John Muir Trail Journal Day8

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them.

I didn't even notice until now (8:20 p.m.) that today was Saturday. The wilderness doesn't have much definition between days.

Today was tough but beautiful. I started at a junction of Piute trail just near the entrance of Kings Canyon National Park. Piute creek had a lot of water. The stream was intense. The creek was running high in the deep canyon. After hiking along Piute creek, then trail followed Evolution creek. This creek was also intense. Once I took off my shoes and socks to cross it, but the water level was at my waist. The stream was stronger than I had expected. It was scary and very adventurous. After that there was the Evolution meadow, where I ascended, ascended, and ascended.

Wanda Lake

Evolution Lake and Sapphire Lake are both beautiful, but the most beautiful lake today was Wanda Lake. It was so blue. Actually I got scared because it was too beautiful and the water was so clear. I was able to see the rocks on the bottom. The lake was very deep. I have never gotten scared because something is too pretty.
I thought about stopping there, but it was still 3 p.m. I decided to continue. I continued climbing up to Muir Pass. There is a small stone house called Muir Hut at the top. It was built by Sierra Club in 1930. I admired John Muir. Then I set up a camp at Helen Lake. Nobody was there. Camping by a lake gives you more solitude but it is very cold compared to camping near a creek at a lower altitude. 

 

John Muir Trail Journal Day7

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them. 

It's been a week since I've started backpacking the JMT. Luckily I don't have any muscle pain. I really appreciate that I can have a body to do this.

Today's highlight was Selden Pass. From there, I was able to see Marie Lake in the distance. 

The north view was especially amazing. Marie Lakes was so quiet, peaceful and beautiful with mountains in the background.
Heart Lake was actually the shape of heart. It's cute.
Then Sallie Lakes showed up. The lakes were also so quiet and pretty.
The view is always terrific before and after a pass.

Selden Pass

Around 3:30 p.m., I stopped by Muir Trail Ranch to resupply. This place was a real ranch. They had a lot of horses. I got my food and bought a fuel canister.
There were many donation buckets where hikers can put extra/unneeded stuff.
I was able to get bandaids for my blisters.
At the ranch, I saw some JMTers and a PCT hiker. It's cool. PCT sounded more challenging. I heard that PCT hikers walk until midnight. They are so hardcore.
It was very nice to see other JMTers and even a PCT hiker. I think it was because of a sense of camaraderie.

 

John Muir Trail Journal Day6

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them.

 

Day6 Cascade Creek Junction-Silver Pass-Bear Creek Junction

Today's highlight was Silver Pass. 

Usually there is not much vegetation in the mountains at alutitudes above 10,000 feet. The scenery is mostly rocks and lakes. 

It was pretty impressive. Silver Pass Lake was so beautiful. 

I was surprised that the horses could climb up to the lake. It was 10,530 feet.

Sometimes the horses carry food for humans and sometimes they carry humans. 

It is expensive to travel with the groups that have horse and pack animals. It can cost as much as $2000 per day to go deep into the wilderness and camp at a log house with all of the food and camping gear carried by horses. 

My entire 2-week JMT trip costs $5 for a permit. In my opinion, trabeling in the outdoors should be inexpensive.

After I descended from Silver Pass, which was 10,895 feet high, to 7,870 feet, I had to climb up to 10,000 feet again. 

Achieving a 2,000 foot elevation gain in 1.5 miles was hard. The scenery was the same for the whole uphill area. I started ascending around 3 p.m. and finished around 6 p.m. It was very hard both physically and psychologically. It was my first time thinking why I was doing this. The hill was too steep and I got mad at John Muir, although JMT was not made by him.
Also I got multiple blisters for the first time during backpacking, so it made me feel tired. Finally I got to Bear Creek and set up a camp.

Silver Pass

John Muir Trail Journal Day5

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them.

 

Day5

I couldn't sleep well last night, probably because a deer came to my tent in the middle of the night.
Because I didn't set up a camp in a developed area, the deer must not have expected a tent. 

I was woken up by a sound, somehting jumping on a ground. Deer have a jump-like run, so I suspected them. 

Bears should be more sneaky when they want to steal food from humans. I opened the zipper of my sleeping bag and tried to make a noise to make him/her away by using a water bottle and my glass case. However, the sound of the zipper seemed  to have already scared the deer, and it ran away. So I decided not to make a noise and tried to go back to sleep, but it was difficult.

Lake Virginia

Anyway Today I started at Devil's Postpile and went to Cascade Valley trail junction.

Today's highlight was Lake Verginia in John Muir Wilderness.

It was one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen. 

Today was perfectly sunny, so the lake was reflecting the blue sky and made a pretty and peaceful scenery. 

I will never forget this lake. 

John Muir Trail Journal Day4

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them.

 

Day4 Marie Lakes Junction to Devil's Postpile

It was very beautiful today. It was sunny. After the rain, the scenery got even prettier. The sky was blue and the Sierra mountains were all around us. They are a perfect match.

I saw Thousand Island Lake, Garnet Lake, Rosalie Lake, and Shadow Lake. They are so beautiful. I really appreciate the beauty. 

Thousand Lake Area

Thousand Island Lake-my favorite

Actually exactly a year ago, I came to the Thousand Island Lake area. I saw a few people doing JMT on the trail, but it had never crossed my mind there would be a time for me to do the entire JMT hike. However, it did happen just a year later!
This means I don't know what could happen the next year.

I entered the Devil's Postpile area in the evening. 

Devil's Postpile

I saw this monument last year. The trail I hiked was right near the monument and looked up to it. The JMT is also in the monument area, but it is located a little higher. It was interesting to see the monument from an upper place. I was rememberng the friends I hiked this place with last year. I wished they could have joined this JMT trip.

Then I realized that it was already near 7 p.m. Because deer were on a trail, I needed some time to drive them away by making noise.

I had to set a camp soon. 

A wilderness permit officially allows one to pitch a tent only on developed areas, but an important point is use good wilderness sense. I needed to stop before sunset. So I set a camp in the clearly undeveloped area.

John Muir Trail Journal Day3

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them.

 

Day3 Tuolumne Meadow-Dnohue Pass-Marie Lakes

Leaving crowded Yosemite, I have entered the Eastern Sierra.

The Eastern Sierra is always cool, strict, but attractive to me. 

Grey mountains, dry land, they talk to my heart, my conscience, places that I didn't even know existed, or somewhere deep inside of my body.

Donohue Pass

To finish JMT, I need to pass at least 10 peaks. Farther south, the peaks are higher. The most southern one is Mt.Whitney, the second tallest one, called Forester Pass, is to the north of Mt.Whitney.

Donohue Pass was the first peak on this JMT trip. It's just south of Yosemite, and it's the entrance for the Eastern Sierra. By the time I reached the summit, there were absolutely no general hikers, only JMT backpackers. Donohue Pass was just around 10,000 feet high, but it was hard. I was surprised that 5 or 6 hikers passed me. They were so fast. 

One thing I forgot to bring was a raincover for my backpack. Around 5 p.m., it started raining, so I had to stop hiking. I stopped under rocks to avoid getting wet. I got a little upset because my schedule was further behind if I could not hike more.

Luckily the rain got weaker, I hiked a few miles more and pitched a tent. 

I have realized I am an immature backpacker because I forgot an important gear and I easily got upset. 

Anyway, I am glad finally I entered the Eastern Sierra region.

John Muir Trail Journal Day2

I did 211 mile (340 km) John Muir Trail thru-hike in July, 2014, by myself.

JMT hike is memorable and life-time accomplishment.
Every night during JMT, I wrote journal. I will share them. 

 

John Muir Trail Journal Day2

 

Near Sunrise

 

Because I didn't eat anything last night, I ate porridge for breakfast.

Today started with a steep switchback to Sunrise Camp.
After that, it was downhill to the Tuolumne Meadows. 

I had a side trip to Cathedral Lake. It was beautiful. Cathedral Peak in the back of the lake was so cool.

Cathedral Lake

 

 

Downhill was kind of hectic. Then I stopped by a general store at Tuolumne and bought a small size fuel, ice cream, and orange. 

Ice cream might be cheating when backpacking, but it was the only chance to have it all the way.

I camped at Tuolumne Meadow backpackers' campground. It was fully occupied, so I asked to share the site. The site was already used by two parties. One was a couple from Canada. They were French Canadian JMT hikers who were in their 60's. They were so nice. Someday I want to backpack like them. They have been to Hokkaido for camping. The other was a solo female JMT hiker. She was also very nice, she had a month off and doing JMT. She was glad to see a fellow solo female hiker. I was encouraged by meeting another solo female hiker.

I like to interact with nice hikers. It is weird that I can talk with them like I'm their friend. 

One of the best part of hiking is that I get to enjoy sharing my experience with other hikers on the trail. 

I found myself feeling happy just talking with people, which has never happened in my daily life.