High Five: I Finished the John Muir Trail

This year was the 65 miles between Onion Valley and South Lake, behind the highest part of the high Sierra, the Palisades. The Palisades hold the southernmost glaciers in the US and form the divide between the desert and the Kings River drainage. This year's trip was most of the trail within Kings Canyon NP.

By saving the most grueling segment for last (eight days, the 'High Five' passes around 12k), the other segments were like training outings.  With cumulative 16,000' of elevation gained and 16,000' of elevation lost, I finished with 6 Lara Bars and 23 Skittles in my bear can. I'll be happy to not eat a Lara Bar ever again.

This year the deep snowpack in the Sierra delayed us til summer's end. As it happened, the hiking gods smiled upon us, and the week of our trip was The Sweet Spot on the calendar. The skies were clear, the mosquitos minimal, and with no smoke - but the week after, it rained every day, and the first snow fell within two weeks of our finish. We got to experience the few great days of summer 2019.

The other JMT segments are available to view here.

Day 1, on the backside of Kearsarge Pass

The junction with the JMT is on the far side of Bullfrog Lake

On Day 2 we switchback above a glacial lake on the climb to Glen Pass

Tohru and Mark on Glen Pass. Two down, three to go.

We camped by the Rae Lakes. Here a bear paced through camp at midnight, but it didn't disturb anything.

Day 3 scenery, heading down to the Woods Creek bridge

Northbound scenery. A distant cascade drains a hanging valley that isn't named on maps, and doesn't even have a trail going into it

The suspension bridge at Woods Creek is way down at 8500'.  Returning to the climb in midday heat made this the most demanding part of the trip.

After a gruelling climb, Camp 3 was on a hilltop at 10800'. Day 4 we'll cross Pinchot Pass.

On Pinchot Pass by late morning. Three passes behind us now...

Descending the wide basin north of Pinchot Pass

After posing for the photo above we stopped by that lake in the background. After eating lunch my head started spinning and everything turned weird.  In ten minutes I went from "I feel funny" to flat on my back.  I slurred my words, and briefly had trouble understanding the others. Tohru correctly guessed the trouble as electrolyte imbalance, and 20 minutes after sipping a quart of fortified water I was standing up saying, "Well THAT was weird. Ready to go?"

I've seen it in others but this time it found me, attributable to the previous afternoon's high exertion. Kinda scary but afterward I was right as rain, and finished the trip OK.

Onward. By day's end we'll be on deck for Mather Pass, tomorrow. These alpine basins are the most scenic and vast in all the Sierra.

Sunset at Camp 4.

The very scenic basin on the Mather Pass approach

On the approach to Mather Pass

#4!  On Mather Pass for lunch. It's true, in photos all these passes look alike.

Nina descending Mather Pass

Two days before we crossed Mather Pass we spoke with some southbound hikers who told us of finding a hiker's body very near the location in the photo above. A man had been crossing an icy snow patch, apparently slipped and slid headfirst into the rocks below. Not even a long fall, just headfirst. He was still warm, but dead from a broken neck. They stayed with him for three hours, waiting to see if companions of his came, but nobody did. They had a satellite communicator, contacted a park dispatcher, then per their direction unpacked his sleeping bag, placed him in it and went on their way. His body was recovered before we came by.

Camp 5 was just below 11000' and the sun settled perfectly into the notch beyond Lower Palisade Lake.

Day 6: We don't have a pass today, but we'll descend the 'Golden Staircase' on Palisade Creek to the Middle Fork of the Kings River

The Golden Staircase

The 1200' descent on the Golden Staircase is infamous. Apparently this was the final segment of the JMT to be constructed.  Many / most hike it uphill, while we will hike down so ours is a pounding descent down to the lowest elevation on the trip (8072') before the climb into Dusy Basin tomorrow, setting us up to cross Bishop Pass on the next day.

We stop for lunch and Nina loves the giant tree

Deer Meadow was a very scenic and pleasant section to hike

Camp 6 in LeConte Canyon was by a wet meadow and our skeeteriest camp. None of our camps ever look like the cover photos of Backpacker magazine.

Day 7: On 8/30/19, Nina and I close out the JMT at this trail junction. We've hiked the entire trail!  I can fall down dead on the hike up to Bishop Pass and it can still be said that I finished the JMT.

Camp 7. During skeeter hour, and there's no place to hang the light, you improvise. Had a light frost overnight here.

Day 8:  Our packs are light as we climb through Dusy Basin

All smiles on #5 - Bishop Pass. We're 3 hours from the trailhead and completion of the hike. Congrats to everyone on finishing the toughest segment of the JMT.

July 2019: Hiking to the waterfalls in Yosemite

I visited retired friends who live in the Sierra foothills, and we spent a day hiking up the Merced River, to Vernal and Nevada Falls. The day was hot but this was the hike to do.

On the cool Mist Trail at 317' Vernal Falls

The awesome backside of Half Dome. See the climbers?

From the John Muir Trail: Half Dome, Liberty Cap, and 480' Nevada Falls

With hikers at the top

John Muir Trail progress, mapped

OK then, the fastest ultrarunner has finished the 212 mile John Muir Trail in under four days. By the time we finish we'll have taken seven years (about 55 trail days). But in breaking it up, and with the connector trails, we'll have hiked over 360 miles and seen a lot more of the High Sierra. Honestly, thinking back of all the connector trails we've used, how few people we've seen on the passes, and how pretty the valleys were that lead us to and from the JMT, it's all just as great.

Obviously we're not hiking it contiguously end to end

Looking NW from Lone Pine. Our final segment lies between the 2015 and 2017 pins.

Next year's segment will be eight days, 68 miles, five high passes (four are around 12000'), without resupply. We'll parallel the high wall of peaks named the Palisades, in Kings Canyon NP.

John Muir Trail 2016: Finishing Yosemite

This year's JMT trip was shorter than others, at 40 miles, but we were able to fashion a five day loop trip with just a one-mile car shuttle. The segment that we needed to close was the 15-mile stretch between Half Dome and Cathedral Lakes. Weather was perfect, mosquitoes were rare, and we visited three of the High Sierra Camps along the way (Vogelsang, Merced Lake, and Sunrise).  80% complete now, next year will finish the trail with a 68-mile trip between South Lake and Onion Valley in 8 days, without a resupply.
Mark posted his best shots here.

After an overnight stay in tentcabins at Tuolumne Meadows, we're ready to start

Day 1: Crossing Tuolumne Creek, we won't see dayhikers again til day 5

Approaching Vogelsang Pass

Day 2: on the descent into the Merced River drainage

Day 3: hiking past Merced Lake

A fawn at Merced Lake

The trail on the floor of Merced Valley

Near our joining of the JMT, and looking at Half Dome's backside. We climbed Half Dome when we hiked that segment in 2010.

That stripe is the cable route. Can you see hikers?

See them yet?

Day 5: Cathedral Pass, Cathedral Lake and Cathedral Peak

John Muir Trail 2015: Piute Creek to LeConte Canyon, and Back over Bishop Pass

Day 5:  Reflection on Wanda Lake

This year's JMT trip was 7 days again, 58 miles, encompassing the northern part of Kings Canyon NP. This is our longest segment yet, returning over Piute Pass to restart our progress down the JMT.
This trip is also commonly referred to as the North Lake-South Lake 'loop', even though it's an end-to-end trip with beginning and ending trailheads not far from each other on Bishop Creek.

Day 2 In Humphreys Basin

After a thunderstorm on Day 1 prevented our crossing 11,423' Piute Pass, Day 2 is a 14-mile day to catch up, but skies were clear.

Day 2 on a creek crossing in Humphreys Basin

At the end of Day 2, we reach the San Joaquin River's south fork and camp by Piute Creek at 8000'.

Day 3 on the footbridge over the San Joaquin

On Day 3 we follow the trail up the San Joaquin, reaching the mouth of Evolution Creek and starting the big climb into Evolution Basin that will eventually lead us over Muir Pass.

Evolution Creek at end of Day 3

Day 4 in Upper Evolution Basin

Our fourth campsite at elevation 10,852 at Wanda Lake was very scenic, with our tents on pads set among glacial boulders. I even found some obsidian tool flakes here, evidence of early native American trading.

A very scenic campsite at Wanda Lake

Day 5: Looking down at Wanda Lake on Muir Pass ascent

On reaching 11,955' Muir Pass, we toast John Muir at the summit hut before dropping into upper LeConte Canyon.

Day 5 on Muir Pass

Rock monster demands to be fed!

On Day 6 we awake in the forest in LeConte Canyon, hike down to our trail junction at the backcountry ranger station, and leave the JMT for the Bishop Pass Trail. We haul the 2000' of switchbacks up into Dusy Basin for our final night on the trail.

Day 7: morning breaks over the Palisades

Day 7: Breakfast in Dusy Basin

Day 7: Scenic Upper Dusy Basin

Day 7: we cross 11,972' Bishop Pass

Dusy Basin was a photographic delight: a wide, high glacial basin floored with alpine flowers, beneath the spear-like Palisades and white fluffy clouds.

Upper Dusy Basin

We're now 75% complete with the JMT. Next year is the rest of Yosemite, then in 2017 the big 8-day segment behind the Palisades - 68 miles with no resupply.