ABOUT
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We are John & Mary, 2 climber monkeys who spent most of our free time in Yosemite, but funded the habit by working in the Silicon Valley rat race.
After a decade of high-stress, challenging, but rewarding jobs, we decided it was time for a change.
Although I’ve long wanted to extend our bike tour adventures to be a full US to Patagonia trip, we decided that 5-years-old wasn’t the best age for our daughter Lilly to try pedaling that far.
So, John found us a van, tore it to pieces and rebuilt it, and we headed off under diesel power!
Mary, climbing The Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite:
Mary was born and raised in London, England. She moved to the US at age 18 to attend Dartmouth College, where she fell in love with the outdoors – primarily kayaking and climbing. After graduation she drove to California and climbed in Yosemite for a month, eventually managing to get a “job” there on the Yosemite Search and Rescue team. She met John, and together we moved to the Bay area where Mary worked at Google for 10 years.
John, climbing Mescalito on El Capitan in Yosemite:
John was born and raised in central Washington state. After a decade fighting wildland forest fires, he moved to Yosemite to work as an arborist and to climb. He met Mary, and together we moved to the Bay Area, where John did his graduate studies at Stanford and started a transportation business.
Lilly, 5, hiking in the high country north of Tuolumne in Yosemite: 
Lilly has been carried, dragged, and persuaded to walk through the Sierra mountains ever since she was 5 weeks old. She gets stronger every year and we hope to one day climb El Capitan with her!
More…
Want to read more stories about our adventures that weren’t included in the book? For example, did you know we camped next to a crocodile and accidentally got on TV in Belize?!
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Want to read my upcoming prequel to Monkeys on the Road, or the children’s book about our van trip written from Lilly’s perspective? Enter your email here and I’ll send you a message once it’s ready: