The doctor sent Bill to a specialist, and the conclusion was that yes,  his problem was due to giardia.   Just to make absolutely sure, though, they want Bill to have a colonoscopy.  Yuck.   Bill is NOT a happy camper at the prospect, but he will go through with it (on Tuesday).

All that aside, though, we are both feeling MUCH better now.   We still feel tired more easily, but we are going hiking every day around our area, including climbing hills.   Yesterday, I put my pack on with a bit of weight in it, and had no problem going for a 2 hour hike.   We are talking about when to return to the trail, and it’s looking like we’ll probably head back to Tehachapi just after the middle of June.  Weather reports on the Sierras sound like the snow is melting OK now.

Reading other hikers’ journals is an option now that we are home, and I discovered that a number of other thruhikers ALSO arrived in Tehachapi sick with giardia-type symptoms.   Many of them just holed up in Tehachapi to wait till they felt better.  We were very blessed to have the Rosander family’s help, plus the option of going home to rest for a couple of weeks.   We have been trying to figure out where we might have picked up “bad water” and the conclusion is it had to be on the detour before Tehachapi.   I suspect it was Aliso Creek, myself.   Some of the hikers were baffled as to how they could have gotten sick.   “I filtered every drop of water I drank,” was one guy’s comment.  

The only frustration I have right now is I have not been able to find a trail journal from a hiker who has RECENTLY made it even as far as Forester Pass.  Bill hikes the John Muir Trail every year in mid-late June and he figures all will be doable, but cautious me, I would like to have a better idea what conditions might be like.  Our plan right now is to take 9 days of food (which is the most we can comfortably carry) and go as far as we can,  hopefully Muir Trail Ranch, anyway.   We are prepared to do as some hikers did in 2005, which is to come into MTR “on fumes”, without having anything to eat for a day or so before they got there.   In 2005, somebody (I think it was MTR) put out a FOOD cache on the PCT about a day or so’s hike before MTR so desperate hikers could have something to eat.   It was a godsend to the early season thruhikers that year.