"God never made an ugly landscape. All that sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild." |
| -John Muir |
John
Muir was a Scottish environmentalist, and one of the founding members (and
first president) of the Sierra Club (think hippies with beards
trying to protect the outdoors from modern day development). It's a shame John
Muir died shortly before the 211 mile trail was actually completed. Now,
hundreds of people make the trek every year, usually between June and
September. We are stepping foot onto this legendary path on August 4th. For 12
days we'll be drinking out of streams, dining on dehydrated food, and
sleeping under the stars...yes, we DO consider that a vacation! :)
The trail is 211 miles, stretching from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Mt. Whitney. But once you reach the Whitney summit, you still have to get down. By the end, most hikers will have walked 223 miles over the most scenic passes and through the most glorious Valleys of the Sierra Nevadas.
The
logistics of planning a hike this long are somewhat of a nightmare right at the
beginning. There is so much information all over the web, some true, some
false, some mere opinions. Here are some basic things to consider:
1. Decide When To Go.
The
hiking season generally runs from late June (for those not afraid of crossing
some snow packs), all the way through September (for those not afraid of early
snow surprises and colder night temps). The snow usually melts off by
July...but then come the mosquitoes (typically referred to as mozzies
in backpacker language), which can be a total joykill. Unfortunately bugs go
hand in hand with wildflower season, so if you want to see that, stock up on
deet, be willing to wear a bug net over your head, or plan on not stopping by
lakes or slow moving creeks (where they tend to be the worst). Usually by August
the swarms of mozzies have died off, the creeks are more passable, and the
temps are perfect.
2. Decide How Long To Go For.
In a
perfect world, we all have summers off (just like kids). Unfortunately, most of
us have those annoying job-things with those boss-things that wont accept
"I was just frolicking in the woods for 5 weeks" as an acceptable
excuse for missing work (if they did, I would be on the PCT right now, and not
blogging). Your work schedule very well could be dictating the When and How Long of your JMT adventure. Because we only have 2 weeks
off work, we are opting for a 12 day trail itinerary, with a few days
beforehand to get acclimated, and a few days after to recover (Yes, this means
an average of 20 miles a day. Yes, we are training NOW).
3. Get a permit.
Got a date? Now it's time for a permit. Permits are always granted
from the place where you start the hike. If going South Bound (SOBO), then
Yosemite (with the desirable trailhead being Happy Isle/Sunrise
Passthrough--Half Dome permit optional). If going North Bound (NOBO), then
Inyo National Forest. We are going SOBO (most people do). Count backwards from
your desired start date 24 weeks and thats the first day you can reserve it.
Permits are relatively cheap, ($5/person + $5 transaction fee from Yosemite). Here's a handy calculated calendar to help, Here's the application, And Here's the
instructions for applying. Can I just rant for a minute about the
nightmarishly archaic permit system at Yosemite? Calling doesn't work--my phone
stopped counting the number of outgoing calls at 200. I still didn't get
through. So, we opted for the fax option. Basically, in the morning when a
ranger gets there he "randomly" pulls an application out of
the piles of faxes that poured in overnight and you hope he picks yours...and
thats how the 6 open spots from Happy Isles are assigned. Kind of a crapshoot.
And no, you can't fax in a bunch of applications to have a better chance,
they'll probably get mad and toss them all and still charge you. We did it for
several nights in a row before we got ours. We found it best to use an online
fax system like FaxZero (and its
free!). There's always the walk up option if you have flexibility in
case you don't get one for a few days (this option makes other things
difficult, like resupply, planning shuttle rides, etc). Good Luck...
Now we can start the fun part of planning: tentative trail itinerary, food resupply, and most importantly: GEAR SELECTING!
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