7. Personal JMT Experience
In this section, I describe my specific preparation, travel arrangements, gear, and experiences along the trail. It is my trip summary with my good friend Josh, meant to exemplify what worked (for us). It offers only my personal experience and opinion. If you are inexperienced and/or unsure about certain options, I hope this gives you some additional reference points.
a. Plan
First, I researched the JMT and decided which direction to walk it. We chose north-to-south, because… To read more, click here
I had a decent backpack and what I thought was a good sleeping bag, but still needed quite a bit of gear. What I was most unsure about before the trip was what to expect temperature-wise and how to prepare for sleeping arrangements. I couldn’t quite believe the numbers from temperature charts, thinking it was impossible it would get that cold in California in the summer. On the other hand, I found it difficult to gauge in online forums, who were the “normal” hikers and who were the “minimalist” ultra-light hikers with a latent death wish. Talk of not needing a tent and sleeping under the stars sounded appealing but also risky. In hindsight, I would consider both Josh’s and my approach to be very average / common for the trail and fitting to most people’s comfort levels. Here is a list of my gear: To read more, click here
Besides gear, food and nutrition play a major role. In addition to the suggestions in Chapter 5c Food, here are some personal remarks on the food we brought… To read more, click here
As you can conclude from my comments, I was very happy with our breakfast, snack, and dinner options, just not with the smoked sausages / lack of variety for lunch. However, quantity-wise, 2.5-3.5oz/70-100g are a good amount of meat or fish. Overall, I can recommend a similar pack list, if you substitute 4 of the sausage portions with jerky, different fish, or vegetarian options.
I sent our resupply package so that it would arrive a good week before our pick-up. We planned one resupply at… To read more, click here
We organized our food by trail sections. Figure 16 gives you an idea of how we tried to spread out and sort the four-times 8-day sections worth of food for the two of us. Each horizontal row was one section for one person and consisted of eight “blocks” with breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. Puncturing and letting all air out of our freeze-dried meals, we each just managed to squeeze one sections’ worth into our 700 cu. In. bear canisters.
This is exactly what we packed per person per trail section: To read more, click here
b. Go
On the second day before our entry date in Yosemite (Day -1), our adventure began. It was exciting to finally execute on the months of planning. We picked up our rental car (credit card needed at pick-up!) in the morning and drove from San Diego to Merced. At the motel, we took a dip in the pool and walked across the street for one of our last fresh meals. We savored a fresh salad and speculated about what lay ahead. The next morning (Day 0) we drove the short distance to… To read more, click here
Day 6 took us over 10,895ft Silver Pass and its beautiful lake with sandy shores all the way down to Mono Creek at 7,870ft. The campground near the Vermilion trailhead was the busiest we stayed at. It is located just beneath the switchbacks leading up to Bear Ridge. We had heard horror stories about how strenuous this section was supposed to be. Nevertheless, as we ascended in the morning of Day 7, we found it quite enjoyable. Most of the path is well shaded in a lush forest and the morning temperatures eased the countless, but steadily inclining zigzags. Around Marie Lake we bumped into a gentle cowboy leading 8 mules. He was carrying gear and food for a group of hikers. After incredibly steep granite switchbacks leading down to Lake Edison, I told him I would freak out if I had to do all this on a horse. He replied he would freak out if he had to carry a backpack and eat dried food for three weeks – his dinner last night was grilled chicken with green beans and a beer… To read more, click here
Day 15 – exhilarated on the peak of the Continental US. We got up at 4am, packed our stuff and began climbing. In utter darkness, Josh used his headlamp while I had my LED-solar-charger-combo tucked in my top backpack pocket and shining over my shoulder. After about 1,500 vertical feet from our campsite, we reached the Mt. Whitney cut-off where you could leave your pack and ascend along the ridge. From here the view over Guitar Lake to the mountains around is magnificent - especially as you witness the sun slowly lifting dusk with shades of light blue and violet until it bursts out in blazing orange and red. At 7:35am on August 14th, 2013, we had reached the peak of 14,495ft Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the Continental US. The feeling of joy and accomplishment was second to none. The steady inclines and passes over 12-and-13,000ft in the past days had given us time to acclimatize well, validating the decision of hiking the JMT north-to-south. After absorbing the views and emotions, we signed the register and hit a big red button someone had left beside the book. “That was EASY!”, said the talking button before we shut the lid to the register and began our descent from 14,495ft to 8,365ft, non-stop. Though very beautiful, we were only focused on finishing this last steep part accident-free and completing the trail.
At 3:15pm, we sat in front of a burger and a beer at Whitney Portal, saying cheers. 222mi now lay behind us. Keith and Nichole also arrived, as did Bob, a soft spoken 64-year old who had solely eaten cereal and power bars on the trail, the infamous “Bob-bars”. With our first non-dehydrated meal… To read more, click here