Can't believe hiking season is creeping up on me. Doesn't seem like that long ago I had to don fireproof undies during the great boy scout bash. Hopefully that's all in the past and everyone is excited and ready to lace up their boots and get in the back country.
I'm planning for some great hikes and have a lot more free time to do them this year. My last day at work is in early May and I officially retire from the Navy 31 July. 26 years - times flies. I was just getting good at it too.
Some bucket list stuff planned for this year involves a heavy dose of the JMT. I've always wanted to do it under 10 days with no resupply. Since I've gone through some medical stuff in the past few months and never been on the trail longer than 60 hours, I figure I better practice some. A good warm will be Onion Valley to the Bishop Pass Trail Head. My son needs a 5 day 50+ miler for a scout award and that should do it. Plus it fills in a couple of gaps on the JMT that I haven't seen. I plan to at least section hike the JMT if the practice goes bad so having those gaps filled in would be handy.
The wife insists that I give it a shot before 21 July so if it goes south I'll still be on active duty - I guess she wants the insurance.
Other than that, there's Whitney of course. I skipped the lottery this year. I plan on watching the boards and jumping on a permit whenever someone posts looking for a partner. Or just getting a walk in. Never had a problem before. I need to explore the whole Whitney Zone more instead of racing to the peak and notching my belt. And I really want to get the boy into the Gambler's Special Wreck site. I found a short cut.
Hope everyone has thawed out, had a great Christmas, New Years and every other holiday I've missed in my deep dark hole.................................................DUG