Saturday, August 01, 2009
JMT Episode 1: Planning/Logistics
ok, so actually I don't really feel like I'm the best to write this one, as Scott did most of the work when it came to planning and logistics. However, I was somewhat involved and I do at least have a pretty good idea of what's needed to hike the John Muir Trail. Unfortunately, no matter how minimalist the trip, it's not *quite* as simple as just loading your pack and heading out (though it is actually possible to nearly do just that).
For one thing, you need a permit. It's free, just like for the Grand Canyon, and the rangers who hand them out are actually friendly and accommodating folks, no matter how daunting the process may seem from the outset. Now you can either plan your trip months and months in advance (more than the 2 or so that we had) and get a wilderness permit issued to you before you go, or you can not be quite so on top of things and find that no reservable permits are left for the whole month of July.
What do you do in the latter case? You go for one of the set-aside day before permits instead. You can Only get these 1 day before your trip (not 2!), and only a certain number are issued each day, and generally-speaking you have to show up at the office first thing in the morning to get one (though if anyone fails to show up for their reservation, some are re-issued around 10AM as well). This makes for some uncertainty in one's starting date, which is a little frustrating. Basically you have to plan to spend the night in the park the day before you get your permit unless you have a car and can get yourself to the permit office by 7:30AM. Or earlier. I ended up camping at "Camp 4" (which also involved lining up and uncertainty about whether there would be room for me) the night I arrived. I went to the permit office that day to ask when I needed to show up the next morning, having heard at the visitor's centre that someone who lined up outside at 4:30AM the previous day was one of the last to be issued a permit. The fellow there told me simply that the office opens at 7:30 and he had no control over how early people start to line up.
Turns out that when I showed up at about 3:30AM, I waited on the bench out front for 2 hours before the next permit-seeker arrived. By 6, there were about 4 of us waiting. By 7:30, about 7. I'm pretty sure that we all easily got permits. I didn't stick around to see what happened with everyone else, but it seemed that there was really no need for me to get up in the middle of the night - probably if I had just turned up when the office opened, I would have been quickly and easily issued a hiking permit for me and whatever size group I wanted to take with me. I can't be sure. If I were to do it again, I'd probably aim to be there around 6:30 or 7 though.
Aside from permits, the only other big logistical issue was food. Well, and transportation, but the YARTS shuttle from Merced took care of that on the northern end... and hitch hiking was our solution from Whitney Portal - but more about that later. So food.
Given that we planned to do the hike relatively quickly (probably about half of the average), food wasn't all that big a deal for us. We only did one food drop - a 5 gallon bucket at Muir Trail Ranch. They tell you all that you need to know about packaging your shipment, etc on their website. We ended up buying the bucket from Home Depot, as it proved to be a little hard to find... though I hear Costco sells laundry detergent in such a bucket? It was handy that the ranch sells various camp fuels, as that is harder to ship - we bought an extra 8oz of white gas for $1 (having started with a full 1L bottle).
Other groups requiring more resupplying make use of facilities at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, Red's Meadow (or you could even go into the town of Mammoth to go shopping, which actually we know a little something about - more later), and Vermilion Valley Resort (which we hear gives free beer to JMT hikers). We met a couple of people at the ranch who were doing the Pacific Crest Trail with no food drops at all - they were existing primarily through scavenging excess food from others and relying on "trail angels" (and occasional purchases).
While hiking, it is required that you keep your food in a bear-proof barrel all along the trail (even though we saw zero bears.. perhaps that is why). In our case, Scott carried the BearVault BV500 and I carried 2 dry bags in which we placed the less-strongly scented items. We then wrapped the dry bags in a pastic garbage bag which we sealed as well as possible, left in a different location than the BearVault. This is not strictly following the rules, but well it worked for us. A chipmunk chewed into the garbage bag one night near the end but made it no further.
Other logistics? Hmm.. oh ya maps and camping.. Scott took care of this. He bought a John Muir Trail Map Pack and enhanced it by marking a number of potential camp sites on it. He found these I believe through reading up in online forums. Some of my favourite sites were Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite, Lake Virginia, that pretty spot on the pond between the Bench Lake Trail and Pinchot Pass, and Bighorn Plateau. It was definitely convenient to have known nice spots to camp marked ahead of time, as it is not always obvious from the maps what will make a good site. It was also nice to have a list of these sites written down with their total distance from the start of the trail for speedy calculations of the distance remaining to hike.
Oh ya, altitude is another thing to think about with this trip. Since we hiked North to South, this wasn't a huge concern, as the really high passes are at the southern end and by then we were acclimatized. I'm not quite sure how people would manage starting at the Southern end. As it was, I'm not sure whether it was just the power of suggestion, but I did get to the verge of feeling headachey/dizzy/hyperventilatative on the first big climbs.. perhaps a slight effect of the elevation.
There we go. One episode complete before I leave for the Rockies (which means the next may be some time in coming)!
A copy of the famous tongue picture, now available in Scott's online album.
kat
For one thing, you need a permit. It's free, just like for the Grand Canyon, and the rangers who hand them out are actually friendly and accommodating folks, no matter how daunting the process may seem from the outset. Now you can either plan your trip months and months in advance (more than the 2 or so that we had) and get a wilderness permit issued to you before you go, or you can not be quite so on top of things and find that no reservable permits are left for the whole month of July.
What do you do in the latter case? You go for one of the set-aside day before permits instead. You can Only get these 1 day before your trip (not 2!), and only a certain number are issued each day, and generally-speaking you have to show up at the office first thing in the morning to get one (though if anyone fails to show up for their reservation, some are re-issued around 10AM as well). This makes for some uncertainty in one's starting date, which is a little frustrating. Basically you have to plan to spend the night in the park the day before you get your permit unless you have a car and can get yourself to the permit office by 7:30AM. Or earlier. I ended up camping at "Camp 4" (which also involved lining up and uncertainty about whether there would be room for me) the night I arrived. I went to the permit office that day to ask when I needed to show up the next morning, having heard at the visitor's centre that someone who lined up outside at 4:30AM the previous day was one of the last to be issued a permit. The fellow there told me simply that the office opens at 7:30 and he had no control over how early people start to line up.
Turns out that when I showed up at about 3:30AM, I waited on the bench out front for 2 hours before the next permit-seeker arrived. By 6, there were about 4 of us waiting. By 7:30, about 7. I'm pretty sure that we all easily got permits. I didn't stick around to see what happened with everyone else, but it seemed that there was really no need for me to get up in the middle of the night - probably if I had just turned up when the office opened, I would have been quickly and easily issued a hiking permit for me and whatever size group I wanted to take with me. I can't be sure. If I were to do it again, I'd probably aim to be there around 6:30 or 7 though.
Aside from permits, the only other big logistical issue was food. Well, and transportation, but the YARTS shuttle from Merced took care of that on the northern end... and hitch hiking was our solution from Whitney Portal - but more about that later. So food.
Given that we planned to do the hike relatively quickly (probably about half of the average), food wasn't all that big a deal for us. We only did one food drop - a 5 gallon bucket at Muir Trail Ranch. They tell you all that you need to know about packaging your shipment, etc on their website. We ended up buying the bucket from Home Depot, as it proved to be a little hard to find... though I hear Costco sells laundry detergent in such a bucket? It was handy that the ranch sells various camp fuels, as that is harder to ship - we bought an extra 8oz of white gas for $1 (having started with a full 1L bottle).
Other groups requiring more resupplying make use of facilities at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, Red's Meadow (or you could even go into the town of Mammoth to go shopping, which actually we know a little something about - more later), and Vermilion Valley Resort (which we hear gives free beer to JMT hikers). We met a couple of people at the ranch who were doing the Pacific Crest Trail with no food drops at all - they were existing primarily through scavenging excess food from others and relying on "trail angels" (and occasional purchases).
While hiking, it is required that you keep your food in a bear-proof barrel all along the trail (even though we saw zero bears.. perhaps that is why). In our case, Scott carried the BearVault BV500 and I carried 2 dry bags in which we placed the less-strongly scented items. We then wrapped the dry bags in a pastic garbage bag which we sealed as well as possible, left in a different location than the BearVault. This is not strictly following the rules, but well it worked for us. A chipmunk chewed into the garbage bag one night near the end but made it no further.
Other logistics? Hmm.. oh ya maps and camping.. Scott took care of this. He bought a John Muir Trail Map Pack and enhanced it by marking a number of potential camp sites on it. He found these I believe through reading up in online forums. Some of my favourite sites were Cathedral Lakes in Yosemite, Lake Virginia, that pretty spot on the pond between the Bench Lake Trail and Pinchot Pass, and Bighorn Plateau. It was definitely convenient to have known nice spots to camp marked ahead of time, as it is not always obvious from the maps what will make a good site. It was also nice to have a list of these sites written down with their total distance from the start of the trail for speedy calculations of the distance remaining to hike.
Oh ya, altitude is another thing to think about with this trip. Since we hiked North to South, this wasn't a huge concern, as the really high passes are at the southern end and by then we were acclimatized. I'm not quite sure how people would manage starting at the Southern end. As it was, I'm not sure whether it was just the power of suggestion, but I did get to the verge of feeling headachey/dizzy/hyperventilatative on the first big climbs.. perhaps a slight effect of the elevation.
There we go. One episode complete before I leave for the Rockies (which means the next may be some time in coming)!
A copy of the famous tongue picture, now available in Scott's online album.
kat
The pictures and Scott's notes first...
Seeing as he's quicker than I, let's start with the pictures. Scott already has them all commented and online. Though I notice he somehow omitted the one with marmot tongue! I will be sure to make that available to the viewing public when I get the opportunity.
Check out the photos now!
kat
Check out the photos now!
kat
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