Back from the JMT!

[Collin]

Just finished up a 14 day hike from Happy Isles to Whitney 3 days ago. Tons of fun. This really is some of the most incredible land I've seen in the country. Even though rangers said it was the most popular weekend to start (2nd week July) we didn't really bump into an unreasonable amount of folks. Probably equal amount PCTers and equal amount men and women hiking.

I brought a digital thermometer and the temps seemed to be between 30-50 at night (mostly between 9000 and 10500') and mid 80s to low 90s during the day. Best camp was hands down Big Horn Plateau- the drainage out of the pond there was dry and had no flowers so you can walk it to the water and find barren/sandy camp sites.

Water was pretty much everywhere after Tuolumne Meadows. Mosquitoes were borderline unbearable every night/day but 4 days- most everyone was hiking with bug nets and clothes they couldn't bite through. Hopefully should be going down with the snow melt. Only had to cross about 20 feet of snow on Donahue, Glen, and Whitney. Construction is a problem at Whitney portal- a hitch took us an hour to do 11 miles and I've been told there can be waits of up to 3 hours for equipment coming through. The hostel in Lone Pine is great and only $34 a night if you don't mind bunk bed sleeping with a couple other folks and then you can take the ESTA bus in the morning.

Honestly, our pace was fast but I tend to just like moving along. If given the opportunity again I would love to have a zero day at Rae Lakes or Virginia Lake. This is mostly because I would want to fish the tons of trout.

Also, Suntan lotion and down jacket were pretty much mandatory. I applied 2 times a day to my face and used a bandana and I still got pretty badly sunburned.

[Uncle Joe]

Thanks for the report! On my want-to-do list.

[Berserker]

Man, I'm feeling kind of jealous...been 3 years now since I was last out there.

[saltysack]

Another reason I'm glad I went in September!! No bugs, no sunblock, no sweat and fewer people.....truly sneezing place!!! Can't wait to do it again nobo with my son...


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[magic_game03]

So now you have just scratched the surface.

A.) Did you do Ritter? John Muir claims it's the best place to see the entire high Sierra's. I have a panoramic from Ritter. you can see Half Dome, El Cap., the Minarets, Palisades, Mono Lake, and all the way to Whitney. Awesome Site.

B) Stop in and see Mono Lake tufas.

C) Check out top of Devils post pile.

D) Iva Bell hot springs. (Best in the west.)

E) Murro Blanco. (only for PSYCHO bushwhackers!!!)

F) Get off at Woods Creek. Head down to Road's End. Hitch down to General Grants Grove.

E) Stop into Big Pine and visit the Bristlecone Pine forest. 5,000 year old trees.

F) Hitch down from VVR and visit Mono Hot Springs. (+ salad bar buffet in village)

G) Walk around Alabama Hills.

H) Go check out Death Valley.

… these are just a few of the natural wonders that surround the JMT. The JMT is an awesome trail but soooo much is just off the trail.

[HooKooDooKu]

I too just finished up a JMT hike from Happy Isle to Whitney. I started July 11th and planed on 21 days, but managed to finish 4 days early. I would have been home Thursday, but I couldn't catch a flight out of Reno and had to spend a night there before flying home Friday.

Mosquitoes and biting flies were probably the biggest negatives of the trip. At least for the most part, they left you alone so long as you were moving. Also, several nights there was a pretty stiff wind that would blow between about 3:00 and 7:00... that would really help with the bugs while setting up camp. I had a set of Bugs-Away ExOfficio cloths (long sleeve shirt and pants). They worked great in camp such that I never used any DEET the entire trip.

Otherwise, the three worst days included:
1. Day 2 - The climb to Cathedral Lakes... I think this issue was a combination of some steep terrain and not acclimated to the altitude.
2. Golden Stair Case - I finished by about 2 o'clock that day and wanted to go ahead and get over Mather Pass, but I was just so worn out I quit the day early and did Mather AND Pinchot passes the next day.
3. Glen Pass - By the time I got to the top, I felt like they should have just busted out some ladders to make the trail. Forester Pass, while higher and longer, was much more enjoyable the next day.

My best campsite was the last night camped near Guitar Lake. Just above Guitar is a pair of small unnamed lakes. Lots of people were camped around Guitar Lake and the unnamed lake close to the trail. But if you crossed the mouth of this unnamed lake, there was this 30'-40' high rock area (sort of between the two unnamed lakes). There are about 4 really good camp spots over there. You have a great view down on Guitar Lake and all the people around the unnamed lake, and you can walk around the back side of the rocks if you need some privacy. Yet no one else ventured up on this set of rocks (and none of the guide books specifically list this spot as a campsite). If you want to see exactly where I'm talking about in Google Earth, the location was 36.568756°,-118.308606°.

My second best campsite was the one on the south side of Ruby Lake... located between 1,000 Island Lake and Garnet Lake. Nothing I could find listed this as a particularly good campsite... instead they guide books seem to point people to 1,000 Island and Garnet. But both of those lakes were crowded. I had Ruby Lake all to myself, and had several people walk by the next morning while I ate breakfast that would pause and say "hey, this is a great campsite".

Water levels were low, so there were only two "major" creek crossings where you needed to take your boots off and use some water shoes... and even those spots were only knee deep. Every other water crossing and "ford" was a rock hop.

Weather was great. Didn't have a bit of rain until the hike down from Trail Crest to Whitney Portal (those a few hours behind me reported running into some hail).

[Turk6177]

Sounds like an awesome trip. I think I stayed in the same spot above guitar lake when I did the JMT a couple years ago.


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[saltysack]

Great trip....didn't see any bugs in September...will be doing again with my son in few years....what an amazing place! How did your Bearikade workout?


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[HooKooDooKu]

Bearikade worked out great... once I figured out the only way I was going to get it in my new Osprey Volt with my sleeping bag was to stuff my cloths and sleeping bag in the bottom of my pack and compress them down with the Bearikade on top (sleeping pad, stove, and misc stuff sacks then stuffed around the Bearikade).

I had little problem packing 9 days of food (3,000 calories/day) once I figured out how to do it... I held onto two days of food, then stuffed everything else in the bear canister any way it would fit with with no attempts at organization. It helped that much of my food was a bunch of 200 calorie packets I made myself (got a simple sealer and things like a large bag of M&M's, divided the M&M's into 200 calorie portions, and used the sealer to place each portion in a custom sealed pouch). Then placed the two days of food on top. Once I had the two days of food on the top eaten, I could then start moving stuff around in the canister to access the food for the rest of the trip.

I loved how simple is was to open/close the Bearikade. I just needed a coin... and since all my food was in custom sealed pouches, I pretty much needed a pair of scissors to access the food. So I simply kept the scissors and coin in a ziplock bag that I simply kept in a pouch that was on the underside of my backpack's "brain". Basically, anytime I had the pack openned to access the canister, I also had easy access to this pouch with the coin and scissors.

By comparison, the 1st morning on the trail, a lady in the camp spot next to mine came over asking for help to get her Bear Vault open. For those that don't know, the Bear Vault works sort of like the old child-proof caps on medicine bottles. You have to deform the lid to get a pair of tabs on the lid past a tab on the canister. The morning was a bit chilly, and the plastic was cold and hard to deform. She had something like a carabiner to help deform the lid, but it still took me working the carabiner to deform the lid while she held and turned the canister to get it open.

[Collin]

I found that the best way to open the bearvault was to put the tip of your orange shovel right before each nub you need to press and just turn. Opens easy and your orange shovel isn't supposed to touch anything that comes out of you so you aren't mixing the stuff that goes in with the stuff that comes out.

[MuddyWaters]

Use driver license/ credit card.

[Gabigabs]

Glad to hear you enjoyed the trip. I experienced the JMT couple years ago and it inspired me to write a book about it.