Kevin's Life and Travel Blog

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for August 20, 2009.

It was a cold sleeping without the tent rain fly. Temperate dipped below 40º F (4.5º C) in some parts of the night.  The sleeping bag kept my body warm but my face was freezing. I ended up sliding my head underneath the bag. That, coupled with me constantly sliding down my tent due to the uneven terrain made for a not so comfortable night.

I had planned to maybe get up and watch the sunrise but was too lazy/sleepy to actually do it. Instead I slept until 8:30am, but was able to catch glimpses of the sunrise when I woke up from time to time.

I took another dip in the water and left Lower Cathedral Lake at 11am. The hike to Tuolumne was alright. Compared to previous days, it lacked the beautiful scenery since it went mostly through dense forest areas. What it didn’t lack were day hikers. There were tons of them doing an 8-mile day trip to Cathedral Lakes.

Mostly forest areas before Tuolumne

When I got to the T-junction, I decided to take the “official” JMT trail as opposed to the shortcut (and more direct) trail to the Tuolumne Campground. The official trail heads north and crosses Highway 120 and offers nice views of Tuolumne Meadows. This junction can be a little confusing since there are no signs indicating which way is the JMT.

Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne Meadows

Tuolumne Meadows

Parsons Memorial Lodge

The trail continues through Lembert Dome parking lot, which was full of cars. It was strange to see so many people and cars again, even if I’d only been on the trail for 3 days. It then turns south and crosses Highway 120 again. I walked by the highway going west towards the post office and the cafe where I could get some junk food. I was pretty hungry but I wasn’t really craving for junk food. I could have happily eaten something inside my bear canister.

I got to the post office around 1:30, picked up my resupply package and while sorting my stuff, I met a guy (once again, I’m terrible with names) who had done the whole Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail. We had a nice chat and he was great at explaining to me the logistics of those long distance hikes. He was doing the JMT this time and was planning to complete the whole thing in 13 days. Based on his experience, he said that the JMT is the most beautiful stretch of any of the trails he has done in the entire country, mainly because it is consistently beautiful every single day.

After packing my resupply into the canister, I got myself a cheeseburger combo at the cafe. I then went to the store and got what I was really craving: ice cream. Add a bottle of Gatorade and I was in food coma. After a short rest, I asked my way to the Backpacker’s Campground. I had to walk through the regular car camping campground and the size of some of the tents there were unbelievable. They were like apartment buildings. I picked site BP14, which is on the back (south) of the campground. Right after I settled down, a huge family with about 5 kids settled in the spot next to me. I thought I was in for a long and rowdy night but they were pretty quite after 10pm.

I paid the $5 for the campsite and started looking for familiar faces. Based on their plans, Nicky, Buzz and G-Man should have been camping there that night. After walking around the campground I found Buzz and G-Man, and it was great to see them again. I also met Glen and his daughter Corrine, who were doing a section of the JMT. We chatted by the picnic table until  the sun went down.

Tuolumne Backpacker's Campground with G-Man, Glen and Corinne. Buzz took the picture.

People kept dropping by the campground late into the night but there were no spots left. When I called it a night and went back to my tent, someone had decided to use my site as well. I would have shared the site with anyone since it fits 2 tents, but this guy didn’t mentioned anything. When I greeted him, his only response was “Hi”.

John Muir Trail Journal Index

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for August 19, 2009.

When I woke up at 6:30am, Mickey was already up and busy. Once again I had slept comfortably and fell pretty rested. I have, however, never been a morning person and I’m pretty much in zombie state the first hour after I get up. That’s probably the reason why I didn’t get back on the trail until 9. I wasn’t in a hurry though, since I had 2 days to get to Tuolumne Meadows, only about 9 miles away. I said goodbye to Mickey and used my mini tripod to snap a picture with him. He expected me to catch up to him in a couple of hours but I never saw him again on the trail for the rest of the trip.

Sunrise Creek campsite with Mickey

Right after leaving camp, the trial begins to climb up Sunrise Mountain. Going up what seemed to be an endless series of switchbacks, it was the first time I felt tired and out of breath. After about an hour or so it got better as it flattened out. Just before Sunrise High Sierra Camp, I run into 2 guys with GoLite Jam packs who were taking a break. A few minutes later I saw them again while arriving at Long Meadow. I’m horrible at remembering names, but one of them was ending his trip that day while the other was heading to Edison Lake.

Long Meadow

Echo Peaks

Chipmunk

They told me that once I got to Cathedral Lakes, it’d be hard for me to not camp there because of how gorgeous it is. After a few hundred yards I passed Sunrise High Sierra Camp but didn’t stop to check it out. I soon had my first encounter with horse crap on the trail. There were lots of it from pack horses taking supplies to the camp. Towards the northern end of Long Meadow I find a nice spot to sit down and have lunch. The views were beautiful but what I noticed the most was how quiet it was. Hiking was tough right after lunch, I should have waited half an hour or so to finish digesting. I run into a pack horse train on my way up Cathedral Pass (9700 ft, 2956 m), which I didn’t even notice when I arrived. There were no signs and I only realized that I had passed it when the trail started to descend.

Pack horse train

Upper Cathedral Lake was the first big lake I saw on JMT. The hike and scenery was getting better by the minute.

Upper Cathedral Lake

I run into two young guys from Fullerton CA, minutes away from where I live. I have seen them a couple of times on the past two days, but never had a chance to chat with them. They were out on their first backpacking trip and having a great time, going from Yosemite Valley to just a little bit before Toulumne. They were told that camping was a bit better at Lower Cathedral Lake, so I followed them on the mile-long hike there. People from Park Service were doing trail maintenance work and I made sure to let each of them know how much I appreciate what they do.

Lower Cathedral Lake is indeed magnificent. I took a quick dip which felt great. It was only 2pm but the guy who told me that it’d be hard to pass on the opportunity to camp there was right. I started walking around the lake, looking for a suitable campsite. When I reached the western end I found a great spot with great views of the lake to the east, and beautiful expansive views on the opposite side.

Lower Cathedral Lake campsite

Looking west from Lower Cathedral Lake campsite

The only downside was that there were no sandy patches for the tent, so I had to settle for a semi-flat spot on a large rock, which would turn out to be very uncomfortable later at night. For the next 5 hours until sunset, I wasn’t bored one minute. I relaxed by the lake, did some laundry, took pictures, etc. There was a group of 6 camping about 100 yards away and I had a nice chat with a few of them when they dropped by to take pictures of the lake with Cathedral Peak in the background.

Relaxing by Lower Cathedral Lake

Lower Cathedral Lake

Sunset, looking west

Lower Cathedral Lake right after sunset

Inside the tent after it got dark, I was in disbelief by the sheer number of stars in the sky. Sleeping on the not so flat rock was very uncomfortable as I kept slipping down my tent, but all I had to do was to look at the stars to make the discomfort insignificant. I was half asleep when I opened my eyes and saw a huge meteor steak across the sky. I smiled and fell asleep happily right after.

John Muir Trail Journal Index

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for August 18, 2009.

I set the alarm for 5am but didn’t get up until 6:30. I slept pretty well for being the first night of the hike. The Thermarest NeoAir mattress was very comfortable and I woke up rested and with no aches. I ate a quick breakfast, found out that it is not easy to dig a 6-inch cathole with a hiking pole, and then left Clouds Rest Trail Junction for Half Dome around 8. I took a chance and left all my stuff inside the tent at the campsite. People had told me that it should OK. I took with me the jacket, the pair of gloves I bought specially for the occasion, 1 liter of water, 1 candy bar, and the SPOT Satellite Messenger.

For the last month or so I wondered from time to time whether I should summit Half Dome or not. I had read the stories of people slipping on the polished granite and falling to their death. At the same time, on most days, hundreds of people do it without problems. These thoughts were on my mind again as I started the 2.5 mile hike. Soon after I got my first clear view of the day of Half Dome.

Half Dome from distance

Halfway there, I realized I forgot to wear my hat and also forgot to apply sunscreen, but didn’t feel like going back to get them.

The switchbacks up to the base of the Half Dome cables are beautifully constructed, although the last stretch to reach the cables is a bit slippery and had no switchbacks or stairs. My first view of the cables bought some of my fears back. It looked steeper that in the pictures I’ve seen. There was a huge pile of used gloves. I stayed there staring at it for about 5 minutes.

Half Dome cables

I started chatting with a couple of guys who had just come down. They reassured me that it wasn’t so bad. One of them even went up and down wearing flip-flops. After hearing that, I decided to sucked up, put on my gloves and go for it. I waited for a couple of minutes to give myself some distance between me and a rowdy group of teenagers who were in front of me. Once I grabbed the cables and looked up, it didn’t feel that scary anymore.

Getting ready to go up

You do need a good grip and some upper body strength though. The good thing is that there were not that many people going up and barely anybody coming down, so I was able to use both cables 99% of the time. Once on top, the views were definitely worth the climb. A guy was standing on a pile of granite rocks that sticks out called the Diving Board. It looks insanely dangerous from the distance. I asked a nice couple to take a picture of me around it. I wasn’t planning on standing too close to the edge but once I walked up to it, I realized that it looked more dangerous than it really was.

Diving Board on Half Dome

I stayed on the top of Half Dome for about 1 hour. Nice views of Yosemite Valley.

Yosemite Valley from Half Dome

I still had to descend on the cables which could be more scary than going up. It was now close to 11am and way more crowded that earlier. I was lucky that there was nobody coming down behind me, so I didn’t feel the pressure of someone breathing down my neck. I tried to use both cables as much as possible. If someone was coming up, I’d let them pass me so both cables would be freed up. I came down facing down. I think it’s easier this way although many people prefer to do it facing up and walking backwards.

More crowded on my way down

I go down safely and when I was walking away from the cables I heard someone say “Kevin!”. It was Buzz who I met at the Yosemite Valley Wilderness Center the day before. He was sitting on a rock waiting for G-Man to go up. Buzz decided to not go up since he doesn’t like heights. I stayed there and chatted with him for a while. I had to leave before long though since it was pretty hot and I was hungry and out of water. I said good bye to Buzz, took one last look at the cables and hit the trail.

On my way down to the JMT junction, I saw a ton of people making their way up. A lot of people looked like they started from Happy Isles and didn’t appear very prepared. Some had no water left, others were wearing flip-flops. By then I was very thirsty, and without a hat, the sun was killing me. I couldn’t wait to get back to camp at Clouds Rest Junction to get some water since there was no water at all before there. I got there in about 1 hour and drank 1 liter of water right away. I had another liter with lunch right after. I felt so stuffed that I could barely move.

My original plan for today was to just do Half Dome. I didn’t know before the trip how my body was going to react in the beginning, so I planned very few miles for the first few days. I was feeling great however, and ultimately I decided to hike a few more miles instead of staying another night in the same spot. I took my sweet time packing up. This was when I started to realize that I’m really slow doing camp chores. Right before leaving, a group of boy scouts passed by and with them was a park ranger. He stopped to say hi, asked me how my trip was going and checked my permit. Eventually, this would be the only time during the entire hike that a ranger asked for my permit.

I started hiking again around 4pm. Pretty late. I reached Merced Lake Junction and Forsyth Trail Junction after a while. The views to the south were expansive and beautiful.

Southern views

I stopped here to eat some beef jerky. Wasn’t sure at the time if this was going to end up being dinner, which it did. After a short hike I reached the Sunrise Creek crossing. This is the second crossing of the same creek that run by the Clouds Rest Junction campsites. It was around 7pm and time to stop hiking. Right after the creek and to the left, I see that an older gentleman had already set up camp. I walk a bit past him to look for other sites but couldn’t find any, so I walk back to where the gentleman was and greeted him. He tells me “plenty of spots here”. Very friendly guy named Mickey. 68-years old and hiking the entire JMT. This made me realized that hopefully, I’d still have many years of hiking left. He had a whole bunch of homemade lightweight gear and tons of interesting stories. I set up my tent close by and chatted with him by a campfire until 9pm. I learned that he is from Ventura County, CA, and has 4 kids and 3 grandchildren.

I decided to sleep without the rainfly since I was starting to feel more comfortable in the wilderness. The campsite was in a forest area but I could still see much of the sky full of stars. Quite a sight to stare at while I fell asleep.

John Muir Trail Journal Index

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for August 17, 2009.

Finally, a little relaxation. I’d been very tired and stressed out from work and trip preparation for the last 2 weeks. I got on the bus at Fullerton a bit after midnight, on my way to Bakersfield. I was asleep within minutes, but woke up when the bus stopped in downtown LA to pick up more passengers. A older gentleman sat next to me and kept talking to me non-stop. He was very friendly but it was almost 2am and all I wanted was to rest. Arrived at Bakersfield around 4am and waited a bit to board the Amtrak train to Merced. Once on it, I fell asleep right away again, but I made sure to set the alarm on my watch to not miss the stop. Switched to the YARTS bus that would take me to Yosemite Valley, the starting point of the JMT. Slept for a bit more until the scenery got interesting as I got closer to the final destination.

Yosemite Valley was full of people. Parking lots, campsites, restaurants were all packed. It was nice to see so many people enjoying the outdoors, but I was glad I was only going to be there for a couple of hours. I headed to the Wilderness Center to pick up my wilderness permit that I reserved 6 months in advance. The park ranger was very friendly and helpful. She explained the rules to me: where not to camp, to not build new fire pits, etc. A gentleman with the trail name of “Buzz” introduced himself to me. He and his friend “G-Man” were starting the JMT the next day but were planning to finish 2 days before me, so we were most likely going to meet on the trail. They were very experienced hikers from Vermont having done the entire Appalachian Trail. They asked me for my trail name which was a new concept for me, I have never heard of such thing.

I went to the deli for one last meal, but they didn’t sell anything hot. Had to settle for a sandwich which I enjoyed. Buzz and G-man invited me to their table and we chatted for a while. It was already 1pm and I had to get going. The plan was to hike about 6.5 miles to the Clouds Rest Junction, camp there for the night and climb Half Dome early next morning. So I took the shuttle to Happy Isles, where the JMT trail head is, filled up my Platypus, applied sunscreen and started the long adventure.

I had little idea of the journey I was about the experience. I have made an effort to see as few pictures of the JMT as possible because I wanted to be surprised. After countless hours of planning and dreaming about this trip, I was a bit emotional to finally be starting it.

Walking towards John Muir Trail trail head

I decided to take the more scenic Mist Trail instead of the classic JMT trail because I really wanted to see the 2 waterfalls. I wasn’t the only with this idea, since there were lots of people on the Mist Trail. The trail is wonderfully constructed. Lots of stairs going up very steep walls.

Mist Trail or Classic JMT?

The views of Vernal Fall were amazing.

Lots of people enjoying Vernal Fall

Base of Vernal Fall

View from top of Vernal Fall

It was very hot and sunny, but I was enjoying every step on the trail. I didn’t see many people with big backpacks, mostly just day trippers either going to the falls or coming down from Half Dome. I could feel the weight of the backpack, even though it was only around 20 lbs total. Maybe it was because I didn’t bring it with me during my training hikes the past few weeks, so I wasn’t that used to it. I suddenly realized that I was enjoying the scenery a bit too much and going a bit too slow, so I picked up my pace to make sure I’d get to the campsite before sunset.

Nevada Fall in the distance

After a while I arrived at Nevada Fall. To look down the edge on top of the fall was a little scary.

Nevada Fall

Looking down from top of Nevada Fall

I rejoined the JMT right after Nevada Fall. Still had about 5 miles to go.

Rejoining the JMT

I run out of water shortly after and didn’t find a stream until I got to the campsite later that night. People have told me that there’s water everywhere on the JMT, but at least from Little Yosemite Valley to Clouds Rest Junction, I didn’t find any. Arrived at Half Dome Junction around 6pm. I remember seeing a lot of people coming down from Half Dome and I wondered how they were going to make it back to Yosemite Valley in time. They still had 6 miles to go with about 2 hours of sunlight left, and most of them had no warm clothes or flashlights. A few minutes later I found the Clouds Rest Junction, which has a water stream running nearby. Water, at last!

The best campsite with views of Half Dome was already taken, I settled for another nice site with a fire pit and a cut off tree I could use as a counter to put stuff on. Had salami/cheese/tortilla for dinner. I used my plastic spork to cut the salami and it worked well enough. My camping inexperience became evident when I tried to start a fire. I had to waste 6 matches to do it.

Campsite at Clouds Rest Trail Junction

I did everything in a hurry since the sun was going down fast. Washed my feet with soap and got into the tent right before 9pm. My first night of camping by myself. I used the tent rain fly even though it was warm and it wasn’t going to rain. I felt a little more protected this way instead of just using the mesh inner layer, but I didn’t zip up the rain fly door to allow some airflow. As I laid down, I was able to look up the sky through the rain fly door. It was beautiful and full of starts. Since the temperature was very pleasant, I didn’t zip up my sleeping bag either, choosing instead to use it as a quilt. Physically, I felt fine today, except for that stretch when I was really thirsty and couldn’t find water.

I felt asleep right away.

John Muir Trail Journal Index