that-- Milano cookies. -Oh, with mint!

-Her favorite. -Knob Creek.

-Nice! -Nice.

JASON: They had these awesome baths that were fed by natural springs,

and just to be able to wash off the two weeks of trail grime was the best feeling.

For us it might as well have been a five-star hotel,

'cause we hadn t seen anything resembling civilization in over a week.

Our cabin s name is...

DURAND: You ll have to speak louder into the camera, Huell!

Our cabin s name is the Tenthouse Penthouse.

And as you can see, ours is elevated a little bit higher.

I wanted to wash my hair. I just wanted to wash my hair.

And so I did it three times. And it was heavenly.

-Hey! -Maybe they're here and they've just been in their room...

Actually, this is the cleanest I ve been in like a month, so...

-What s up, man? -How's it going, man?

-Oh, man, I m so happy you guys made it. -Yeah, man.

That s crazy, that s so great.

My friends Doug and Shelley came out and surprised me out here,

which was really amazing, really great.

-How goes it? -Good.

-How are you? -I m good.

DURAND: We were sitting around eating dinner.

We knew that Zee had said he was potentially coming out there,

but we weren t, I guess, entirely sure, you know.

I m back... just for a very short time.

I was missing the guys, and I was anxious to see how everyone was doing.

So I headed up to Muir Trail Ranch, and had forgotten

that there was a five-mile hike after the ferry.

So I got there a little bit late.

DURAND: Lo and behold, spotted him up on the ridge.

He had unfortunately missed the trail sign, and was hiking up the ridge

that we had come down earlier in the day, but it was great to see him.

I got there that evening, and rolled in just as they were finishing dinner.

(hearty chuckling)

It was good to see them. They were having a good time.

And it just made it a little bittersweet, because I wish that I d been able to keep up,

but the way that I was lagging behind, I think,

they wouldn t have had the adventure that they had if I had stayed on the trail.

Your whiskey, my friend!

RIC: It was perfect. It was rustic, it was relaxing.

We had a meal with steak and potatoes, and greens...

-JEN: Salad. -...and fresh vegetables.

And it was awesome. It was amazing.

-So Durand, you gonna weigh your pack? -I am.

The least favorite day of everyone on this trail is restock day,

and the most favorite is the day before restock day, because there s

probably a good 15-to-20-pound difference between how much your pack weighs.

-Oh, shit. -Oh, my gosh.

I m a touch under 75.

-Oh! -Sixty-five?

Pretty beastly.

What do you think?

-Forty-five. -No!

-Ooh! -I d say forty-nine. Nice!

-Sixty-seven. -That's way more than me.

Whoa, nice, fifty-five.

-Fifty-five. -Fifty-five?! -Fifty-five?!

We need to start calling him Jen.

Damn, Zee, I shouldn t have weighed it.

-Now they re gonna be like, Hey, Dave. -Hey, Dave.

(indistinct conversations)

There was really a gorgeous hike out of there afterwards.

JASON: My friends Doug and Shelley hiked the first stretch

of the trail with us that morning and when they turned around

to go back, I have to admit that was the first time

I really started to feel a little bit homesick.

When we crossed into Kings Canyon, I felt like we were in this entirely new world.

The Sierras are incredible. They re amazing.

I feel like they re more amazing than any school, any church.

We crossed into the San Joaquin drainage and walked up the San Joaquin,

an immensely powerful, churning chasm of water...

...that kind of culminated in a huge climb up these switchbacks

that the stair-master made up to Evolution Creek.

-Where we at? -We're at Evolution...

Excuse me-- Theory of Evolution Creek.

My running joke has been

that Evolution Creek has evolved into a river,

'cause that was certainly no creek that I ve ever seen.

JASON: Evolution Creek, along with Bear Creek,

was one of the ones that we d been warned about.

But you know there s signs just saying, hey, go cross it in the meadow

if it s really high, and that s what we did and it was really nothing.

RIC: Looking good, Jason. Looking good. Work it...

JASON: Other than the fact that my boots dropped in, which was kind of a bummer.

Oh!

I had two clean, dry pairs of socks, and one of them bit the dust.

DAVE: These vast, calm, measureless mountain days,

"inciting at once to work and rest...

days in whose light everything seems equally divine.

John Muir.

RIC: Going through Evolution Valley, it was gorgeous.

It was probably one of the first times we saw so much green.

We re at Evolution Lake, which is, I mean, really an amazingly beautiful place.

DURAND: The last seven days we ve camped by water,

and I have completely submerged myself seven days in a row.

So I probably smell the best, I d like to think.

JASON: If you go around the bend, the lake spills out

into this amazing cascade that falls probably

over a thousand feet into Evolution Valley down below.

The view is stunning.

It's one of the prettiest I think I ve seen on this trail so far.

We showed up at Evolution Lake and these two youngish kids show up,

and they had these giant black boxes on the back of their packs.

Everyone was looking at that, and we really wanted to know what it was.

I m Kristen Stipanov. I m 17 years old.

I m Tom. I m her older brother. I m 23.

We re both from San Diego, and having a blast.

In the boxes are canvases, and what s in our backpacks

are just medium and cleaner, so what we use to do all the painting.

TOM: We just started getting into oils,

and before this trip, actually, we took a bunch of trips

to different art museums on the East Coast to check out

the early pioneers in the Hudson River Valley movement.

It s something for us to aspire to.

We try to bring light into our paintings as much as possible.

That s what makes it so awesome out here.

KRISTEN: We wake up at 4:00. It s still dark.

He makes breakfast, and then we both roll out of bed and start hiking

-around 5:30 at first light. -Yeah.

KRISTEN: And we have such a huge age difference that we didn t really

get to know each other all that much before just about a year ago.

I m learning a ton just by being around him.

He does everything for me that I can t.

TOM: The challenges with this trip are ridiculous,

and for us to be going over these mountain passes

with ice axe and crampons with 120 pounds of combined art gear,

plus whatever else, that s pretty crazy.

You know, it makes me proud to see her doing some of this stuff

that, you know, I couldn t have done when I was her age.

JASON: It s kind of film versus paint, but it s still kind of a common goal

to come out here and try to just capture all of this

amazing, beautiful scenery that s around us out here.

RIC: You excited about today?

Uh... yeah, you know. I mean, you re always a little worried.

You want to have a good day. You want to feel good going over.

You don t want to, you know, get sick or get, you know, exhausted, but you know...

I m a little nervous about that kind of thing, but I think it ll be okay.

-This might be the earliest we ve gotten out, right? --I think so, yeah.

-Well, it hasn t happened yet. -Yeah, that's true.

DAVE: This is rad. This is the end of July.

We are walking on a beautiful snow field,

with crystal blue ice and water all around us.

This is amazing.

JASON: The hardest part about going over Muir Pass for me was that I kept postholing.

The first time I literally went in straight to my waist,

and climbing out of a snow hole with a 60-pound pack

is just really a hard thing to do.

I had no faith that where I was putting my foot

was going to be there once I shifted my weight there.

After having done that much of the trail,

it would have been horrible to have to end it because of injury.

-DURAND: How you feeling? -Great, actually.

Muir Pass was just... long. It just felt like it took forever to get over...

-You did complain a lot. -I wasn t even with you.

I was shooting gorgeous shots of you and Dave cresting over the sun cups.

DURAND: On the trail, I was really impressed

with Ric s dedication to getting the shot.

He would often run in front of us or behind us and set up

the tripod or the dolly, and I think it really came through in the shots.

They re beautiful.

-Yeah! -Whoo-hoo! -Good job.

-Yeah, man. -Party at the Muir Hut!

We decided for the Muir Pass, the homework assignment

would be to come up with a haiku about John Muir.

So mine goes... "Idyllic Muir Pass,

"with friends and snow aplenty... Stone hut! Down we go."

RIC (chuckling): Nice, well done.

"With flowing white beard,

"small dog Spot and wool blanket,

you hiked this cool..."

(laughing)

"John Muir would be proud.

Snow did not deter our quest, majestic Sierras."

-Nice. -Nice.

"He hiked it northbound, we went the opposite way...

"Spirits"-- excuse me-- "Souls crossing today. "

DURAND: Nice! Very poetic.

Okay. "Today on the trail, I saw things of wondrous awe...

And felt things of ow!"

-(laughter) -Nice.

Mine goes a little something like this:

"Ol bearded John Muir...

Epic wanderlust you had. Cheers in your honor."

-Nice! -Whoo!

JASON: While I was sitting down in the Muir Hut, which is this

amazing stone structure that was built by the Sierra Club and the CCC,

I struck up a conversation with two older gentlemen,

Jim and Tip, and it turns out they were doing eight days on the trail.

I m Jim Slinger and I had done the John Muir Trail 50 years ago.

And maybe it'll be never again here. You know? Those things happen.

And so I wanted to go back over Muir Pass on the 50th anniversary

of the first time that I went over Muir Pass.

50 years ago, I wanted to do it just because

I knew that I liked the mountains.

And I'd learned of the existence of the John Muir Trail,

and it just seemed like a fantastic trip.

We had minimal snow 50 years ago. Nothing like this year.

This year the snow was much heavier than 50 years ago.

It doesn t matter whether there s a lot of snow or not,

everybody is very happy when they get to the top of any pass.

We noticed these guys who were carrying incredibly heavy cameras,

and that did not seem like what I would want to do on the Muir Trail.

Well, each to their own, you know.

The only thing that s the same is the mountains.

The equipment is so different, the food's so different.

Nobody purified water. Nobody carried a stove.

Everybody just burned wood, and that means

that if you don t think about wood until you get there,

you have a significant travel in order to get wood for your campfire.

We didn t have a tent at all,

and I just really grew to like sleeping under the stars.

I can remember after doing my first Muir Trail trip

that I felt like I was going home.

And I still feel that way when I go into the wilderness.

Every day was a highlight. I love being there.

The down was the most difficult pass that we ve come off of.

It was a lot of snow. Some route finding.

Snow bridges over rivers that weren t real safe,

and we did really kind of have to come together as a group for that.

RIC: How s that working for you, Durand?

The one great thing about Muir Pass was on the backside

we were able to do our first long glissading,

or as Durand has aptly named it, "ass pass. "

-Ass path? Ass path. -Ass path. Ass path.

(joyful shouting and raucous laughter)

-(scream) -Whoa!

(shouting)

(Opus Orange's "Take Your Time" plays)

* This life is what you make of it *

* So we're gonna make it up, make it up as we go... *

This looks to be an epic glissade.

* When I'm in the sunshine, got myself a shadow, it goes wherever I go... *

-Whoo! -* So take your time

* 'Cause there's always tomorrow *

* Let's live for today!

RIC: Lift your feet on the bump!

(shouts)

What? Say it again into my good ear. I can t hear you.

* I don't know, we gotta find our way... *

11 1/2 hard miles.

DURAND: A tough 11 1/2. Did you see the creature?

I m sorry, but we have to sacrifice you to the beast.

-Okay. -It must be fed!

(deep growling)

* Let's live for today!

DAVE: Today we have a 13-mile day.

About another thousand feet down, and then if we get the whole 13,

about 2,000 feet up on the Golden Staircase.

Dun-Dun-Dun!

DURAND: Do it, Tank! Tank water no fear!

Oh!

Oh, that wasn t very Tank-like. What is this, the Barbie Tank?

DAVE: Here it is-- we are making wagers

on making the next seven miles over 2,600 feet of elevation.

Here are the rules. It s based on when the third person gets to camp

at Palisade... Lower Palisade Lake.

Jen?

-Whoa. -Wow

I'm gonna say...

Ah, geez.

DURAND: Oh, damn. That was some "Price Is Right" undercutting shit!

I m lowballing. I'm gonna... I have faith in us.

Even though I m the slowest one, I have faith in all them.

-Whoa! -That's a lot of faith.

DURAND: That is a bold guess.

DURAND: Right now, we are on the Golden Staircase.

This is a heck of a climb coming up here.

I think we re gaining 1,600 feet in about a mile--

maybe a little bit over a mile-- but it is pretty brutal.

JASON: You turn around when you re going up that thing

and you look down the valley at where you came from,

and it s just amazing-- the peaks around there and everything is so beautiful.

I really hope they never make it easier to get to this place.

You need to earn that view. You need to earn that place.

You keep thinking you ve seen the most beautiful thing,

and then the next day comes and you see something even more beautiful.

It feels so grand, so large and that was

probably the most spectacular moment for me.

At some point we just came up and we saw Palisade Lakes.

I think that was, by far, my favorite campsite.

Way to go, Emmett.

The undisputed champion of time-guessing...

(laughter)

The pride... of Davis, California...

Jason, "the Irish-American Hurricane," Fitzpatrick--

thank you very much-- within five minutes.

And I m really worried about the self-esteem

of the rest of this group. 'cause no one was within

30 minutes of the time and they were all long, so...

KELLY: All long.

I feel great.

We ve reached an unfortunate point in the evening where s there s too much food.

Now it s become an eating competition as we attempt to finish this.

We all have to eat.

-I like your style. -RIC: She s a good eater.

(laughter)

Whoo!

-Thanks, honey. -My wife.

That s why I married her. She s a good eater.

DURAND: As long as I live, I ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing.

"I ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of floods, storm and the avalanche,

and get as near the heart of the world as I can.

John Muir.

I was naming all the passes and Mather was actually a very, very difficult one to do for me.

KELLY: It was seriously scrambling,

You d have to sometimes, you know, really pull yourself up on something.

And trying to follow a guy doing that, you know they have a much longer reach,

and a bigger step, so it was nice we could actually find

a route that was safe for both of us, and watch out for each other.

JASON: I felt pretty wretched when we started out

that morning, but by the time we got to the technical section,

you know I felt pretty good and then when we go to the summit I felt great.

-Mather was tough. -Yeah.

This is really the crux of it right here, Ric.

I thought that one honestly, that was some of the most fun, though.

I really like the pseudo- mountaineering where, you know,

we re not actually roped up, but going straight up the snow.

-You gots it? -Yes, sir.

Yeah!

DAVE: It was our most technical pass that we went up.

Lot of steep snow, some scrambling involved.

DURAND: First thoughts?

That was a hell of a climb. (chuckling)

DURAND: You go over the other side,

and the rocks actually crest over the top of your head.

And it looks like it could crumble on top of you, which is, I mean...

-RIC: Intimidating. -Yeah. A little intimidating.

And then, that s where Jason made the mighty fine piece of ass path.

Jason is merging our former ass path with a brand-new section of ass path.

It goes all the way down the mountain.

I went down first, and because I m the biggest I made a pretty good...

pretty good channel through the sun cups.

DURAND: I actually ran back up the hill

so that I could do the whole complete slide.

RIC: Which was very ambitious.

DURAND: Scared the shit out of me, but it was totally worth it.

Oww!

I think we all had a pretty good time.

(thunder rumbling)

JASON: So we hadn t even seen a cloud in nearly

a week and a half, but coming over Mather

the thunder clouds rolled in and we got our first rain on the trip.

DAVE: Pinchot Pass was our only experience

going over a pass with potentially scary weather.

We started hearing the thunderclaps, the sprinkles started coming,

everybody was scrambling for pack covers and rain jackets.

And by the time we got to Pinchot Pass, there was no hanging out.

RIC: One of the unfortunate things

about the storm rolling in was that we weren t able to shoot a lot.

I was able to get a few GoPro shots on the way back down,

and I know Jen was able to get a few stills at the top of the pass.

But you have to protect your gear.

I mean, we want to get the shots, but we also have to make sure

that our cameras are going to be around with us for the remainder of the trip.

And so I was a little disappointed that we didn t get to shoot

as much as I would have liked during that day.

RIC: Durand, I see you have some rain gear on. Why is that?

-We think it might get sunny. -(thunderclaps)

Uh, it was sort of... actually, we started getting, uh...

some thunder coming over Pinchot Pass.

Fortunately, there was no lightning till, uh... we got over,

and then we looked back and there was a couple strikes--

I would say at most two miles off the pass-- so that was a little intense.

That might have been our longest stretch of going without stopping, I think.

You know, you hike for six, seven hours straight--

a couple thousand up and then a couple pretty hard miles down--

it s tough, it takes its toll on you.

JEN: It did not just rain on the way up to the pass.

-RIC: Yeah, it hailed. -It hailed.

It did hail, that's right.

Make note.

JASON: One of the coolest things we did on the trip

was cross the Woods Creek suspension bridge.

I ve been looking forward to this. This thing is bad ass!

You definitely don t see a lot of suspension bridges that far out in the wilderness,

so the Woods Creek suspension bridge was a special moment.

It was raining, and it'd been kind of a gloomy afternoon,

so crossing that bridge really just cheered everyone up.

JEN: We re riding out the storm.

We have, uh... four miles to get up to Kearsarge Pass,

where we re meeting the mule with our next cache drop...

-RIC: And? -...and our four more friends.

(thunder rumbling)

RIC: We were really fortunate to have a lot of sunny days,

so when the clouds did roll in not only did it take its toll

on the solar charger, but also on the general morale of the group.

RIC: Miss Izzy?

(whispers): That s not a fair thing to ask.

Yes, of course I miss Isola.

I really love this trip, but... I think I m ready to go back to my life.

JASON: So I had slept most of the day at Rae Lakes,

'cause it was raining pretty consistently all afternoon.

But it did let up a little bit at the end of the day, so I grabbed my camera gear.

And Jen came along with me and we went down

to the lake from our campsite to get some shots.

It was just stunning.

The color of the sky, the oranges, were just amazing.

So I fired off a couple of shots, and I was pretty excited about what I had.

So, I turned around and started heading back up to camp to get dinner.

And of course, I get halfway back to camp, I turn around and look

and all of a sudden it had completely changed color.

From the beautiful oranges, it had just turned into

these incredible pinks and reds in the sky and it was reflecting on the lake.

I think it was my favorite shots I got of the entire trip.

JEN: On the way back from shooting the sunset, we met a dad who was

camping with his two kids, and they offered us two Snickers bars.

-KELLY: We re becoming very primal. -(chuckling)

-Wild, ravaging animal... -What the hell?

-Snickers! Get the torches! -Snickers!

Going out on a hunt.

Hey guys, tell the truth. You killed two campers for those Snickers, didn t you?

Yeah, we did. We did.

KELLY: I would say that Glen Pass worked out pretty well for me,

because I didn t make a wrong turn.

JEN: Ric gave me the directions that she went one way, and I was like,

"Well, if Kelly went that way, that s the way I want to go."

KELLY: And I had totally not gone that way.

No, so I rock-scrambled on my own.

JASON: So that was how Jen got her nickname, which was Albuquerque.

You know, it s the whole Bugs Bunny thing:

"I should have taken a left-hand turn at Albuquerque. "

One of the fun traditions of a thru-hike, as you re going to be hiking

eight to ten hours a day, is to hand out trail nicknames to help pass the time.

Hey!

RIC: The Captain!

DURAND: Hey, Captain Lonely, what s going on?

You guys want to explain why, uh... why I m The Missus ?

JASON: 'Cause you re fussy.

DURAND: I ve taken to calling myself "The Ramen Shaman."

Our Sasquatch sighting.

Apparently, my trail name has changed from The Missus to Lost And Found.

Jason is a bit of a tank.

By the way, you ve been dubbed The Loser.

If he were a Garbage Pail Kid, his name would be Pacin Jason.

Apparently, my new nickname is Smee for wearing this cap.

(laughing)

We re really good at handing out the nicknames,

but not necessarily at having them stick.

I found fresh meat!

(chuckling)

DAVE: Here fishy, fishy, fishy...

Our group of merry miscreants has grown to 12 at this point.

-How was the hike over, guys? -Great!

In our group of people that just are joining us, we have

Paul Bessenbacher, Kit Bessenbacher,

Anne Grossman, Kit s cousin Pete and Bernie Chadwick.

BERNIE: We definitely came upon a scene where we had some people

that looked like they had been through a lot, and they were an intimidating group,

-I think, because, uh, they... -'Cause they were smelly.

They were smelly and they looked like

they had some experience that we didn t have.

(ukelele strumming midtempo rhythm)

* Bottom of the sea is where I m gonna be *

* 'Cause every time I surface, I sink *

* It s a little bit dark and a little too cold *

* And my lungs are full of water, I think *

* But I ve gotten used to this, if I come up I m gonna miss *

* All the things that I never have to say... *

One of the cool things about the new group-- A: It s just always fun

to see fresh faces, and have new conversations,

cause conversations get really old after a while.

But also Paul and Bernie were kind enough to play

some instruments for us by the campfire which was really great.

JEN: So every day on the trail, you hear another piece of lore.

There s two people swept down the river,

or another person leaves the trail because of snow blindness.

Or there s a solo hiker from Japan-- Kazuyo.

She s doing the entire trail by herself.

* I might open my eyes underwater *

* 'Cause that s where the salt blends in with the sea *

* That s where I m gonna be.

-(music fades) -(cheering)

Right next to Anne and my tent, a bear decided to pop his head out.

If he starts moving this way, get your bags.

It was awesome; he came really close. First bear we ve seen since Yosemite.

-And definitely the closest and most active bear, so... -Yeah.

RIC: What are we doing today? Last pass before...

Forester Pass is today.

We're going... up almost 4,000 feet over, uh, like six miles.

I think it s... I think it's closer to 3,000.

-It's in-between... over six miles. -3,000... Yeah, and then...

And then we're gonna drop back down to the bottom a couple thousand feet,

for a grand total of, math majors...

5,000.

RIC (chuckling): Nobody s there.

DURAND: How far abouts would you say it is

to get, uh, this last thousand feet, Jen?

Oh, about a mile... mile and a half.

RIC: Jason, where we at?

We re about, uh... 600 feet below Forester Pass.

Forester kicked my ass, uh...

The elevation seems to really hit me each time.

There s actually people up there right now.

JASON: Yeah, you can see our friends, actually.

I think Bernie and Pete and Jen and Ric are all up there on the ridge.

RIC: Forester had all the elements that we had been dealing with up to that point.

It s like we d been training for Forester.

PB: In retrospect, I should have been concerned about Forester Pass.

I don t think either of us knew what we were getting into.

You told me something on the way up here, that this is a first for you, right?

-Yeah. -How?

I ve never... I've never been this high.

I ve never trekked across a sketchy little trail across the snow,

where I was imagining my body flying... sliding down to that lake.

It felt like real mountaineering that we weren t really prepared for.

-Emotionally. -Emotionally and all this.

And, uh, we keep asking these guys,

That was a hard one, right? and they re like No, it wasn t even close.

-Yeah... But it was. -So...

-It was tough. -Yeah.

Whoo!

That was good!

KELLY: Fear not to try the mountain passes.

"They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free,

"and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action.

"Even the sick should try these so-called 'dangerous' passes,

because for every unfortunate they kill, they cure a thousand.

John Muir.

Well, uh, today we are going this way, south towards Guitar Lake,

and then a little bit east up to Guitar Lake

which is, uh... at about 11-five, I believe.

JEN: Hi, Iz.

We are coming to the end of our trip.

Walking through these beautiful redwoods.

We currently have three days until I see my daughter Isola,

and that s what's itching me--

to like just get up that mountain right now to get back down.

I have a three-month-old baby at home, and I had

that instinct about preserving that natural beauty

and just wanting to share that and wanting to show that.

(strumming languid rhythm, pebbles pinging on xylophone)

(indistinct conversations)

-This is, uh, Durand... yeah, Guitar Lake. -Guitar Lake.

Durand has definitely done a better job of jumping into

almost every water source that we ve been near, but this is

-our last one before we climb... -Mount Whitney, which is right behind us.

-PB: Somewhere up there. -Yeah, somewhere up there.

I think Mount Whitney is going to be pretty damned tough.

Nothing's been easy so far, and I don t expect

the biggest peak that we ve hit so far to be any different.

I think it s going to be really, really cold and dark tomorrow morning,

and I m probably not going to be the most pleasant individual, but, uh...

-But what s different? -Yeah, exact... yeah.

(lullaby-like rhythm plays)

BERNIE: We re excited about coming out here

and bringing instruments that were light enough to backpack with,

and make some music on the trail, and kind of be creative with sound

and, um... see how the different places we were camping would inspire

different kinds of songs and ways of playing and things like that.

JEN: John Muir brought artists out into the wilderness,

and because they were able to go out there and capture its beauty,

and bring it back to share with others, people became invested in that.

I just think if our project does that for one person,

then we did exactly what we set out to do.

DAVE: What day is it?

It s the day we finish the John Muir Trail.

It s just bittersweet.

I m glad that we made it and I m glad that I m going to get

to go home to Dolores and see my friends and my dog

and my cat, but I m... I'm gonna miss our little trail family.

Yeah.

DAVE: Jason and I were talking about it earlier today.

Both of us even got nearly teary-eyed, um...

Yeah, thinking about the end.

DAVE: You know, I will miss this.

This is remarkable, what s surrounding us right now.

This isn t Everest, this isn t some insane, crazy, you know,

eight-month adventure, but you know it s a month and it s hard.

And you really form bonds and you get really close to these people.

The thought of that ending is a very sad feeling.

-DAVE: Dorangutan, what s happening? -Crushing it.

DURAND: I never thought I would do a trail like this,

and the group of people we ve been with, it's just...

I really just have not had this much fun in quite some time.

If I could get paid to do this for a living, I would do it.

RIC: The most spectacular thing about this trip,

for me, has been challenging myself, absolutely,

Doing things that I may not otherwise feel comfortable doing,

and at this point you ve done so much you don t even think twice about it.

JEN: I sort of go between watching every single step

and trying to be in the moment and rushing.

(chuckling)

We have so many things every day that we can be proud of that we did.

I ve got to savor this moment, 'cause it ll be gone.

We re on our last two miles of the JMT.

I m actually a little sad.

Guess I better get to it.

(Opus Orange's "Almost There" plays)

* So much time spent in slow motion *

* Don't need to worry about this commotion *

* You and I, we're going to catch this light before it's gone *

* Doo, doo, doo, doo-doo-doo, doo, doo, doo, doo-doo-doo *

* Doo, doo, doo, doo-doo- doo, doo, doo, doo, doo-doo-doo *

* Open your eyes, open your eyes *

* Open your eyes

* 'Cause we're almost there

* Yeah, we're almost there!

-(joyful shouting) -(laughter)

Yes!

DURAND: Boozenbacher!

JEN: Yay, Bernie!

(clapping and cheering)

Emmett!

-Nice job, man. -Thanks, man.

-ANNE: How you feeling, Jason? -Great!

(ukelele strumming, rhythmic handclaps)

* On top of Mount Whitney with the John Muir Crew *

* On top of Mount Whitney with a bag full of poo *

* On top of Mount Whitney, don t you wish you were, too? *

* On top of Mount Whitney with the John Muir Crew. *

BERNIE: I m a little envious that the rest of the group

was able to take the time to do the entire trail.

We re kind of coming on and experiencing

the last bit of it, which is really exciting.

But it doesn t have that full context and the sense

of completion that comes from that, so I'm definitely

interested in looking at doing the whole trail at some other point.

RIC: It s tough to make the commitment

to be away for this long from your regular life.

And so, for each of us to make that commitment, I m really glad we did,

because it was far more rewarding than I would have imagined.

-DURAND: Hey, a lot of good things start at bars. -That's true.

A couple beers and brats and you decide to do something epic.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

* We ve been through peaks and valleys... *

JASON: You don t need to go to the Himalayas.

You don t need to climb Mount Everest,

or go to the deepest jungles of Africa to find adventure.

You can find it in your own backyard.

RIC: I m hoping this will be motivation for us to expose our daughter

to things that we ve been seeing over the last 25 days.

This is what makes life amazing, and I want to share that with her.

* ...with the John Muir Crew... *

DAVE: When we re back in Colorado, the packs are gonna go in the garage,

and what we ll wind up talking about is the experience

of being out here with the people and things that we saw.

And there s not a lot of people in the world

that are gonna get to experience this.

And it s made that much better by just...

the company you keep and the people you decide to be with.

* Oh, with the John Muir Crew... *

(shouting and whooping)

What more can you ask for?

It s an adventure.

* Following the thread, chasing a passion *

* Tracing the steps over every mountain *

* Picking up stories along the way *

* Every step another turn, and I m forever changed *

* It started with a plan, should it be unraveled *

* I ll take it as I can along the road less traveled... *

-The Captain's on the lam. -Hiding from the police.

JASON (goofy voice): Once again, it s time for yoga with Jen...

And Ricardo...

Breathe in... and breathe out.

DURAND: That looks like a hotdog that just exploded on the grill.

Who wants lunch?

How s it taste, Gollum?

I feel like Steve Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

I want a (bleep) dry (bleep) sleeping bag, right (bleep) now.

PB Suave. Just think CIA. James Bond.

*...in the valley and at the highest mountain *

* We're picking up stories along the way *

* Every step another turn, and I'm forever changed... *

(music fades)

(whispers): Nice job.