In 2008 while at age 10 they got their first taste of the High Sierra, being among the youngest to ever attempt a through hike of the John Muir Trail. We had some unfinished business to complete after finishing 3 days short of Mount Whitney. When Damien asked why we didn't just do a yo-yo hike this summer, the plan for 2009 was born.
Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney and back to Yosemite Valley was the plan. We were on schedule when we reached Mount Whitney, but Claire had a pretty high fever and the weather was turning bad, so the decision to make it half a yo-yo hike was pretty easy. We may try again in a year or two, but we're pretty happy with the 288 miles we did this summer, even if we didn't hike back to Yosemite. We definitely didn't see any other young hikers on the JMT.