Just realized this trip report vanished from its original url. So posting it now -- from 8 years ago.
JMT Trip report 2008
From June 22 through June 28, 2008, Carolyn O and I hiked from Florence
Lake, south along the John Muir Trail to Charlotte Lake, and then out to
Roads End in Kings Canyon National Park. For us it was a long and
arduous hike, but the scenery, wildflowers and memories made it all
worthwhile.
My goal of hiking the entire John Muir Trail is nearly
complete. I have day hiked the section between Yosemite Valley and
Tuolumne Meadows, and on other trips, Tuolumne Meadows to Reds Meadow,
and Onion Valley to Mt. Whitney. All that is left now is the
section between Reds Meadow (Devils Post Pile) and Muir Trail Ranch
(Florence Lake).
We planned this year's hike to take a full 7 days, with 6 nights
camping. There are a few exit and re-entry passes along the way,
but they are all on the eastern side of the Sierra. Since we live
in Fresno, the entrance at Florence and exit at Roads End in Kings
Canyon National Park made the most sense.
Note that clicking on any of the pictures will give you an
enlarged view of the picture. To see all the pictures, click here. If you view the entire photo album,
there are lots of captions, so changing the style (upper right corner of
the Smugmug screen) to "Journal" might be best.
Our hike began at Florence Lake. We left Fresno early, timed to
pick up wilderness permits at the Sierra National Forest High Sierra
Visitor Center on Kaiser Pass Road right at 8 AM. We had been told
the Florence Lake ferry was operating every two hours beginning at 8:30
so we were in a hurry. However, when we got to Florence, the ferry
actually was running "on demand", and we were the first customers.
The drive in was an experience in itself. Sunday morning,
apparently lots of fishermen were pulling out and heading home. We
met a number of big pickups, some pulling boats, and even one guy
pulling a house- trailer. This is on a one-lane road, barely 8
feet wide in places. I wonder if he ever thought what might happen
if he met another person pulling the same thing.
At
Florence Lake, we paid our $11 ferry fee, and were shortly transported
from the end of the road to the far end of the lake, about three
miles. As we walked up the slope from the lake, we were committed
to a week of walking long days through some of the finest scenery, and
some of the most remote backcountry in the Sierra.
Mileage chart
Day miles elev. changes
1 13 +1900 Florence Lake to water crossing at Evolution meadow
2 10.3 +1800 camp between Sapphire and Wanda Lakes
3 11.8 +1000 -4000 to junction of Palisade creek and Middle
Fork Kings River
4 11 +4100 -600 ended at first water after crossing
Mather Pass
5 6 +2500 -2500 Side trip to Split Mountain
5 8 -1500 +1100 From S. of Mather Pass to Lake Marjorie. Also
6 16 -3600 +4000 Cross Pinchot Pass, past Rae Lakes
7 13 +500 -7000 end at Roads End (Cedar Grove)
Using the SPOT Satellite messenger
Two days before leaving on the hike, I decided it would be a good idea
to get the latest high tech toy, a SPOT Satellite Messenger. (Here's
an on-line description/review.) We had fun using it, and it kept my
wife and friends updated with our location. It picks up our GPS
location, and when I press a check-in button, sends a signal to a
satellite with our location. It can also issue a "send help" or a
9-1-1 emergency call, but we didn't need to use those.
I tried to send a check-in message several times a day, and most of
the transmissions made it out. Those that failed were sent while
we were moving -- I kept the unit attached on top of my pack all the
time, especially when there was some tree cover. It does not send
a check-in signal if it cannot get the GPS location. (Sure wish it
had some way to indicate that.) It is a cool toy, and I will take it
every time I go on a trip now.
I sure hope they improve it so some sort of text message, or maybe at
least a code could also be sent. And I have seen where people have
packed their unit inside their pack, and something accidentally sent a
call for help message. It needs a protective cover over the
buttons.
I have saved the .kml file of my trip produced by the SPOT web site,
and anyone can download it (here), in case you
want to see how it works with Google Earth.
Water Since becoming familiar with a well-known paper
published by Robert Rockwell, PhD, titled "Giardia
lamblia and Giardiasis With Particular Attention to the Sierra
Nevada" and the findings of Robert W. Derlet, MD, of U.C. Davis, I
no longer filter or treat the water in the Sierra backcountry.
Carolyn and I both drank lots of water at almost every stream, trying to
keep the amount of water we needed to carry to a minimum. I
carried a Camelback bladder, but only used it one day. And that
could have easily been replaced with a plastic Gatorade bottle I
carried. Next time, I'll leave the bladder home -- it will save
another 5 ounces. Carolyn carried a 20 oz bottle of water, often
half full, to get her through the dry places. Only once in a while
did I borrow a sip from her.
In many of the pictures, you can see my 2-cup aluminum cup hanging
from my belt. It was SO convenient to just dip and sip with it.
Flowers along the trail
An outstanding highlight of our trip was all the flowers we
encountered. Shooting Stars were by far the most abundant.
So many places, there were meadows with them growing by the
hundreds. And almost every time we hiked along hot dry trail, we
would see a few Mariposa Lilies. There were many more that I could
not identify, and I wish I could have found the time to photograph all
of them.
PCT Hikers The first several days of our hike, we
met maybe 20 PCT thru-hikers every day. These are people hiking
the Pacific Crest Trail from the California-Mexico border north to the
Canadian border. There were many solo hikers, and many pairs too,
as well as a family of three. They had hiked 800 miles to this
point, and had 1800 yet to go by October.
Of those we talked to, many had taken on "trail names", like Jelly
Bean, Moonshine, Razor and Grandpa Kilt. This year, a few men were
hiking in kilts. What an amazing and hardy bunch!
Most PCT hikers seemed to be doing quite well. For example, on
our second evening, we were making camp high near Muir Pass. Along
came a 68 year old fellow. He said he had crossed two passes, and
wanted to "find forest duff before he quit". He was hiking in wet,
worn out trail runners and had a big grin. He looked like he was
ready for anything.
The most remarkable PCT hikers we met were Moonshine and
Rosemary. I had unfortunately left my prescription glasses by
a stream when rinsing my socks, and then forgot them until we had hiked
another mile or so. The next hikers we came upon were this
couple. They agreed to pick up the glasses and drop them off at
the next ranger station just over the next pass. In talking to
them, we found that they had just married prior to starting the PCT
hike. So this was their honeymoon hike. What an amazing
honeymoon!
I am happy to say that on July 9, I received a box in the mail
containing the glasses -- just 12 days after I lost them.
Volunteer Ranger Pete Clum, who I spoke to at the Bench Lake ranger
station, mailed them to me!
We came upon a less fortunate PCT hiker on our fourth day.
"Razor" was incapacitated by food poisoning, lying on his sleeping pad
in his camp by the trail. He apparently was too weak to get water,
only 100 feet away. He told us he thought he had allowed his
salami to get too warm in the bear canister. We gave him water --
he downed a 20 oz bottle as soon as I brought it to him -- filling all
his containers, along with some extra food and some electrolyte
tablets. The ranger station was seven miles behind us, so hiking
back was not the best option. Instead, we notified the next
north-bound hiker, Ipod, who said he knew Razor well. He said he
would check up on him and also carry the news to the ranger. We
are hoping Razor recovered and got back on his way.
Another hiker we met said he had just returned to the trail. He
was 63, and had been hiking with a partner who had gotten food
poisoning. After several days of diarrhea and vomiting, they hiked
out over Taboose Pass and checked into the hospital in Bishop.
After several days there, the partner's blood pressure was still too low
to return to hiking (107 over 50). So he had abandoned the trip
and went home. That left the fellow we met to continue on
alone. We sure wish him the best.
Near the end of our hike, we met a few PCT stragglers -- farther
south and a good ten days behind the first hikers we met. A couple
hiking too far apart. several lone hikers with huge packs -- most
of the earlier hikers had minimal gear, enabling them to hike light and
fast. I am left wondering how those are at the end are doing.
My side trip to Split Mountain, elev. 14,058'
Near the end of the fourth day, we crossed Mather Pass, and camped a
ways off the trail to the east. The next morning, I got up early,
and hiked east on easy class 2 (pretty much an off-trail walk across
open landscape) terrain to the saddle on the north side of Split
Mountain. I then turned southward and climbed the steeper slope to
the summit. It took me three hours to get to the top. I then
spent an hour fiddling around on the top: Calling my wife and a few
friends, taking pictures, searching for and then signing the register.
There is a four-foot pyramid-like rock tower on the summit. The
register is actually hidden inside the base. I finally spied it,
and after pulling out several rocks, I could pull out the metal box so I
could sign my name in the notebook inside.
Unfortunately the view from the summit was not the best. During
the week, over a hundred fires had been burning throughout
California. We had seen and even smelled the smoke during the
prior days. But from the top of the mountain, I could not see the
Owens Valley, only 6 to 8 miles below. But I took a few pictures
anyway, and then hurried back down.
Getting back to camp only took two hours. A highlight was the
fish in the outlet of the lake I went by. The outlet must be 50
feet wide, but is shallow, with nice boulders to hop all across the
area. In all those narrow channels, there were large trout, many
about 10" long! If only I had the time to fish!
Meeting Rangers We spotted the ranger's hut as we
passed through the forest near McClure Meadow, so I wanted to have a
look. It turns out that ranger Bob Gordon was there, apparently
just opening up things for the summer. We enjoyed talking, and he
named several rangers ahead, Dave Keenan, Pete Clum, and George
Durkee. We ran into Dave the next day, heading up to Muir
Pass. Pete Clum was at the Bench Lake trail junction, and George
Durkee and his wife were stationed at Charlotte Lake. I enjoyed
talking with each of them at their respective sites.
Pack Weight This year, I bought a 1.5 Lb GoLite Jam2
pack and a 2 Lb 15 degree down sleeping bag for the trip. I am
finding the older I get, the lighter weight I need to carry. With
all my gear and almost 14 Lbs of food, my pack started out at 32
Lbs. So theoretically, it should have been only 18 Lbs the last
day. But not so. I had more than a pound of food left
over. Next time, I need to pack less food -- maybe 1.75 Lb per
day.
But the other weight issue was Carolyn's pack. Hers was 38 Lbs,
and she was carrying a full 33% of her total body weight on her
back. I think my pack was under 20% of my weight. Carolyn
did ok on flat ground, but as soon as we started climbing, her pack
weight became a big problem. So I picked up her tent and mattress
pad and carried them for most of the trip. I don't think we could
have completed the trip otherwise.
Next time, Carolyn should carry no more than 1.5 Lbs per day, and cut
back on some of the extra things she did not need. I think, since
it affects my hiking, too, I'll be checking her gear, too.
Muir Trail Ranch Hiking in the first day from Florence
Lake to the junction with the John Muir trail (4.7 miles), we passed by
the Muir Trail Ranch. The ranch is on privately owned land along
the South Fork San Joaquin river, and is situated on the north
shore. Across the river is a hot spring, but in early summer, the
river is too swift and deep to cross to the hot spring. The ranch
has its own four-wheel-drive road that parallels and crosses the trail a
number of times. The ranch reportedly caters to hikers, but only
if they do not have a full complement of paying guests. Resupply
packages can be sent there, but only in 5-gallon buckets. Due to
these restrictions, most PCT hikers we met skipped the ranch in favor of
Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR) at Edison Lake.
A second note about Muir Trail Ranch concerns the map of the
trail. While the trail and the 4WD road cross often, somewhere
east of the wet meadows the trail leaves the meadow and climbs
upward. This trail is NOT shown on the map. In fact, the map
apparently only shows the road, as it heads directly into MTR. We
found our trail climbing and climbing, finally reaching the upper
junction where the trail heads north to Selden Pass, or back down
southeastward to the "Y" where northbound hikers can head upward to
Selden pass or stay low and go to Muir Trail Ranch. I would
suggest anyone else going in from Florence Lake should follow the road
(although crossings of Sallie Keys Creek an the second one might be
wet.) At least they would not have to climb over 400 ft elevation only
to descend again.
Hiking Out -- Bushwhacking down Charlotte Creek
I have a friend who says he backpacked up Bubbs Creek and then left the
trail to climb up near Charlotte dome. He said the area was not
too bad, so I thought we might try heading out in that valley. We
talked to Ranger George Durkee and his wife at the Charlotte Lake ranger
outpost, and he thought it might take us about three hours to make it
down to the Bubbs Creek trail. So we set off, following Charlotte
Creek downstream from Charlotte Lake. It actually took us four
hours, counting the half hour for lunch.
At first, there is a use trail heading down. I see on old maps
that there is an abandoned trail that heads down the canyon a short
distance, and then turns northwest and goes up to Gardner Lake. We
found the trail, and followed it until it crossed Charlotte Creek to
head northwest. Heading down the canyon was pretty easy at first.
We worked our way through the forest without much difficulty at
first. We crossed the creek a few times whenever going looked
easier on the other side. There was quite a bit of meadow, but we
had to stay clear, since at this time of year, it was really wet and
swampy. We came upon lots of areas thick with wildflowers.
But then in the lower part, near Charlotte Dome, the creek plunges
steeply down to Bubbs Creek. We found ourselves working through
huge boulders, pushing through six-foot high brush, then up onto
extremely steep slopes strewn with huge downed logs and boulders (south side of Charlotte creek.)
It was a mess and going was slow. We decided our route was a
mistake not to be repeated. We should have stayed on the Charlotte Dome side of the valley as we descended that lower half. It was finally a relief to get to open
granite benches where we could find a descent route the final quarter
mile to the trail.
The Worst Part -- Sore Feet
Here we are at the end of the hike, tired, happy and with blisters and
some toenails destined to go. Except for our feet, we were in
great shape!
