John Muir Trail

After a day off to recover from our Half Dome hike, we were ready to tackle the longest hike of our US trip. The John Muir Trail (JMT) in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, is considered by many to be the premier long distance hike in North America. It runs about 218 miles from Yosemite Valley south to King's Canyon National Park and Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental US. Dogs aren't allowed on US National Park trails, so we planned to spend 11 days doing the section of the JMT that runs between Yosemite NP and King's Canyon National Park - about 100 miles including the access and exit trails. That was the plan.

Everything started out well. Uncle Doug and Aunt Joanne drove over the Tioga Pass to the east side of the mountains to help us do the car shuttle. We left our vehicle at the Rush Creek trailhead on the June Lake Road, and jumped in their car for the drive south to the Piute Pass trailhead west of Bishop. The North Lake Road took us all the way up to 9300', a welcome boost as the first order of business was climbing over the 11,300' Piute Pass. The first half day of hiking was a little tough. Temperatures were over 25 Celsius and we weren't really acclimatised to the altitude yet. We had arranged for a food pickup about halfway through our trip, so our packs were full of 6 days of food for us and the dogs in addition to our clothes and gear.

At the trailhead.

Part way up Piute Pass.

We survived the hike up Piute Pass, and were rewarded with a view of lakes, alpine meadows, and mountain peaks as far as we could see. The next day we began the slow descent back into the trees along Piute Creek for about 12 miles until we connected with the JMT at the northern boundary of King's Canyon NP. This pattern would continue for the rest of our hike - difficult climbs through the forest into alpine meadows and over the next pass only to drop back down into the trees. The incredible views from the passes always made the hard work worthwhile.

Looking ahead at the top of Piute Pass.

Gully the rebel. I'd like to see the Park Ranger catch him!

The section of the trail we did was between 8000 and  11,500 feet. We crossed 4 passes - Piute, Seldon, Silver and Duck -and skirted dozens of lakes and creeks. Besides the scenery, the most amazing part of the hike was the trail itself. Tens of thousands of painstaking hours must have gone into trail construction and maintenance over the years.

Great work by the trail crew.

Looking down Seldon Pass.

The result is relatively gently sloped switchbacks to ease the way up the steep sections. Stairs have been built from the rock at hand to help hikers navigate the sections where switchbacks aren't feasible, and stone retaining walls support much of these steeper trail sections. That doesn't make it easy though. We averaged about 12 miles on our full hiking days, climbing or dropping (usually some combination of the two) over 3000' most days. Our most difficult day we hiked 12.6 miles, climbed over 3000', and descended over 2100'. This all pales in comparison to some of the hikers we met who were doing the full trail or even the Pacific Crest Trail (from Canada to Mexico) and were hiking 20 miles/day or more.

On day 5, we cut off the JMT to hike 6 miles out to the Vermilion Valley Resort. Way back in Oregon, we'd put together a food package for the last 6 days of hiking and sent it to the resort by UPS. The resort really caters to hikers and offers this service for a reasonable fee. When we arrived, our food was there waiting, as were hot showers, cold beer and food that hadn't been dehydrated in a ziplock bag 12 minutes before we ate it.

It was nearing the end of the hiking season, so we didn't see any other hikers there until Bret came in. We spent some time chatting to Bret about his hike and his travels. A young guy from Memphis, he'd quit his job, sold all his belongings and bought an old Westfalia van. He was doing the full 218 mile JMT solo.

In the tent after a nice dinner of steak (me), roast pork (Cyd), and peach pie with ice cream (shared) Cyd did one of our regular foot checks of the dogs. There were sections of packed dirt trail, but a significant amount of our hiking had been on rough rock. Everything had been good up to this point, but by day 5 Ripley had started to develop problems. A pad on one front paw was cracked and oozing fluid and two pads on her other front paw were red and sore.

We quickly considered our options. The road access into Vermilion Valley Resort was on the west side of the Sierra Nevada, and our car was on the east side about 50 hiking miles away. Finishing the hike as planned wasn't a good option for Ripley, so we decided to head back east to the JMT, but exit sooner than planned. We had several exit trails to chose from, and decided to head out in the morning and decide which to take depending on Ripley's condition.

Ripley in her trail-made booties. Held
on with vet wrap.

The resort offers boxes for hikers to leave unneeded food and gear in for other hikers and in the morning I found a discarded pack lid made of cordura. Cyd fashioned a pair of booties for Ripley in no time, and we were on the trail before 11.00 am.  Ripley was none too pleased about her new accessories, but she seemed to be walking pain free. We met a ranger on the trail later in the day, and he suggested we exit over Duck Pass down into the Mammoth ski resort area. It was the prettiest option, and as quick as any of the other trails.

Duck Lake.

Still looking happy and energetic on day 8.

We had about 30 miles to cover between Vermilion Valley Resort and the exit at the Duck Pass trailhead. It took 2 1/2 days, and although Ripley got grumpier by the hour, her feet actually improved a bit with the booties on. By the end of the second long day hiking out, the booties were almost ruined, but Ripley was able to finish the last half day hiking without them.

The final switchbacks down Duck Pass. Mammoth
Mountain ski resort is in the distance.

We arrived at the campground at the trailhead around lunchtime. We were a few miles from Mammoth, and about 20 miles from the car, so I cleaned myself up as well as I could, and prepared to start walking/hitchhiking. As I was about to leave, the fellow at the campsite across the road got into his truck. I ran over quickly, and asked if he was heading into town. He was actually just going a short distance down the road, but when I explained our dilemna, he said he would be back shortly, and drive us to our vehicle.

Jeff is a recently retired firefighter from Riverside City California, a hiker, and a dog lover. On vacation with his family, he was kind enough to take an hour out of his day to take 2 strangers and 2 strange dogs back to their car. We talked about our trip as he drove, and when I offered him a little money for gas, he refused. Jeff said he'd always wanted to travel to South America and wondered if there was any way to follow along with our trip. When I told him I was hoping to start blogging, and would be posting on Facebook once in a while, he said being able to follow along would be payment enough.

It was a little disappointing not to complete our planned 100 mile hike, but we enjoyed 80 miles over 8 days and all 4 of us finished happy, healthy and tired. And we've got a couple of new friends, and you can never have too many of those.