The 2012 John Muir Trail Hike

Hiking the length of the JMT, at age 73, with a titanium knee was my personal motto this year ... and it worked! On September 6th, in heavy rain, I hiked off Mount Whitney and the JMT; down 6,500’ to Whitney Portal with my two trail companions ... Mike from Australia and Jeanne from Hawaii.  Despite many days of rain and other trail problems, we’d completed our planned 25 day itinerary from Tuolumne Meadows to the Portal on schedule. 

This year I'd adopted part of the ultralight hiking dogma from 2001, which was: Carry less, go farther, feel better. I'd reduced my overall pack weight by 3-4 pounds from last year, but instead of going farther, I also reduced the daily distances by 2-3 miles ... and certainly felt better for the changes, particularly with my 6 month old titanium knee! Check out our completed JMT Schedule for 2012

Even in the fine weather years, with good knees and younger age, I've never found the JMT to be an easy proposition.  It requires considerable self discipline, self reliance, stamina and determination.  It’s as much a mental exercise as a physical one.  Each day begins at 6 am (first light) with a meager breakfast, then packing up and hitting the trail by 8 am.  Then, 6-8 hours later, having hiked 10 – 13 miles, it’s time to find a suitable campsite near a water source, make camp, wash off the dust & grime in ice cold water, cook and eat a meager dinner and off to bed by 8 pm (last light).  After ten hours lying on the hard ground – often cold, it’s time to get up and start all over again – day after day after day etc. However, once the routine has been established and accepted, life along the JMT can be most enjoyable, particularly with good travelling companions.

This year, with ten days of rain over the three weeks we were on the Trail, the level of enjoyment became unpredictable. The result was unpleasant hiking days with wet tents and clothing at night.  On a number of occasions we stopped short of our scheduled campsites to take cover in our tents before everything got wet.  Still, we managed to make up the lost mileage on subsequent days.

The abnormally bad weather conditions were pleasantly compensated for by a shifting party of wonderful hiking companions. The core group was called the Three Musketeers: Me, Mike Fox - who'd been with me last year and Jeanne Furukawa from Hawaii. On the first section from Yosemite to Mammoth we were accompanied by Kristy, also from Hawaii. Then, after heading south from Vermilion Resort, we were joined by Yvonne and Angela from Germany.

Both were on a tighter schedule than us, with flights back to Germany from San Francisco that required them to be out at Whitney Portal two days ahead of our plans. We had an essential resupply mission out over Kearsarge Pass, while they had carried enough food from Muir Ranch to reach Whitney.

We, the Three Musketeers, marveled at the ability of Yvonne and Angela to carry their heavy packs. Not only were they loaded down with extra food and fuel, but had higher weight equipment than us. This is not unusual for hikers from Europe, Australia and New Zealand. They study the high elevation environment expected along the JMT and translate that into their experience of high mountain weather conditions in other regions of the world ... and then over-equip for the California Sierra. As for Mike, Jeanne and me, we carried very light loads with our new gear (see my list at the Equipment page)and resupplied at Mammoth, VVR, Muir Ranch and finally at Onion Valley. The only heavy day we had was leaving Muir Ranch with 8 days of food and fuel.

On the subject of equipment, I was pleased with my choices this year: The Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1 solo tent was very effective in keeping out the rain ... as long as the fly was fully pegged out; The Osprey EOS 58 backpack was the perfect size for the other new gear and comfortable up to a gross weight of 33 lbs; The Bearikade Weekender II canister was delightfully light and held up to 8 days of my food choices ... with the first night's dinner carried separately; The titanium JetBoil stove was light, compact and very efficient.

The SunTactics solar panel did an excellent job of charging both my Samsung smartphone and Mike's. These phones we used as cameras, Kindle readers, music players, SPOT interfaces and communication (when available).

Apart from the unseasonable rain, this year's JMT hike was near perfect.

©2012 Peter Tremayne, Reno NV