This is the thirteenth in a series of posts documenting Reuben’s John Muir Trail backpacking trip from July 13-26, 2008. Each day will have its own post–reposted from a handwritten journal kept on the trail and paired with photos from each day.
The John Muir Trail (JMT) is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, running 211 miles (340 km) from the Happy Isles trailhead in Yosemite Valley south to the summit of Mount Whitney on the border of Sequoia National Park and Inyo National Forest. It is named for naturalist John Muir. The elevation of the John Muir Trail seldom dips below 8,000 feet (2,400 m), it crosses six passes in excess of 11,000 feet (3,400 m) with a total cumulative elevation gain of just over 46,000 feet (14,000 m) and descends just over 38,000 feet (12,000 m).
For the second time since we started the trail we actually got up before the sun this morning! We wanted to climb Forester Pass (13,180′) before the sun got high in the sky, and it turns out we were able to go forward as Nick was feeling much better this morning. We thought that it must have been lunch the day before that upset his stomach, not giardia (thankfully!). We had breakfast under the light of our headlamps and were back on the trail by 5:30am, making our way along Bubbs Creek as the sky began to lighten.
Morning sky
We had a lot of energy this morning and were having a good time hiking in the cold air. We only had sun on our backs for about 30 minutes before we reached the top of the pass around 9:15am. It felt so great to have made the climb that early in the day. Forester Pass is the highest pass on the JMT, and the climb up it was pretty steep and quick.
Snack break before we headed into the sun near the top of the pass
We met a guy on top of the pass that was here to climb a few of the area peaks in the next couple of days. He was well versed in the local geography and walked us through the names of all the peaks in sight (and there were a lot from the view on this pass!). It was really neat to be able to recognize the mountains we had passed by two, even three days earlier, in sight once again.
On the top of Forester Pass
The trail on the back side of Forester was pretty incredible. It was built expertly into the sheer cliff wall, winding impossibly downward. We were glad we didn’t hike up this side (although Nick had done it that way a few years before). We saw a trail maintenance crew working on the trail on our way down. They warned us that they would be blasting some rock in a few hours and wanted to make sure that we would be well clear of the area. We wanted to hang around and watch from a distance, but we had to push on. Later that day we did hear a few blast explosions, but we didn’t see anything.
A few pictures of our descent. It was a long way down — I kept thinking Dad would hate this part of the trail!
A crew working on the trail
After the descent from the pass, the sun had gotten quite hot and we saw in front of us about 4 or 5 miles of flat ground — with no trees. We hiked on, but became very tired in the sun and the trees we eventually saw in front of us never seemed to get any closer. We finally got to a grouping of trees and a stream where we stopped for a nice long lunch break. We were tired from getting up early that morning, so we enjoyed the rest. Towards the end of our break, BeeMan came hiking down the trail. It seemed every time we took a rest stop, he hiked past us, and then we passed him later. It became a running joke between us, and we always knew we would see him a few times a day.
Lunch break group shot, courtesy of BeeMan
During lunch we examined our maps and realized that if we put in some extra miles today, we could get to the base of Mt. Whitney tonight, and summit tomorrow morning. This would save us another half a day or so of travel time after the trail, and while we were having a lot of fun, we were all antsy to get off the trail at this point. After lunch we hiked on out over Bighorn Plateau, a very interesting flat and barren section of land in the midst of the mountains. Great views, and the first time we could see Mt. Whitney! It was amazing to be able to see the final destination of our trip after walking almost 200 miles so far.
Nick on Bighorn Plateau
On Bighorn Pateau with Mt. Whitney in the background
We passed BeeMan again while he was eating his supper. He is an ultralight hiker and carries all his food dried in ziplock baggies, and does not carry a stove or a cup or pots. A while before he eats, he adds water to the baggie and lets the mixture heat up in the sun at the top of his pack to make soup. Every meal he had was liquid! I thought that was pretty hardcore and would much rather carry a stove and have solid food to eat!
In the evening we all got really tired. Our 5am start was getting to us now. I kept thinking we were further than we were, the landscape was a little deceiving, and I was reading the topo map incorrectly. We finally arrive at camp around 6:30pm after dragging our feet and moving slowly for the last 5 miles or so. We pitched our tent in a group camping area below Whitney. Our first night with a lot of other people around, and we didn’t like it too much. A while later BeeMan hikes in and sets up near us. We end up chatting with him over dinner about hobbies and life. He is a teacher who raises bees (thus the trail name), leads a scout group, and is section hiking the PCT over the next 6 years.
We make it to bed as the sky is getting dark. What a long day! We were continuously hiking more miles per day than we had planned in our revised schedule–even more miles per day than we had planned to hike in our original schedule that had freaked us out so much. We were anticipating another early start tomorrow to climb in the shade of Mt. Whitney–close to 7 miles away and 4,000 feet above us. If we pulled another long day tomorrow, we could complete the JMT and get to the trailhead tomorrow–way ahead of schedule.
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Daily Stats
Mileage: 20.5 (33km)
Estimated Ascent: 4,400 Feet
Estimated pack weight: 31 pounds
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Clockwork Orange, Beeman…. hmmm… I’m wondering what your trail name is? or Nick or Jess? Any suggestions out there?
we never got trail names (although jess was named srgt. juice when she was a guide in colorado). it is usually something that happens on longer trails like the PCT or AT. someone gives you your name – you cant name yourself!
BeeMan gave the three of us a group trail name: the colorado trio.
Yah, I was looking at the height and narrowness of those trails and I had a flashback to our Colorado vacation!