Alan K, What were some of the biggest challenges you ran into on your 9 day journey? Either geography, nutrition, trail unclear, etc... What nutrition did you and your son use? That is an awesome trip for a father/son to complete together. I hope I have the same appetite your son had! Do you have a trip report posted or written up? Like DUG, i'd love to read it.
I will comment more on food later. That is an interesting subject and I learned a lot on that trip.
The trail was pretty easy to follow and the terrain was about what we expected because we had been in a lit of the Sierra before (although fairly little of the JMT).
I wrote a trip report and posted it on Richard Piotrowski's old message board, which is unfortunately defunct. After DUG's post, I dug (sorry!) it up. Here is what I had on my disk. I also posted pictures
here. Eric and I did our best - certainly our longest - hike ever, the John Muir Trail. We started from Yosemite Valley on Wednesday, July 26 and arrived at the top of Mt. Whitney just after noon on Thursday, August 3. The aftermath, the hike down to Whitney Portal, was a small adventure unto itself (more on that below).
Our original plan was for a ten day hike. That was partially determined by the need to sandwich it in between my daughter's wedding and Eric's cross country camp (he wanted a week before that to get used to running again after walking with dad for day after day). We also like to cover a lot of ground in a day. However, although our longest previous day hike was 31 miles (admittedly with 12,000 feet of elevation gain/loss), our longest multi-day hike was less than 50 miles. To gauge the JMT, we figured that is it equals about 10 Whitney Main Trail hikes in length and elevation change. Since we can do that one in less than 8 hours, we figured that we could do it every day for 10 days, even with packs, by slowing to 10 - 11 hours.
By the time we got our dates straight, there were no permits available for the Yosemite Valley Trailhead. We were not keen on basing a 10 day hike on walk-in permits, but we got some good advice from Scott M and some help from family. We decided to start out with two day hikes, one from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows and one from Tuolumne Meadows to Mammoth. We then got entry permits for the JMT from Mammoth. We decided to aim for 9 days total because the day hikes would cover 60 miles. We figured that we could cover the remaining 162 miles down the Whitney Portal in 7 days with no need for re-supply. The day hikes, along with picking up the packs in Mammoth, were made possible by my wife and mother in law, who decided that acting as a support crew in return for several days in Yosemite and Mammoth was a great idea.
We both started out with just over 30 lb packs. We both carried bear canisters, one original Garcia and one new Bear Vault. We had enough food for an extra day. We never carried more than a liter of water until Whitney, where we each carried two up from Guitar Lake. We also took trekking poles, which we used only for the hardest creek crossings, the snow on Muir Pass, and the occasional sprained ankle (see below). We could probably have gotten the weight down another few pounds, but we did not take anything we regretted having. The packs were nice and light by the end of the trip.
I think that we had a good plan because (a) it worked and (b) we had a really great time. We both readily admit that it pushed us. We realize that we were helped by some great weather and generally good luck. Had things gone south (figuratively instead of literally), we had an extra day's worth of food. Anything causing much worse than a day's delay would have had us considering bailing out somewhere.
We experienced a thunderstorm the first night out of Mammoth (the 28th). After that, the weather was nearly-perfect. The warmest temperature was in the low 80s, the coldest in the mid 20s. Daytime temperatures were mostly in the 60s and 70s. Except for a few cumulus clouds to add some beauty, the skies were almost always clear. We saw lots of animals, but saw no sign of bears. The bugs were never a problem while moving. In the evenings and mornings in camp, the mosquitoes were pretty bad on the first two nights, almost absent on the next two, and moderate on the last two.
The passes were pretty clear. Several had snow traverses but only a few hundred feet at most. Muir Pass had the most snow, mostly on the downhill side (for those of us walking south). There were also a section going up Forrester Pass that required some care. Creek crossings were all manageable. We were warned by some other hikers to go downstream ¼ mile at Bear Creek. However, when we arrived at it a day or so later, it didn't look so bad and we forded it at the trail. At Evolution Creek, there was a sign from a ranger advising people to cross downstream a bit. Again' it looked ok when we were there and we forded at the trail. In both cases, water reached our shorts. Trekking poles helped. Creek crossings in general got old and we were always grateful for well-placed rocks and/or logs when they were available - not to mention bridges!
We had the usual array of minor problems - dumb falls, blisters, bugs, etc. As it turned out, I had one somewhat more serious problem. I noticed during the last evening that my ankle was sore. I associated this with twisting it a bit somewhere after Forrester Pass. (By coincidence, we had met a fellow earlier that day that bailed out of his JMT hike because he had sprained his ankle heading towards Forrester Pass. He opted to head out via the Bubbs Creek Trail.) On the last morning, I was a bit gimpy getting out of the blocks, but was soon barreling up Whitney. I used trekking poles all day for the first time on this trip. The trouble started on the way down. The ankle hurt with every step. I stopped and taped it up and was able to limp down to the Portal. The taped ankle was less of a problem than various sympathetic pains in my leg (presumably due to limping a bit), which were alleviated with rest stops. I kept telling Eric that the JMT ends on top of Whitney, so we had finished the JMT according to plan even if we had to spend another night out on the way down. As it turned out, we made it down in time for burgers (and, for one of us, beer).
Our original plan was to spend the night at the Portal, where my wife would meet us on Friday. However, I called her from the summit of Whitney and left a message that we had made it that far. Oh, and I did remember to wish her a happy anniversary - that's 32 straight that I've remembered. She obviously got the message because she got to the Portal from Glendale before we made it down. (Yes, I know, I owe my wife big time over this whole trip!)
Now I'm home, nursing a sprained ankle. I have time to write this instead of going running or something. And the doctor assures me that I'll live.
Here is an outline of where we were and when, with approximate mileages. I will post pictures later.
7/26/06 (25/25 miles)
6:28 AM Leave Yosemite Valley
2:57 PM Arrive Tuolumne Meadows
7/27/06 (35/60 miles)
5:23 AM Leave Tuolumne Meadows
5:23 PM Arrive at south JMT/PCT junction near Mammoth
7/28/06 (18/78 miles)
9:39 AM Leave JMT/PCT junction
4:38 PM Arrive Virginia Lake
7/29/06 (25/103 miles)
8:04 AM Leave Virginia Lake
6:50 PM Arrive Rosemary Meadow
7/30/06 (25/128 miles)
7:25 AM Leave Rosemary Meadow
6:52 PM Arrive Sapphire Lake
(Our goal was Wanda Lake, so we were short by less than a mile)
7/31/06 (22/150 miles)
7:30 AM Leave Sapphire Lake
5:45 PM Arrive about 1.7 miles below Mather Pass
(Tough day. We intended to get over the pass and were behind by about 5 miles.)
8/1/06 (25/175 miles)
7:30 AM Leave camp
6:00 PM Arrive Rae Lakes
(Back on track)
8/2/06 (24/199 miles)
7:19 AM Leave Rae Lakes
6:03 PM Arrive Wallace Creek
8/3/06 (23/222 miles)
7:28 PM Leave Wallace Creek
12:34 PM Arrive Whitney summit
1:30 PM Leave Whitney Summit
6:56 PM Arrive Whitney Portal
