John Muir Trail Thru-Hike - Summer 2008
Being an east coast troop, we spend alot of time on the Appalachian Trail. It's one of the more famous trails so we really enjoy every opportunity that we can be on it. However, it's west coast rival, the John Muir has always beckoned to us to come for a visit. In the summer of 2008 its wispers of high majestic granite peaks and hundreds of miles of remote solitude got the best of us and we packed our bags and headed west hoping to experience all the hype surrounding the JMT.
The JMT is a highly regulated wilderness so we had to get our permits six months in advance. Once we had that squared away we spent the spring time getting or route planned and started to put together our gear rigs. The JMT is one of the most remote trails in the country and therefore we had to carry a significant amount of food over some very challenging terrain. We had one re-supply point in the middle of the trail meaning that we carried 8 days of food and after our re-supply we carried 9 days of food for the remaining 120 miles of the trail. Since we knew this going into the trail we planned very hard to keep our base pack weight down and spent significant time researching the lightest gear that would allow us to stay safe yet still move quickly. In the end most of us ended up with a 28 pound pack that included fuel, eight days of food, and all the gear we'd need to make the trek.
We flew out to San Fran and caught a baseball game before making our way to Yosemite. The next day we took off on trail and gained a few thousand feet over a couple miles through some 90+ degree heat. As always, the first day was brutal since our packs were at their heaviest and our legs were no where near trail shape. We quickly warmed up as we made our way through the high sierras and in a couple days worked our way up to our 18 mile per day daily average.
Along the way we were constantly challenged by bears. Since we were in bear country we all carried bear canisters and were careful to hang and scented items in the evening. Even with all these precautions our camp was raided by bears going after anything they could get their paws on. I lost a nalgene full of crystal light that I'd had since 7th grade...I was said.
Our one re-supply point along the way was Vermillion Resort and we had to hit a ride on a boat across Edison Lake to get there. We took a day off there and on the morning of our rest day we timed it so we could get up and have breakfast and while we finished up we were just in time for them to switch over to the lunch menu so we could continue the much needed gorge fest. In the afternoon we picked our way through their sparsely stocked shop and stocked up on a nine day supply of food for the remaining 125 miles of trail.
With packs heavy with food and legs rested we crushed out the long climb out of the valley and into the alpine southern half of the JMT. We spent the next week and a half traversing high alpine granite trail over Muir Pass and Forester Pass. Each day took us above treeline where we'd quickly make our way up the scree fields, constantly watching for late afternoon storms bringing a dangerous session of lightning. Later in the evening we'd camp on the shore of a lake, on a boulder in a river, or at the base of a giant granite face basking in the quiet remoteness of the John Muir Trail, eating, and resting for the next day of hiking in the most majestic scenery in the country.
After 18 days on trail we made an early morning ascent of Mt Whitney and celebrated the completion of this absolutely epic trail. After some jubilation and photos on the highest point in the continental US we made our way down the 10 mile decent trail to Whitney Portal. Total calories in our packs when we stepped off trail: 0.
With this we completed the longest trek to date in the BSA. Our scouts are pining to return yet again to the stunning wilderness of Cali, but first we plan on hitting up El Camino de Santiago in Spain and live as pilgrims in the Spanish countryside for a month in the summer of 2011....bring on some tapas