JMT flip flop - Kearsarge Pass to Happy Isles/ Kearsarge Pass to Whitney Portal
My girlfriend and I hiked the JMT in August of 2018. We did a flip-flop out of Kearsarge Pass because permits were relatively easy to obtain. It took us 14 hiking days plus 2 zero days (16 days total). We are making Youtube videos. They are walk by/follow videos without much narration. We tried to label as much as possible so you will know what you're looking at. Campsite gps coordinates are at the end of each video and in the description. Videos will be here (We will upload them as we finish them):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtT...gOgkk2heBUXvTw
TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS:
We flew Southwest Airlines to Reno, NV and drove a Hertz rental car into Mammoth Lakes and used Mammoth Lakes as a "home base". Mammoth was convenient because it had a permitting office in town and had good public transportation. We had obtained permits for Kearsarge to Happy Isles before our hike, but we still needed a permits for Kearsarge to Whitney Portal. We planned to get our other permits when we finished our first leg.From Mammoth we took an early morning ESTA bus to Independence, then a shuttle to the Kearsarge Pass trailhead. The guy at the gas station/deli where the bus drops off can put you in contact with shuttle drivers.
We stayed at Flower Lakes the first night to try to adjust to the elevation (~10,500 ft). We did Kearsarge Pass the next day to get to the JMT, then headed north to Happy Isles in Yosemite. After reaching Happy Isles, we took a YARTS bus back to Mammoth Lakes and spent a day sorting our maildrop and getting permits to go south from Kearsarge Pass to Mount Whitney. We got lucky with permits and got an exit permit out of Whitney Portal.
We took the same ESTA bus out of Mammoth as before to get to Independence, then shared a shuttle with another couple to get to the Kearsarge Pass Trailhead. We did Kearsarge Pass again to get to the JMT, then headed south to Mt. Whitney. After summiting Whitney, we hiked down Whitney Portal and hitched a ride to Lone Pine. Our total miles for the day including up and down Whitney was almost 25 miles (a pretty tough day). We stayed the night in Lone Pine, then took a morning ESTA bus to Lancaster, then caught the Antelope Valley Metrolink train to Los Angeles. We were dropped off at Union Station. We flew Southwest Airlines back to Raleigh, NC a few days later.
There are some benefits to flip-flopping out of Kearsarge. It breaks up the long food carry rather than starting from Horseshoe Meadows. Kearsarge permits are pretty easy to get; they have 24 walk-up permits a day. There is public transportation (on the weekdays!) to get you close to the trailhead.
There are some drawbacks to flip-flopping out of Kearsarge. You have to do a pretty big pass to get to the JMT (you actually have to do it twice). You have to apply for a permit for each leg of the flip-flop (this did not seem hard at all leaving from Kearsarge). You have added transportation time to get from Happy Isles back to Kearsarge (true with any flip-flop). These drawbacks seemed minor to both of us and we were happy with our decision to flip.
MAIL DROPS:
We only did 2 maildrops. We sent 6 days of food to VVR. We also sent 1 maildrop with 2 sections of food in it to Mammoth (6.5 days to make it from Kearsarge to VVR, then 4 days of food to make it from Kearsarge to Mt. Whitney). When we arrived in Mammoth we removed the first sections worth of food from our maildrop and packed it up. We stayed at a M Mammoth Motel so they agreed to hold our last section of food until we came back to town. M Mammoth Motel was a really good home base for us...nice people and centrally located.
GEAR:
My baseweight was 12.5 lbs, My girlfriend's baseweight was 11.9 lbs. We both carried a BV450. We both used ULA Ohms that were stripped down, frames were removed, back padding removed...final weights on the packs were about 1.8 lbs. geargrams links are below:
Hipbone: https://www.geargrams.com/list?id=46460
MtnGoat: https://www.geargrams.com/list?id=49846
FOOD AND MAILDROPS:
We were pretty worried about fire bans; we heard more than once that stoves could be banned when we got out there. We decided to go no-cook so we didn't have to worry about stoves being banned. We ate dried fruit, jerky, high quality mixed nuts, meal bars, and assorted other snack food. We kept up with costs of food and the amount of food per day we consumed and kept it in a spreadsheet. Food is always hard for most people so this spreadsheet may be helpful. A link to our food planner is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing
CONDITIONS: SMOKE, WEATHER, WATER, MOSQUITOES
Smoke was never an issue for us and we felt lucky. We passed other hikers that were coming from Reds Meadow and some of them were wearing facemasks, but in general I felt like the smoke was only a small inconvenience to most hikers. By the time we descended into Yosemite valley the smoke had cleared and we had blue skies. We only dealt with smoke for about 6 hours (early morning haze outside of Red's Meadow). Yosemite and Tuolumne Meadows were closed when we started our hike, but opened back up about a week into our hike. We got to hike every inch of the JMT and we got to do Kearsarge Pass twice. The trail seemed empty (perhaps because of the threat of smoke this year).
Weather was really good for us. We had beautiful blue skies for about 2/3 of the trip. Lows were 35-45 F and highs were 75-85 F. Some locals mentioned that the humidity was unusually high, but I'm from the south so it was more than comfortable to me. We did deal with a "monsoon pattern" for 4-6 days. Every day around noon thunderstorms would begin to build. By 4:30 pm the sky would be blue again and everything was dry. We delayed going over Seldon Pass until the next morning because of thunder. This was the only time that weather influenced our hike.
Water was plentiful. We only had 1 dry stretch in a burn area just south of Red's Meadow. Streams were full and flowing, but were low enough to rock hop over them. We only had to take our shoes off at two crossings.
Mosquitoes were not an issue, even when we were camped around water. I was worried about them because I am a mosquito magnet. I carried a mosquito net and never wore it. I never carry bug spray. I was bitten less than 5 times the whole trip.
If you have any specific questions just ask...