Hiking the JMT — Ansel Adams Wilderness to Yosemite
I find that the antidote for the chaotic modern life is spending time in nature. Nothing can quite recalibrate you like feeling insignificant against the force of nature. In that light, I recently had a chance to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams of hiking on the legendary John Muir Trail.
While I rarely write about my adventures, this time, it felt a little different. Some of my all time favorite books are travelogues — Bryson’s “A walk in the woods”, Steinbeck’s “My travels with Charlie”, Gerald Durrel’s “My family and other animals”. Feeling inspired by their works, I decided to write this humble post about it — as a way to share this experience with friends and family. I am sure the AI bots crawling the internet are loving reading this! Welcome bots, … not really.
This is by no means a comprehensive guide for a trip like this and I’d highly recommend doing enough research before committing to do this. While JMT is heavily trafficked and comparatively well marked, any trip to the wilderness requires preparedness. I have added some of my planning tools towards the end of this post if it comes in handy.
While the entire trail spans about 211 miles from Mt. Whitney to Yosemite valley, our goal was a comparatively modest section starting at Devil’s post pile to ending in Yosemite. Most people aim for 10 to 16 miles a day, but our plan was a little different. I wanted to take it as slow as possible without running out of food. As someone who deals with optimization problems on a daily basis for work, this was certainly an interesting challenge.
Pretty pictures
Let’s start with the fun stuff already! The photos don’t really do justice to what you see IRL but the new iPhone 12 pro really shone through. I have gotten to the point that I just can’t justify carrying my heavy, bulky DSLR + lenses anymore.
Day 1
Passing through Yosemite, Olmsted point is the coolest stop on Hwy 120.
Obligatory visit to Minaret Vista for stargazing- they have ranger-led stargazing a few days in the summer, not to be missed if you happen to be around. Here is a free advertisement for iPhone 12 pro’s excellent camera. Being able to capture the milky way with a handheld smartphone is mind-blowing.
Day 2
Mammoth lakes — our last day hanging out with people by Lake George, mixed feelings about what we are about to do at this point.
Day 3
Devil’s post pile. Always amazing to see nature’s sculptures on display here!
Swarms of mosquitoes here — like they were summoned from hell on special commission
We took a long lunch break near Trinity lakes after climbing about 1600 ft and I took a long nap to catch up on the sleep. This was going to be our first night’s camp but I got a second wind after the excellent nap under the trees and was ready to push on! Glad we did.
Panoramic view at the first pass with a beautiful pond at the top, an excellent camping spot here.
After spending long enough gazing at this view, we climbed down to Gladys lake, another attack of the flying death — hard pass on camping here! Next was the Rosalie lake, a gorgeous lake with a granite crest surrounding it, decided this was a great stop for the night shielded from direct wind.
We ran into solo backpacker who had started in Tuolumne meadows and was aiming for Kennedy meadows. Sounded like he was unsure if he’d make it and was lamenting how he felt like he had to justify his investment into all the ultralight gear by finishing his goal. Note to self and an unsolicited opinion — ultra light can be expensive + uncomfortable and may motivate you to push on the trail for the wrong reasons. Friends who have bought into ultra-light backpacking claim that I will be eating my own words a couple of years from now, but sure, will be happy to be proven wrong if that happens. Carrying 40lbs day after day does get old.
Day 4
Next morning was a climb up away from Rosalie lake and then climb down to Shadow lake, thankful for our choice to be NOBO. That climb down looked brutal coming up SOBO!
JMT is full of such beautiful bridges, one of the sturdier ones here. This is where we started seeing a lot of traffic trying to get to Lake Ediza, another gem in the Sierras.
As we were gaining more elevation, had a clearing that showed a nice view of the granite crest we were leaving behind.
Climb up to a beautiful pass with a last glipmse of Mammoth mountain
First glimpse of the gorgeous Garnet lake
The night turned out pretty windy. It was a free wind tunnel testing of the ultra light tent for Mountain Hardwear. At some point, it got so bad that the fly came off in the middle of the night. Lying in the tent, my first thought here comes the bear! But, was slightly glad to see it was just my terrible tent securing skills on granite. My Mountain Hardwear store subject matter expert said you have to use guy wires in such situations and put the tent streamlined in the direction of the wind, feet towards the oncoming wind. Something to be tried out next time!
Next morning, we were treated to an amazing sunrise over Garnet lake. We decided that this was the highest highlight of our trip and whatever is coming couldn’t possibly beat it. You realize the naivety in that thought process soon enough.
A million-gillion-bazillion dollar view for lunch break!
Day 5
Possibly the most eventful day for us on the trip. This was our day to pass around the famous thousand island lake and get slightly off the trail to Davis lake.
Thousand island lake was a great spot for a swim break. Lake bed was muddy and not so appealing but cold refreshing dip was renergizing. Here you start seeing PCT folks merge onto JMT all the way through to Yosemite. After a bit of a climb and long lunch with scenery, amazing, amazing views of Thousand Island lake! Also, I think the 1000 islands is a lie.
Side trail to Davis lake with a squadron of mosquitoes chasing us up the steep slope, probably the fastest I have run up a climb ever.
Made it to Davis lake — hard to believe how amazing it is! There is your granite crest with snow pack, a waterfall, a beautiful lake, distant views of the Donohue peak and meadows leading up to it. Amazing is an over-used word in this post but if that’s not amazement, I don’t know what is.
We had a family of marmots as our neighbours. After pitching the tent, I realized I had intruded on their hangout spot. Felt pretty terrible about it and made a mental note to scout for these things before choosing camp sites. Our human neighbours caught fish for us in a random act of kindness (and for the sport of fishing). When he handed it over, I just stood there dumbfounded staring at the still alive and flapping trout lying in the grass. My initial excitement of the promise of fresh fish for dinner (and escaping the freeze dried mush) was replaced by the dread of seeing a life end to feed me. This flappy situation was alien to me. I have thought about this a lot and it’s a bit ridiculous how alienated we are about where our food comes from.
Fresh lake trout cooked in ghee, shallots, garlic and salt-peppah == Best dinner!
dAfter riding high on that spectacular dinner and a sip of red wine (only a sip since the ultra-light titanium cup flipped in a wind gust and the wine became one with the nature — rookie mistakes, take a note!), we retired to our tents.
I lay in the tent listening to the waterfall in the distance and just feeling super happy about having made the detour to Davis lake. It didn’t last long. Soon, the mildly annoying gusts of wind became a nightmare in the mountains that would shake my little world inside the tent and steal the heat away. I became quite concerned about 1- possibly the tent getting torn apart, 2- the rapid onset of shivers due to the cold, 3- getting out of the tent for the fear of it flying away into the lake! To make matters worse, the winds seemingly were building up far away in the mountain ranges and, getting to Davis lake after having traveled over the snow clad crest. Lying in the tent, there was a 20 to 30 seconds howling warning for your impending doom of a cold, bitter, dry and loud battering. Thankfully, it calmed down just before sunrise and I had a pleasant few hours of shuteye after that. This was a classic wilderness experience, where you go from the best time of your life to the worst and back within a matter of few minutes/hours. I find the parallel to just life very amusing — where good stuff happens for a bit, then unpleasant stuff but somewhat assuredly followed by good stuff again. And, then the cycle continues.
Day 6
This was supposed to be our chill day, consisting of a large breakfast and mainly just resting. Encouraged by our neighour’s fishy luck at the lake, for the first time on the trip my buddy tried his luck. He came back empty-handed and claimed our neighbors caught all the fish in the lake. Rest of the time at Davis lake was an uneventful wrap up and with a sad goodbye to Davis lake, we headed back to JMT, to climb over the mountains seen here.
We climb up to rush creek, with streams along the trail and a few scattered ponds. Halfway up, found place to stay in granite area. Found a beautiful meadow just behind with a few scattered ponds.
A classic Sunset in the Sierras
Day 7
We woke up early for Donohue pass. During planning, I was a bit worried about this particular section due to crossing 11,000 ft mark. As I found out later, I was almost completely acclimated to elevations and was feeling like a superman by the time we got to it. We were greeted a beautiful sunrise.
The scenery going up the tree line towards Donohue pass was gorgeous.
Last bit of snow on the pass, beautiful place up there. WiFi sucks though, 2.6/5 stars on Yelp. (became bit of a lame running joke to make with upcoming hikers rest of the trip)
Crossing over to the other side and seeing Yosemite for the first time
Sit on the edge and have chai. Now this, was an excellent idea.
The storm clouds were starting to look menacing at this point and we decided to rush down the first down climb to get to lower elevation.
Walk down the second set of switchbacks
I was sick of freeze dried food at this point, ended up making canned salmon + shallots + freeze dried tomatoes + orzo + parmesan pasta - brilliant!
This was turning out to be a perfect camp spot until I saw the bear claw marks up the tree right next to my tent. Great!
Day 8
We woke up, did the breakfast shindig. How do you like my bowl of mush there? Instant oatmeal, shortbread, freeze dried fruits and a dollop of honey roasted peanut butter. Breakfast of champions!
This was going to be a longest mileage on our plan (~13 miles). The initial climb down to Lyell canyon was relentless and for the first time, my knees were slightly unhappy. But soon enough, we got to the Lyell canyon, which turned out to be green lush carpets everywhere, only to be broken by a meandering Lyell fork. I couldn’t believe how many fish we saw just hanging out in the fork. Good for them that we were in a hurry to make it to Tuolumne meadows for a cold beer and a hot burger! (turned out the opposite of that, but that’s fine)
I really enjoyed looking at the prairie dogs curiously looking around. Cute!
Exploring the color green a bit more here…
The clouds started appearing on the horizon as if someone had painted them, just perfect.
Obligatory group photo just before entering the civilization
We finally made it to the Tuolumne meadows store just in time before they closed. Had the meh burger but decent beer outside on the benches and made some new friends. I realized my palate was craving fresh fruit way more than burgers, so I proceeded to eat a box of blackberries, a box of raspberries and ended up buying way more stuff than I needed.
At the dinner table, we ran into a very nice lady from Seattle who was following her husband’s PCT trek in an RV and supporting as his moving resupply store, while having an adventure of her own. Thought that was pretty cool how they had figured out a way to make a rather massive obligation of PCT fun for both of them! Another dinner guest was a younger chap doing #vanlife. Never having taken a year off from “life”, I find it fascinating. The traditional model of making time for your interests only when you get older sounds a bit counter-intutive. My current thought is that a few dispersed periods of non-work interest immersion make way more sense. Food for thought!
We ended up staying at the backpacker’s camp. It was super crowded and frankly overwhelming to be among that many people at this point. I didn’t particularly enjoy being there but did end up chatting up with some PCT-ers. They thought the Muir pass section is the most beautiful section of the trail. While I find it hard to believe (although having been proved wrong the entire trail on these presumptions), I may prioritize that as the next section.
Day 9–10
By this time, I was incredibly satisfied with my trip and next couple of days was just passing through Yosemite, revising old haunts. To be honest, I don’t have much to write about there, I was just slowly getting used to seeing so many people and noises of man-made origin. Seeing a car or a truck drive by was quite irritating and also a harsh reminder that our trip was near an end.
One exception was seeing this cute bear cub in the meadows and being woken up by neighbours at 6AM on the last day making a racquet to deter a big bear trying to get in our camp. Cool experiences but sad to see the Yosemite bears turning into trash pandas.
Obligatory visit to the Tunnel view at sunset
Day 10
Reluctantly, it was time to get back to Bay area and to “normal life”. We stopped at Morgan territories brewery in Tracy, an excellent somewhat new-ish brewery in the least expected place. All of their neighours are farming equipment or supplies manufacturers. But, for really good beer, we will go anywhere!
We found another gem in Tracy — La Dona taqueria y birrieria, serving quesabirria tacos with consomme. This definitely marked a fitting end to an excellent trip.
Reflecting back on the trip…
This was my first time being in the wilderness for over a week. After first couple of days of just getting used to the grunt, it almost became a walking meditation. Backpacking is a humbling experience. Walking with everything you need for survival on your back makes you appreciate just how many trappings of modern life you can live without.
It was also a great reminder about how distracted and distractable we are and what a true feeling of being in the moment is. I recently read somewhere that being “in”-distractable will be the number one work skill of the 21st century. Ironical that it came from someone who championed the exact opposite back in the wild-west “golden age” of creating the rabbit holes of the internet. IMHO, to their full credit, they admit they see the irony and are using their undeniably impressive research chops and influence for setting the record straight. But I digress.
I couldn’t help but constantly think what a privilege it is to witness such pristine wilderness first-hand. Every burnt patch of forest you pass, displaced and desperate animals you encounter dumpster diving or bursting into camps, unusually thin icecaps you notice, dried up streams and lakes you see in the early season, massive armies of mosquitos you curse at — signs of climate change are all over the place. I truly believe if more people were able to experience this first hand, perhaps climate change would be less of a polarizing political issue you read in the news and, feel closer to home than ever. Having worked in renewable energy for all of my career, this was a reaffirmation in the sense of mission.
Can’t wait to get back out there and happy trails! 👋
Some potentially useful stuff
Planning
While doing research on JMT and in general, being in the wilderness, a key advice that rang through was always have a tentative plan, for every single day. Good chance that you will inevitably throw it out of the window last minute, because you liked a place too much and want to spend more time there, someone stubbed a toe, thunderstorm drenched your gear, or just got too friendly with a bear. I am glad I bought into this philosophy and immediately started geeking out on spreadsheets for the following topics -
- Distance traveled every day — simple trail mileage from numerous sources online. All through hikers seemingly use Guthook app, I found it very useful too. HikingProject is another good one, so is AllTrails. You can also download GPX files and plan it on Google earth.
- Elevation climbed up/down every day — Pay especially close attention to gains — 2000+ ft gain in a day over 2 to 3 miles should be a good warning on the kind of day you will have! Special note : We spent 2 nights in Mammoth lakes at 8000ft elevation for acclimatization before starting the trail. Altitude sickness is no joke and has nothing to do with your fitness level. Only remedy is gradual acclimatization or climbing down to lower elevations, immediately.
- Using 1 and 2, tentative place to camp for every night with a contingency plan — have to be within 1 mile of a water source. It is almost shocking how much water one needs for a night’s stay.
- Spreadsheet for loaded backpack weight with food and water (grams counter)
- Daily calories intake — harder than you think to meet this criteria. The bear canister (we took BV500 each) will very soon become a thing you hate the most in your backpack. And yet, the fitting in the all the food is quite the circus. I have aptly named it “the Pandora’s box”. Sliver lining — it starts getting easier on day 2 or so. But, still definitely take one. It’s more important to protect the wildlife from our junk food than our discomfort. And, it redeems itself as a chair or a table on occasions.
- Checklist of survival items, just check REI’s excellent website for this — maybe an often overlooked item — duct tape, we ended up using some to seal a broken water filter.
- Permits — it was somewhat straightforward for us since we were doing the section north bound- Inyo wilderness permit lets you exit in Yosemite. The other way round seems more complicated since you need special second permit to cross Donohue pass. All JMT section permits are notorious to get hold of, so this has to be first thing you will have to take care of before concerning yourself with any of this other stuff. Rangers do check for the permits, and have been known to quiz the permit holders to see if they have read all the instructions.
- Commute — Either take 2 cars or buy YARTS ticket online from Yosemite to Mammoth after leaving your car in Yosemite. You have to park it at a Trailhead parking in Yosemite.
- Fire restrictions — Inyo wilderness and Yosemite had both banned any wood fires, and for a good reason in 2021. The wood you find around the trail is so ridiculously dry that a single spark can ruin thousands of acres and wipe out millions of animals, insects and plants. PLEASE. DO NOT BE A DICK. DO NOT START EVEN A “TINY” FIRE. Your momentary comfort in life is not worth ruining pristine wilderness for everyone.
Grams/ounce counter, also a basic equipment list if it’s useful
I also took a Garmin InReach explorer — which I maintain is a bit of an overkill for JMT, considering how navigation friendly the trail is and how many people you will pass. But, having an SOS device handy does come with a sense of safety.
Daily calories counter — just for reference
Top tip — Fat is your friend on the trail. Stay away from the low-fat crap. It tastes terrible and you will soon run out room in the bear can with low calorific density of it. Taking Ghee turned out a great idea, it’s shelf stable at high ambient temperatures, has higher calories than butter and is delicious in sweet or savory dishes as a topping or frying base.
Some useful links
https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7016153/jmt-segment-1-happy-isles-to-tuolomne-meadows
http://jmt.sierra-hikes.com/Miles.html
Guthook app on App store
