Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion SaltyDog's John Muir Route

Long-time member here, SaltyDog, is on a great summer adventure. As I write this, he's closing in on the JMT on the Bear Creek trail, just south of Edison Lake.

On his "John Muir Route", his goal is to hike the Sierra in an alternate route to the JMT, to demonstrate to people that the JMT is not the only way to experience a journey through the Sierra Nevada range. People could follow his route, which would help alleviate the population pressure on the JMT.

He's carrying an InReach SE satellite unit that posts his location on his garmin shared page. His trip started July 21, so you can set a filter to see only that trip on the web page (set filter date range: upper left, just below the "GARMIN").

Here's a map of his track between July 21 and today.


So far, he's not set foot on the JMT, except for two crossings in the Devils Postpile area. He'll need to use a part of the JMT to get to the trail toward Lake Italy today or tomorrow.

Steve
so this is not a Ropers High Sierra Route or a variant, but his own home-cooked?

He's trying to stay on trails, (or old/no-longer-maintained trails when no obvious trail is available). It is not a "high route" at all, but an Alternate John Muir Route.

I think the idea is to encourage people to try something different rather than repeating the JMT multiple times.

This morning, he finally traveled the JMT for a couple of miles, along Bear Creek. Now he's headed up toward Lake Italy and Italy Pass into the Pine Creek drainage.

Steve has it. My project is to find ways to the Whitney region from Yosemite (John Muir Routes)other than the main thoroughfare that combine established trails and easier class 2 (such as open terrain route-finding), and which provide the richness of the High Sierra experience found on the JMT. This year I hiked Part 1, one possible combination covering about 150 miles and reconnecting with the JMT at the Piute Creek Bridge, just beyond the Half-way mark on that trail*.

As Steve notes, of that 150 miles*, exactly two were along the JMT. I had literally not set foot on it until the Bear Creek jct, having stepped across it twice, going into and out of Red's Meadow.

The term John Muir Route is inspired by a junction sign just south of Tuolumne (one of the classic Yosemite steel signs) the only one on the JMT or anywhere else that I know of that uses the term "Route" instead of Trail.

Special Thanks to Steve and Blue Grouse for watching over my progress and safety by GPS and sat communicator, reminding me when my tracker was turned off, pointing out discrepancies between my position and the "trail" at critical junctures.

More on this later, including some very interesting info and experience with those wonderful old - and new - Yosemite trail signs.

Oh, yeah, and I will get to the part where this has something more to do with Mt Whitney!


* For logistical reasons, I actually ended my hike at Pine Creek, but compared to certain previous sections - Hemlock Crossing to Corral Meadow, Minnow Creek and Italy Lake/Pass - the section from Pine Creek to Piute Bridge is a navigational gimme, so I consider Part 1 complete. Finishing my first John Muir Route will begin with returning to that point (near Honeymoon Lake on the Pine Creek Trail, over Pine Creek Pass to Piute and south from there, probably exploring a Goddard Canyon section.