We had a great 4 days of backcountry hiking with John as our guide. We hiked from the Ostrander Lake trailhead to Glacier Point via Ostrander Lake, Hart Lake and Buena Vista Lake. This was a replacement for a Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne tour that was inaccessible due to a road closure. We were mostly hiking on faint trails, with a little bit of off-trail hiking. The scenery was amazing and we saw very few other people once we were a few miles from the trailhead. It was quite challenging at times but within what we’d requested and what we turned out to be capable of. It was a wonderful family experience. There were a couple of things we wouldn’t have done without a guide, including wading thigh deep across a fast flowing mountain stream (which was not necessary for our itinerary). John was a great guide - good company, very knowledgeable and experienced, and a great chef. The food was a positive surprise including freshly-made Penang Curry…not the prepackaged camping food I’d expected. One thing to bear in mind when choosing a tour is that hiking with a full backpack is much slower and harder work than carrying a light day pack. A good rule of thumb is to multiply by 3. Hiking 6 miles with 1500 feet elevation with a full backpack felt about the same effort as hiking 18 miles and 5,000 feet of elevation with a day pack.