I started hiking the John Muir Trail on July 4th, 2024, with my parents. The trail runs from Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley to the top of Mt. Whitney, 206 miles through the High Sierras in California. The trail mostly follows the same path as the Pacific Crest Trail through the mountains, which I hiked in 2018. I’m looking forward to seeing it again with my parents.
I want to keep a record of my travels as I go and publish them here, but I also know that I’ll have limited time and signal on trail, and editing things in my usual fashion would take more than effort than I have to put into it. So instead, I’m just going to put up my first drafts, unedited (unless my wife Maria ends up doing a pass first). So I hope the occasionally changing tense and varied levels of detail don’t bother you too much. Enjoy.
Each day starts with the date, followed by my choice of shelter (CC-Cowboy Camping, TC-Tent Camping) and the trail mile it started at, if applicable.
7/2/24
It’s been exactly two weeks since I arrived in Oregon for my grandmother’s memorial, and I’ve had a wonderful time visiting family and friends, and enjoying being back in Oregon. Finally though, it was time to leave, so Maria and I flew today from Portland to Fresno. From there, she’s heading to visit family in LA, and I’m off to Merced and Yosemite.
Going into the day, I knew my schedule was going to be tight. I only had 50 minutes from the plane landing to the time my train left the station a fifteen minute Uber from the airport. And I had to pick up my checked backpack. I didn’t expect it to be quite as exciting as it’s turned out to be.
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time, and I was pleased to find that the flight was scheduled to arrive about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Then delays starting boarding pushed things back 30 minutes. By the time we landed in Frezno we were only about about 5 minutes behind the originally scheduled arrival time, and I had hope. Then there were more delays getting into the gate. But it seemed luck was with me if barely, because our checked bags arrived quickly, and by the time we got an Uber, the train was also running late, and we were scheduled to get to the station 5 minutes before the train. And we did!
Then Maria noticed her phone was missing. We both checked, and it wasn’t in any of our stuff, but she definitely had it in the Uber. So either it was left in the car, or else fell when she got out. The train comes and goes as I try to get ahold of the Uber driver, and I can’t leave because Maria has not other means to communicate with the outside world, and if someone finds her phone, they’ll call me. Maria is a bit of a mess and very apologetic, cause she irrationally feels like she’s ruined the whole trip.
The driver doesn’t answer, but fortunately about 10 minutes after the train left, I get a call from inside the station saying that they have her phone. Hooray! We are both very happy, and I call up an Uber to get me to the Merced Station where I’m meeting my parents and catching the bus into Yosemite. I’d been half expecting to Uber from the start, given how little time I had to catch the train.
Unfortunately, the first Uber abandons me, and the second is 15 minutes away. The YARTS bus to Yosemite leaves from Merced at 16:00, I’m an hour away, and the Uber isn’t supposed to arrive until 14:55. It was definitely cutting it closer than I was comfortable with, but in the end I arrived almost 10 minutes early.
As I wait anxiously for my late parents to arrive, 16:00 passes, and neither the bus nor the parents have arrived. It’s only then that I check my ticket and see that the bus isn’t supposed to arrive until 16:35. Somehow, I got the wrong time in my head, and caused myself significant undue stress. Oh well.
My parents arrive and we chat and catch up inside the station. It’s over 110°F so the air conditioning is very nice. The bus arrives when it’s actually supposed to, and we begin the long ride into the Park.
It’s a nice ride, first through the disturbingly irrigated central valley agriculture, then into scrubby dry hills dotted with the occasional tree. Around 18:00, the twists and winds of the road increase as we enter into steeper valley terrain. It’s still not the wet, snowmelt fed verdentia of Yosemite Park I remember from the PCT, but I can begin to see bits of rocky granite poking through the dry scrubs, hinting of the majesty to come. We follow a river through the valley (the Merced, I think), for an hour or so, the gradual transformation continuing as shrubs grow more arboreal, the landscape less arid, and the granite protrusion more dramatic. Just before 19:00 we pass the park boundary. I try to take some pictures of the granite cliffs as we drive past, but glare from interior lights makes the turn out poorly.
Despite the gradual changes leading up to the valley, entering Yosemite is still stunning. Large granite cliffs and outcroppings tower thousands of feet overhead, completely encircling the valley. Dad points out the massive wall of El Capitan. I spot Sentinel Fall, then Yosemite Falls. We spot Half Dome, which we’ll be climbing in two days.
Getting off the bus, it’s not immediately crowded, but it become so quickly as we find our way to one of the restaurants. After some deliberation, I hold down a table in the common area while Mom and Dad grab us some burgers and salad. We talk through our plans for the following day over food, and make our way outside around 20:30 as the sun is setting.
The temperature has fallen to warm but tolerable levels by now, and Mom and I follow Dad’s directions to the backpacker campground, appreciating yet more views of the valley. Unfortunately, I’m fighting low blood sugar, so I can’t enjoy it as much as I’d like, and find myself questioning my life choices.
By the time we get to camp, it’s fully dark, and we pull out our headlamps to get camp set up and try to navigate campground regulations. We try our best, but probably didn’t do everything correctly. Hopefully if a ranger notices, they’re nice enough to let us do it right rather than just punish us.
The backpacker campground is pretty full, but we found a nice enough spot. Parents are in a tent, and I’m right outside under the stars, they’re really beautiful up here tonight, and they’ll be even nicer once mom turns off her bright white headlamp (it doesn’t have a red setting). I’m going to have a good time the next few weeks.
7/3/2024
CC
I sleep pretty well for my first night in the woods, waking only briefly once or twice. I start getting up and prepping for the day around 06:30, taking my time and moving slow, since Mom isn’t going to be up until seven, and I figure, correctly, that Mom and Dad won’t be ready to leave until 09:00. I get some PT done while I wait, but I’m glad to finally leave when we do, cause I didn’t want to start eating until I was moving.
Our only real requirement for the day is to pick up our JMT permit at the Wilderness center, so that’s what we do first. It’s about a 1.5 mile walk from camp, and we detour a little to appreciate the welcome center, the Ansel Adams Gallery, and the cool old post office. Sean Anderson is the nice ranger who gets us our permits and gives us the run down of the various washed out bridges and detours along the JMT.
After getting permits, we spend most of the remaining day circling the park. We briefly visit the education center, then decide to do a short hike to Little Yosemite Falls before it gets any hotter. The high for the day is 105°F. The falls are quite pretty and also very crowded. We walk to the lodge, which wasn’t as pretty as Mom was hoping, and pick up some frappuccinos from the Statbucks there.
The next stop is the campground Dad stayed at when he visited before. We looked for the pair of trees between which Dad and his friends and lifted an annoying Fiat, but the place tontoo changed for there to be much hope.
We took the shuttle to our next stop, the El Capitan meadow, where, with help, we spotted some climbers who’d been up there a couple days at this point. I make good use of the binoculars I’d been hesitant to bring, and shared them with a bunch of other nearby folks so they could see too.
After another brief shuttle ride we hike a little ways up the side of the valley before turning around and finding a nice place fo swim. Mom and I get in while Dad contents himself with wading and soaking his legs. It’s a great way to spend the heat of the day, and since I went swimming with my clothes, I stayed nicely cool for a while afterward.
From there we wander a little more and do some quick shopping, including a lighter for Mom, some icecream, and a salad to split for dinner. After failing to find an awl to fix my backpack, we make our way back to the dinning room from the precious night, eat our salad, and play cards while waiting for electronics to recharge.
Once that’s done, we make our way back to camp, arriving around 20:00, eat dinner, wash some socks, and settle down for the night. Our first real day on the JMT starts tomorrow.
7/4/24. Day 1
CC: Mile -1.5
After a few fitfull awakenings, I start to rise and pack up a little after 06:00. Dad rises about the same time. The socks we washed the night before barely dried at all, so I’ll be wearing damp socks, but I don’t really mind. I wake Mom to join us at 06:34, four minutes after our agreed upon wake time.
I’m ready to go about 07:00, and since it’ll still be a few minutes before the parents are ready, I have to go to the bathroom and do some of my PT. Doing PT while I wait is nice, because the activity let’s me eat and bolus for some of my breakfast before I start walking without worrying about my blood sugar going too high.
We break camp about 08:00 and make our way to the Happy Isles trailhead and official start of the JMT. The first mile of trail up to Vernal Falls Bridge is pretty crowded, but the views of the valley and canyons and great. We were expecting the Mist Trail to be closed for construction, but workers got the day of for the holiday, so it was open. Mom and I parted ways as Dad took the longer, less steep JMT trail up to be nice to his knee. It’s 09:30, and we agree to meet at the top of Nevada Falls, 1500 feet and 1.5 miles, in 2 hours.
The Mist Trail is very crowded, but beautiful as we hike up stone steps into and through the mists generated by the cascades and forming rainbows across the valley below.
Most of the day hikers take a break and head back at the top of the falls, where there are more great views, and some pools that people swim in, but aren’t supposed to. That means the trail is a lot less crowded as Mom and I continue the climb up. It’s nice qith some great views of Nevada Falls, but quite steep, so around 11:00, I go ahead of Mom to catch Dad by the appointed hour.
Dad and I rendezvous at the top of Nevada falls, and by the time we reach the trail junction, Mom has arrived, and we stop for lunch. Mom and Dad decide that neither of them are up to summit Half Dome.
After lunch there is a brief reprieve of flatness, and we refill our water, but then it’s up another 1000 feet to the Half Dome junction, and both parents are moving pretty slow at this point. I’m also a little tired, but in much better shape then them.
We decide to go Half a mile past the junction to a nice camp site, so Mom and Dad can chill and watch my stuff while I go back to HalfDome.
The climb up halfdome is long and kinda painful, but the views and great and I have a pretty good time. I chat with some nice people along the way, and meet two climbers who summited a few minutes after I arrived. I summited late enough (around 18:00), that no one else was there at the time.
I spend about 30 minutes on top of the Dome before coming back down. My legs are pretty shaky by the bottom, I’m getting hungry, and I’m fully tired now. Dinner overboils when I forget how to turn my stove off, making a mess, and bugs come out just as I arrive back at camp.
Despite the various miseries, I’ve really enjoyed the day. Hiking been awesome, the views have been great, and as difficult as it can be to deal with, there’s something really nice about arriving at camp really tired, making food, and going to sleep outside. It reminds me of good times on the PCT, and makes me feel like I’m falling back into the feel of things. It’ll be nice to talk to Maria again.
Pokin' Along 