I am planning a trip on the JMT in August. I found a fantastic guidebook that is really thorough and I plan to follow the book's itinerary and complete the trail in roughly 20 days. My partner and I tend to be fast hikers but we are going in a group so I guess we have to assume we will be more "average" speed.
The guidebook suggests resupplying only at Vermilion resort. I find this idea attractive because it is cheaper and less of a logistical nightmare (we are Canadian and will be driving down to the trail - so it's harder to ship our food prior to starting). However, if we resupply only at Vermilion that means we will be carrying 10-11 days of food for the second half of the trip. From what I can tell, bear canisters only carry 6-7 days of food for one person. This means even if we EACH carry our own canister we will be 4 days short of food.
I cannot find any information about this inconsistency. Everything I read just says that people carry all of their food for the second half of the leg. But I don't understand how that's physically possible - are they carrying TWO bear canisters per hiker? And, if so, how do they possibly have room for all of their other gear?
I feel like I'm missing something here.
