Onion Valley to Charlotte Lake, 8.4 miles
Breakfast is at 7, and we are served fresh scrambled eggs, English muffins, coffee and tea—a welcome change from trail breakfast, which tends to be our least favorite meal in the backcountry. By 8 we are loading our packs into Strider’s SUV and heading back up the road to the Onion Valley trailhead, where we will retrace our steps up to Kearsarge Pass. (more…)
Day 6: Forester Pass to Bush Camp, 11.1 miles
Despite camping so high, it is surprisingly warm during the night, and we sleep well. We wake up at 6 am and break camp. Just as we are about ready to leave, the morning sun lights up the mountains behind the tarn, and we spend a good hour photographing the peaks and their reflections in the water below. We don’t want to leave, but we have a big day ahead of us, and we need to get going. (more…)
Crabtree Meadow to Forester Pass, camping at 12,700 feet, 14.1 miles
We wake up early and break camp pretty efficiently before hitting the trail at 7:30. Today we will tackle Forester Pass, one of the JMT’s most formidable, and we are hoping to camp as close as possible to it tonight. The first several miles are through Foxtail Pine forest and look very similar to many of the miles we have walked so far. We cross a few streams (Wallace and Wright Creek) without any trouble and then finally begin a big climb up to Bighorn Plateau. (more…)
Guitar Lake>Summit> Guitar Lake>Crabtree Meadows5.0 to the summit + 5.0 back to Guitar Lake + 2.7 to Crabtree Meadows = 12.7 total
By the time we wake up and get going, most everyone camping at Guitar Lake has cleared out. We are impressed that so many people broke camp without waking us up. We pack only our essentials and hit the trail by 5:45 am. It’s 3.1 miles to the junction at Trail’s Crest, and we are eager to get going. The sun is already up, but the basin of mountains surrounding us is blocking the sun’s rays, and it’s a chilly start. (more…)
Rock Creek Crossing to Guitar Lake, 11,500′, 11.8 miles
I slept in my sleeping bag liner last night. I stayed warm and managed to get some much-needed sleep. We are up and moving by 6:15 am and do well with packing up quickly, that is until the park ranger stationed nearby comes to chat with us. Of course, we can’t help ourselves and spend a good half-hour talking to her. It’s now 8:30 by the time we hit the trail. We pass several other camping spots on our way done to Rock Creek that would have been more private, but then we probably would not have seen the deer or met Susan and the nice guys from Team Alabama. (more…)
Lake Two>Rock Creek Crossing, 12.0 miles
It’s a little chilly overnight, and I do not get a solid night’s sleep. I have my watch alarm set for 6:00 am, but it doesn’t go off, or at least we don’t hear it. The sun rises and begins to warm up the tent, and, after finally falling into a deep sleep, I wake up because it is too hot. I am playing possum in my sleeping bag when I hear a distinct drip! drip! drip! sound inside the tent. We are camped close to water, and, with the warmth of the sun, all of the condensation on the tent fly is beading up, and it is actually raining inside the tent. Uh oh, time to get up! (more…)
4-hour Drive from Lee Vining to Cottonwood Meadows
Cottonwood Meadows>Lake Two, 6 miles
Our shuttle driver, Lone Pine Kurt, arrives at the Lake View Lodge at 8:00 am. I arranged a ride with him via email back in March when I learned that the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority buses don’t run on weekends/holidays. Just our luck, right? (more…)
It is July 3, and tomorrow we set off on our biggest backpacking trip ever, the John Muir Trail! We are both excited and nervous to get going. But, before we can step foot on the trail, we have so many last minute details we need to take care of. I know we shouldn’t complain—nobody ever said it would be easy to walk in the woods for 270 miles for over 3 weeks. If that’s the price of slipping away from real life for a while, it’s definitely worth the hassle. (more…)
We have been at this hiking thing for quite a while now. We count ourselves lucky to have done some truly incredible treks over the years, but the summer of 2016 was definitely shaping up to be our biggest and baddest backpacking adventure yet. After years of thinking that the John Muir Trail was too long (211 miles!), too high (14,508 feet to the top of Mt. Whitney!) and too tough (7-day food carries, treacherous river crossings and a constant supply of 5-figure high passes!), we decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. Life’s short, right?
We got a permit to start hiking the JMT northbound beginning on the 4th of July. We planned our route, mailed off our resupplies, packed up our bags and finally set off on the long drive out to California at the end of June. So, how did we end up in Colorado? (more…)
