September 2007 - Posts
Day 2 detailed our trek from Half Dome to Sunrise High Sierra Camp.
Day 3: Sunrise High Sierra Camp to Tuolumne Meadows [Pictures]
Distance: 8.6 Miles
Elevation Changes: 9,320 - 9,700 - 8,700
As with yesterday's hike, we started today's hike early, waking at 5:00 AM and getting on the trail by 6:20 AM. The Sunrise High Sierra Camp sold a hearty breakfast, which was tempting, but wasn't served until 7:00 AM, so we decided to pass. It was a wise decision because today's hike ended at a developed area, Tuolumne Meadows, where many of the amenities closed in the late afternoon or early evening.
From Sunrise, the trail started with a gradual elevation to Columbia Finger, which was visible from Day 2's hike (it's the far left peak in this picture). Most of the hike to Columbia Finger was through meadows on a gradually increasing trail. There were a few stretches near the Finger which had some steeper switchbacks, but nothing too taxing. After circumnavigating Columbia Finger, we descended to Cathedral Pass, which is a broad stretch of land between a rather nondescript peak on the left and the more stunning Cathedral Peak on the right. Cathedral Peak is named as such because it has several vertical spires along its double-peak that resemble the spires in Gothic churches.
North of the pass are two lakes: first Upper Cathedral Lake, where we stopped for breakfast and a short break, and then, further on, Lower Cathedral Lake. Once past these lakes, the trail descends for the next five miles or so down to Tuolumne Meadows. Usually Tuolumne Meadows is a very scenic spot with bubbling creeks, lush greenery, and wildflowers, but this year is was dry and brown. This area is the most developed site outside of the Yosemite Valley. Tuolumne Meadows includes a visitor center, a post office, a general store, a backpacker store with assorted hiking supplies, and a grill with hamburgers, fries, soda, and ice cream. There's running water and flush toilets in the public bathrooms as well as a developed tent cabin campsite with showers. In wetter seasons, the campsite allows backpackers to use the showers for a nominal charge, but this season the showers were only available to guests.
And if Tuolumne Meadows' amenities aren't sufficient, there's a free shuttle service from Tuolumne Meadows to (and from) Yosemite Valley, which is where we started our trip. So it is possible for one to spend three days hiking from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows, and then to then take the shuttle back to Yosemite Valley to do laundry, have dinner, and run any other errands. Once the errands have been completed, they can jump back on the shuttle, return to Tuolumne Meadows, and resume their hike in the morning.
Some hikers start the JMT at Tuolumne Meadows, which has two main advantages: first, since it's not as popular as a starting spot as the Happy Isles trailhead in Yosemite Valley, it's much easier to get a permit; second, starting at Tuolumne Meadows shaves three days (or two, if you're faster) off the total trip length and saves you from the tough climb out of the valley. But starting the JMT at Tuolumne Meadows automatically puts an asterisk next to the accomplishment because you really didn't do the entire JMT. Such asterisks may be overlooked if you have a good excuse: one hiker we met on the trail who started a day after us was scheduled to start at Happy Isles, but there was a fire the day after we left, and they closed the trailhead, so he had to start at Tuolumne Meadows. (And this was the first thing he mentioned when he told anyone he started at Tuolumne. 
)
We reached Tuolumne Meadows around 2:30 PM and headed first to the Visitor's Center to determine where the backpackers campground was located, how to get to the post office (where we had a resupply package waiting for us), and so on. At the Visitor's Center we discovered that there was vacancy at the developed tent cabin campground, and ended up reserving two cabins. We then took the shuttle to the grill and enjoyed some hamburgers and fries and soda before reboarding the shuttle to the developed campground. We spent the remainder of the day doing laundry in the bathroom sinks and showering. The showers are a little disappointing in that they only dispense water for short bursts lasting 3 seconds or so, but the water is warm enough and it feels great to wash the layer of dirt and dust that has accumulated over the past three days.
We were in bed by 8:00 PM, tired from our long day but rejuvenated from eating at the grill and having laundered our clothes and showered our bodies. Moreover, our spirits were especially high because tomorrow's planned route is known to be one of the easiest and most scenic of the entire JMT. I'll continue with Day 4 in a future posting... for now, let me leave you with a view of Cathedral Mountain taken from Tuolumne Meadows in the late afternoon.
UPDATE [2007-10-16]: Read about Day 4.
Day 1 detailed our arrival to Yosemite and our first day's hike...
Day 2: A Campsite Just Past the Half Dome Junction to Sunrise High Sierra Camp [Pictures]
Distance: 7.6 Miles
Elevation Changes: 7,020 - 9,320
The first night out in the wilderness is the hardest as you are spent from the first day's hike and have not yet become accustomed to sleeping outdoors. The main elements that detract from a good nights sleep are:
- Temperature - if it's exceptionally hot or cold it can be hard to get to sleep and stay asleep.
- Noise - other campers, thunder, wind, and animals all contribute to background noise. The most common source of noise that prohibits sleep comes from other campers. It may be a party passing through late at night or early in the morning. It could be a larger hiking party that is pretty rambunctious (although this is rare). Or it could be that your neighbors have a bear poking around their campsite and need to resort to yelling and banging pots to chase the bear off into the night.
- Sleeping surface - few hikers actually sleep on the ground. Most everyone takes a sleeping pad as it provides some cushioning as well as a layer of insulation from the ground, which can be very cold when sleeping on rocks in higher elevations. Of course, picking a good campsite is key. On our trip we had one night near the end of our trip where there were very few adequate areas to pitch a tent. The spot we chose had a large, dome-shaped rock about in the middle of the tent that made that night very sleepless.
What makes the first night so hard is that your brain and body still remembers what it feels like to sleep on a mattress in a noise- and temperature-controlled environment. And, sure, your body is tired from the first day's hike, but it has not yet become exhausted to the point where it no longer sends messages to your brain like, "Hey, this sleeping surface is uncomfortable."
As a result, for me the first night usually means about six hours of sleep spread out over four or five blocks. When I wake up, I fall back asleep quickly enough, but waking up every hour or so greatly detracts from the overall quality of sleep. The sleep schedule for the first night of this trip was slightly better than usual because the temperature was really nice (and was equally as nice virtually every night spent on trail). We were never cold (like we were often in last year's trip), and some nights it was so hot that a sleeping bag was not needed at all. However, the bears were especially active this year due to the low rainfall. We never had a bear in our campsite, but on several occasions we could hear other campers shooing away bears who had started poking around their tents.
In any event, after yesterday's brutal uphill hike during the heat of the afternoon, we decided to make a concerted effort to leave earlier. We woke up at 5:00 AM and were on the trail by 6:30 AM. Like yesterday's hike, today's was virtually entirely uphill, continuing the climb out of Yosemite Valley. Most of today's climb was below the tree line, so there weren't many views of the mountain scenery. We did, however, see a bit of wildlife, crossing a family of deer feeding in the early morning and then later being greeted by a lone buck. The buck, like the ground squirrels yesterday, came disturbingly close to us as we ate our breakfast. At a couple points he was a mere 15 feet away before we shooed him off.
In the afternoon we finally crested the tree line and enjoyed our first views of the mountains for the day. This picture was taken on our way to the Sunrise High Sierra Camp and provided a view into tomorrow's itinerary. The sharp point in the far left is Columbia Finger, which we would pass by tomorrow morning. The next peak, to its right, is Cathedral Mountain. Our path tomorrow took us through Cathedral Pass, the stretch of ground between the two peaks.
In Yosemite National Park there are a series of High Sierra Camps. There are five camps spread out along a 49 mile trail. Each camp includes tent cabins, pit toilets, and includes a kitchen and a small backpackers store (the camps, which are miles away from the nearest road, are resupplied by pack animals every other day). The camps sell dinner, breakfast, and sack lunches to their guests. Hikers doing the High Sierra Camp Loop need not carry a heavy load. There's no need to carry food beyond the sack lunch; no tent is needed, nor is a bear cannister. These campsites are very popular; reservations are determined via a lottery process.
Today's terminus was the Sunrise High Sierra Camp. We arrived in the late afternoon and descended on the kitchen where we enjoyed fresh nectarines and ice cold lemonade. And we were delighted to discover that due to some cancellations they had enough dinner spots open to accommodate our party! I was a little worried that the quality would be suspect, but dinner was amazingly delicious and fresh. We enjoyed meat and mushroom ravioli, fresh salad, bread, and some kind of cobbler/pie dessert. Of course, shipping in and preparing such food is not cheap - it was $24 per person for dinner - but it was worth every penny. Not only were we able to enjoy a delicious meal, but the campground had very clean pit toilets. No digging holes tonight!
Sunrise Camp has a beautiful view of Sunrise Meadow. In wetter seasons, Sunrise Meadow is a lush, green stretch of earth with many small streams slicing through the meadow floor. Wildlife and wildflowers abound. This year, however, was extremely dry, as the following picture illustrates.
Today's hike was pretty hard (there was an especially brutal set of switchbacks in the early afternoon about two miles south of Sunrise Camp) and not very scenic. But the meal and toilets at Sunrise more than made up for it. And best of all, we had made it out of the valley! We would never be below 7,800 feet until we were on our way back to Southern California. Furthermore, tomorrow's hike promised to be easier with a short uphill stretch in the morning, followed by downhill to another developed area: Tuolumne Meadows. I'll continue with Day 3 in a future posting...
UPDATE [2007-09-22]: Read about Day 3.
Shortly after spending a week backpacking in the High Sierras last August, my wife and I decided that we'd like to tackle the John Muir Trail (JMT), a 211 mile trail from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental United States. Tackling the JMT requires a fair amount of planning. There's a limited time window for all but the most hardcore backpackers (people usually start sometime between the start of July and the end of August); you need a permit and there is a limited number of them handed out each year; you need to plan for and purchase supplies for a multi-week trip in the wilderness; and unless you don't mind carrying over 60 pounds on your back for the entire trip, you need to carefully partition those supplies and mail or drop them off at specific resupply points along (or close by) the trail. Fortunately, my wife is a world class planner and organizer; she had everything taken care of with the utmost precision and attention to detail.
In last year's seven day tour of the High Sierras we were joined by my
in-laws and a family friend. For our JMT trip, these same three were
planning on hiking with us from Yosemite to the South Lake trailhead,
which is near Bishop, California
and constitutes about 2/3rds of the total distance of the JMT. Our plan was to
drive up from Southern California to Yosemite on August 12th and stay
the night at a campground there. The following day we'd start our trek
from the Happy Isles trail head and, assuming everything went well,
would be standing on the summit of Whitney 23 days later (spending 21
days hiking and two days resting).
To Be Lightweight, Or Not to Be Lightweight
There are two types of backpackers: lightweight and traditional. As the name implies, lightweight backpackers go to extremes to lessen the load they have to carry. They usually forgo tents, for example, choosing instead to sleep under a tarp or under the stars (along with mosquitoes and other biting bugs). They'll wear trail running shoes instead of hiking boots. Some even go as far as passing on bear canisters. A bear cannister is a hard, plastic drum in which backpackers store food, toiletries, and other scented items that a bear might otherwise confiscate. Prior to the proliferation of bear cannisters, people had to place such items in a bag and hang it high up in a tree. Today, many areas require that hikers use bear cannisters, but some of the lightweight people are old school and continue to hang their food. For example, we met one guy last year who travels sans bear canister and bear bag - he said he sticks to sleeping above the tree line where bears are far less likely to roam. Traditional backpackers, on the other hand, carry tents and wear heavy hiking boots, and tote along bear cannisters.
To put things in perspective, a traditional backpacker might have 35 to 50 pounds on his back, depending on how long he'll be in the wilderness before resupplying. That weight includes food and a liter or two of water. A lightweight backpacker might only be carrying 20-30 pounds, or about 33% less than what a traditional backpacker is carrying. Lightweight backpackers can be a little overzealous about their weight and what they choose to carry, and often travel much faster and cover more ground per day than traditional backpackers due to their lighter load. There is a certain sect of lightweight backpackers that seem to concentrate more on their daily mileage and the time it takes to complete a trail rather than enjoying nature and the scenery. We met one guy who had scheduled to do the JMT in seven days, meaning he was averaging more than 30 miles per day! He admitted that this schedule required him to get up well before sunrise and that most times he was setting up camp in the dark. To me, such stringent hiking seems to defeat the whole purpose of going out into the back country, although a lightweight backpacker will insist that they are able to enjoy the experience more because they're not laboring under a 50 pound load. Traditional backpackers usually have mixed feels of envy and pity for lightweight hikers. On one hand, they envy their light load; on the other, they pity them for missing the scenery. One traditional backpacker we met on the trail this year summed up this sentiment by saying, "The one good thing about lightweight backpackers is that they're gone soon after you see them."
In any event, my wife and I (and my in-laws and the family friend) are what you'd consider traditional backpackers, although the more I hike the more I strive to lessen my load. On our first backpacking trip together, I lugged a little over 45 pounds on my back for a three-day trip. For this trip my pack weighed in at a hair under 40 pounds. Part of the reason for the decrease in weight is because on that first trip we rented standard gear from REI. Since then, we've enjoyed several backpacking trips and have slowly replaced rented gear with purchasing lighter, higher-end supplies: a titanium pot for cooking instead of an aluminum one; down sleeping bags instead of synthetic ones; smaller, lighter tents. Also, after the first trip I pared down my pack list to only essentials: no entertainment items like a book and only two pairs or clothes, instead of three. I think if it were just myself hiking, I'd go lightweight. I'd rather put up with bug bites in the night and ditch the four pound tent. I could drop down to a single pair of clothes. But my wife is pretty stubborn on having a tent and me having two pairs of clothes so I can wash them every so often and not stink up the place as badly.
Day 0: Getting to Yosemite Valley
Driving directly from Southern California to Yosemite National Park takes between 6 and 8 hours depending on where you're coming from and traffic. You just go north on Highway 5 until Bakersfield, where it splits into the 5 and 99. Continue north on the 99 until you reach Fresno, where the 41 forks off from the 99. The 41 takes you straight into the park. This route takes you up the west side of the Sierra Nevadas. However, we needed to drop off a car at the South Lake, which is on the east side of the mountains. To top it off, there are few highways connecting the east and west sides of the Sierra Nevadas. Fortunately, there is one that cuts through Yosemite, but still it's a long trip. We left at 4:00 AM on Day 0, dropped off the car at the South Lake trail head, and arrived at Yosemite Valley around 3:00 PM.
This was my first visit to Yosemite. My overall impression of the park is one that I'm sure is shared by many: it's scenic, but grotesquely overpopulated. We stayed the night at the tent cabins in Curry Village. Essentially there are rows and rows of these 10x12 foot tent cabins, each with some cots, a dresser, and a light. They pack the cabins in like they do condos in a beach community, with usually just a few feet between each cabin. Since the cabin walls are simply canvas, you end up hearing virtually any noise, be it the tent occupants next door, the group of guys sitting out and drinking down by the bathroom, or the baby crying across the aisle. My wife had warned me about this beforehand, so I brought sleeping pills and ear plugs. No one else in our party brought these sleeping aids, though, so I was the only one that got a good nights rest that first night.
Day 1: Happy Isles Trail Head to a Campsite Just Past the Half Dome Junction [Pictures]
Distance: 5.4 Miles
Elevation Changes: 4,035 - 7,020
At 4,035 feet, Yosemite Valley is the lowest point on the entire JMT. The vast majority of the JMT is situated between 8,000 and 12,000 feet, meaning that our first few days were going to be particular tough as we climbed out of the valley and into the High Sierras. Compounding the challenge was the fact that my wife and I were sorely out of shape having spent most of our summer sitting behind the windshield of a car. While you can definitely hike yourself back into trail shape, it takes a few days. It wasn't until Day 5 or so that I felt like I had my legs back under me. Needless to say, even though today was a short day it was hard as we trudged out of the valley. Also, the weather this year was very, very dry, which resulted in less than ideal
scenery: the mountains had far less snow on them, the meadows were
brown instead of green, Yosemite's spectacular falls were either dry or muted, and there were few wildflowers along the way. The weather was also a lot hotter than last year's trek into the High Sierras.
The day started at around 5:30 AM, when we woke up, got dressed, got a bite to eat, and caught the shuttle from Curry Village to the Happy Isles trail head. We started our way on the trail around 7:30 AM. Shortly after the trail head is the following sign, which shows distances to various landmarks. At the bottom you can see that Mt. Whitney is just 211 miles away!
Today's trek started up toward Vernal Falls. After a mile and a half of pretty constant uphill, a bridge is reached where Vernal Falls is crossed. My wife, whose family visited Yosemite many times in her youth, reminisced how Vernal Falls is usually a roaring wave of water cascading down the rocks. Due to the dry winter, the fall was pretty tame. After crossing Vernal Falls, the trail forks into two branches that, eventually, meet up above Nevada Falls. One branch takes hikers along Vernal Falls and is known as the Mist Trail due to the mist from the falls. This mist coats the rocks and can make them slippery, so backpackers usually take the other fork, which is less scenic but drier and not as steep. We opted for the drier and steeper route since, technically, the JMT follows that fork rather than the Mist Trail (and it is also the safer choice for those lugging heavy backpacks).
After another two miles of fairly constant uphill, Nevada Falls is reached. Like Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls is usually quite impressive (check out some of the pictures at its Wikipedia entry), but this season it was just a trickle. At the top of Nevada Falls we took a 45 minute snack/lunch break. Yosemite is notorious for its animal population that has habituated to humans. Yosemite is especially known for its bears, which boldly enter populated campsites and break into cars in their quest for food, but virtually all animals in the park have learned that people equals food. As we rested at Nevada Falls, six ground squirrels decided to see what food we had to offer. We kept chasing them off, but they were pretty brazen. A couple times we'd be talking or not paying close attention, and the next thing you knew you'd have two squirrels sitting motionless just six inches from you, staring at the trail mix in your hand.
After our break, we continued up to Little Yosemite Valley, the first campground outside of the valley. Some backpackers have a real easy first day and stop at this campsite. Our goal was more aggressive, however: we had planned to hike another two miles, set up camp, and then hike sans backpacks to the Half Dome summit and back. By the time we reached our campsite (about 200 yards past the Half Dome junction), it was only 2:30 PM, but we were too exhausted to contemplate tackling Half Dome (which was another 5 miles and 5,000 feet total elevation change round trip from our campsite). We did, however, have a great view of Half Dome from our campsite that night.
Day 2 involved hiking from our campsite at 7,020 ft. to the Sunrise High Sierra Camp situated at 9,320 ft. and 7.6 miles away. I'll continue with that day and the rest of our time in the Yosemite Wilderness in a future posting...
UPDATE [2007-09-17]: Read about Day 2.
As I mentioned earlier, this summer my wife and I embarked on travels spanning the globe, from Korea to a 70-day road trip across the country, to a planned 220+ mile backpacking trip through the High Sierras. Well, we are back from our trip in the High Sierras, thus concluding our summer of travel and squarely returning us back to reality and normalcy. I plan on writing a detailed post about our backpacking trip, but for now I just want to provide a quick recap...
Unfortunately, we didn't achieve our goal of hiking the entire John Muir Trail. Instead, we only made it about half way (a total of 130 miles) before severe blistering issues prompted us to exit the trail prematurely. It was a hard decision to make, but the correct one in the end. After several days of backpacking and carrying all that extra weight on your back, your feet start to swell. My wife's boots were a perfect fit for her feet's normal size, but as her feet started swelling, she started getting blisters all over her feet, from the tips of her toes, her heels, the sides of her feet, and on her soles. She soldiered through the pain for several days before we jointly decided that enough was enough and that it was wiser to put her health and comfort ahead and completing the trail.
Despite having to exit the trail, we had a great first half and hiked over 110 miles on trails we had never explored beforehand. It was my first visit to Yosemite, my first time seeing Half Dome or El Capitan in person, our first visit to 1,000 Island Lake (see below), our first decent to Tully Hole, our first time over Donahue, Silver, and Seldon Passes, and our first time visiting Muir Trail Ranch. The weather this year was very dry, which resulted in less than ideal scenery: the mountains had far less snow on them, the meadows were brown instead of green, and there were few wildflowers along the way. However, dry seasons have their advantages as they greatly reduce the number of mosquitoes and other biting insects and make stream crossings much easier.
In any event, it's great to be back in town and to settle back down.
UPDATE [2007-11-17]: I have blogged about each of the 14 days of our JMT hike. You can start at Our 2007 John Muir Trail Attempt (Day 0 and Day 1) or go directly to the hike wrapup, which has a link to each of the day's corresponding blog entry. You can also view pictures from the trip.
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