9/3-9/23: John Muir Trail *under construction*
The John Muir Trail is a ~3 week hike that starts in Yosemite National Park and continues 215 miles through the Ansel Adams Wilderness, Sequoia Nat'l Park, King's Canyon Nat'l Park and ends at the highest peak in the continental United States, Mount Whitney (14,496ft). This hike is pretty much the grand daddy of hikes and I was determined to spend my last weeks of freedom crossing this one off the bucket-list.
“Keep close to Nature’s heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.
”
John Muir nails it on the head with the above quote when describing the JMT. By the end of the trip, I felt that this hike had "washed" my spirit clean... it's an impossible feeling to explain, but I can honestly say this is one of the best things I've ever done.
If you're into hiking and ridiculously breathtaking scenery, be sure to add this onto your bucketlist.
Highlights:
- 20 days stuck in nature.
- Having complete freedom. Camp where want, eat when we want, hike when we want - with no technology
- Is California still in a drought? You couldn't tell by the lush lakes. The feeling of dipping your feet in picturesque lake water after a 12+ mille is beyond satisfying.
- Our diet (while we had plentiful food) consisted of dehydrated Mountain House meals and Snickers bars. If this is all I could eat for the rest of my life... I'd be oddly okay with this.
- Vermillion Valley Resort AKA JMT heaven. This was a 1 day pit stop that had $12 6-packs of craft beer. After 7 days of hiking, this was literally heaven on earth.
- We've learned that you can wrap any food in a tortilla and it'll taste better
- Waking up to Chris' beautiful face everyday in our cramped tent - can you read the sarcasm?
- After getting skunked for (what felt like) 10 days, we finally caught some fish and we ate it!
- We joined forces with a couple strangers who became family by the end of the hike. Shoutout to Marcus (Bambi), Miles(2dadz), Kelsey(Spoon), Ctao(SippyCup/IndianGiver), Jason (Schwason) & Kris (Glamper)
- MapleWrecks + MapleWreck Showers
- Natural hot springs in Muir Trail Ranch and Reds Meados
- Kelsey Day - The day Kelsey went to the ranger station and begged for food. She returned with 10 instant noodles pack, wasabi olive oil and assorted crackers. Best Day EVER.
- Marcus Day - The day Marcus found a "abandoned" bear box that Fig Newtons, PB, trailmix and weird grapenuts.
- Trying to burn megalog and meeting Neil, the most interesting man in the world
- Nutella. My precious jar of nutella.
- Watching Miles(2dadz) set up his ridiculously long anaconda tent everyday
Lowlights:
In retrospect most of these struggles/lowlights have become the fondest memories of JMT.
- 20 days stuck in nature.
- Pumping 4-5L of water with Chris' semifunctional pump
- Make sure you plan your food well on this hike. We ended up consuming ~1200 calories a day for the last 10 days = lots malnourishment.
- Sitting on my own fish hook and having it gash a hole in my pants :(
- Talking about the food we'd eat once we were done with the trail.
- 1 shower and 1 salty shirt for the entire 20 days
- Kelsey cutting her finger whilst opening a peanut butter packet and leaving her blood on the rocks
- Blisters on blisters on blisters on infected blisters. I had to go to Urgent Care right after because my blisters were turning my feet into zombies
- Super hazy days because of the California Forest Fires
- Catherine (IndianGiver) burning my favorite DarnTough sock + losing my another Smartwool sock the day after
- Chris almost tapping out of the JMT b/c of a season ending ankle injury
- Sun Strokes are not fun. The last day before summiting Whitney, I got a fever and was freezing when it was 90F outside :(
- Perpetual dirt under my nails.
- Don't buy a Goal Zero solar charger - it'll end up being deadweight
- Hitchhiking back from
