Kevin's Travel Blog

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for September 4, 2009.
Approximate distance hiked: 14.0 miles, 22.5 km.

It took me 2 and 1/2 hours since the moment I got up to when I hit the trail after 10am. I was on vacation, so I wanted to sleep well and not feel always rushed.

As soon as I started hiking, I heard a horse pack coming up behind me. It was a group of hikers on a guided tour doing the second half of the JMT. I picked up my pace right away, not because I was trying to avoid the hikers, but because I didn’t want to walk on a trail full of fresh horse crap.

Physically, I was feeling great. The blister wasn’t bothering me anymore, the switchbacks felt pretty easy to climb, and I almost didn’t notice the weight of my backpack. The weather wasn’t looking too good however, with lots of dark clouds in the sky. I went to visit the Bench Lake Ranger Station but couldn’t find the ranger for some weather info.

Bench Lake Ranger Station

I saw the friendly ranger 5 minutes after getting back on the trail. He told me that a storm was expected for the afternoon and through the weekend. I started to hike faster, trying to go over Pinchot Pass before the rain.

Nasty clouds on top of Pinchot Pass

About 1/2 a mile before the pass, it started to rain. As I stopped to put on my rain jacket, I heard lightning and saw a thunder hit the top of the pass. I made a U-turn right away. I run into the guided tour group as they were marching on despite the storm. The guy who cared for the horses in the group asked me if I was turning around, I said yes and he told me that that was the smart thing to do. I asked him if he wasn’t afraid and his reply was “No choice”.

Suddenly rain turned into hail. I run around looking for a spot to set up my tent. I couldn’t afford to get my clothes wet. I found a semi adequate spot and waited the storm out in the tent, which lasted only about 30 minutes, while eating lunch. I started to realize that I didn’t plan enough sweet food in my diet. I was constantly craving for it.

Coming out of the tent after the hail storm

I initiated my second attempt for Pinchot Pass (12,050 ft, 3673 m). As soon as I start hiking, it started to rain again, although lightly. I also heard thunder again, but it was from far away. I decided to suck it up and keep going. The climb was easy. Once on top, I took a quick video and got the hell out of there.

Looking back north, right before Pinchot Pass

Looking south from Pinchot Pass

The 3.7 miles from Pinchot Pass to Sawmill Pass Junction was very enjoyable. It never stopped raining but it was never hard enough to damp my pants. I really liked hiking without the usual punishing sun. I did this section in no time and caught up to the horse pack.

John Muir Trail sign

The terrain got tougher after the junction so I had to slow down a bit. The trail runs right next to Woods Creek for 3.5 miles before arriving at Woods Creek Junction, where I was going to end the day.

Woods Creek

Woods Creek

There was an note by one of the sings right before the junction, saying that there was a toilet available close by and urging hikers to use it instead of burying their waste.

Note about availability of toilets

There’s a very cool suspension bridge to cross the actual creek. I had seen a video of the bridge before the trip and was really looking forward to cross it. It was a lot of fun.

Woods Creek suspension bridge

Woods Creek suspension bridge

It waited 15 minutes to take the video of the bridge since there was someone cleaning up on the other end of it and I didn’t want him to be in the video. There were a few campsites right by the bridge. I picked one right before the horse pack arrived. The same guy who cared for the horses I had talk to earlier told me that they were gonna set up nearby, and that if I wanted a little more piece and quiet, I could camp on the a few spots about 30 yards away. I followed his advice. One by one, the ten or so hikers in that group arrived at the site. It was quickly getting dark so I ate dinner and did my chores in a hurry.

John Muir Trail Journal Index

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for September 3, 2009.
Approximate distance hiked: 12.3 miles, 19.8 km.

I woke up to good news. The rain had stopped. Apparently it didn’t rain that much at all. There was also almost no condensation inside the tent, which was strange. I spend a ridiculous half an hour cutting the moleskin for my blister. The knife was pretty much useless.

Deer Meadow campsite

Once I joined the trail, it started to climb up immediately. I saw two deers right away. I guess that’s why they call it Deer Meadow. I then encountered a few switchbacks which at the time made me believe were the famous Golden Staircase. I had been looking forward to it since quite a few hikers had mentioned how impressive it was. These switchbacks were not impressive at all, I thought. I continued on and was getting closer and closer to an extremely tall and steep wall of rock. I was starting to wonder how I was going to go around it since on one side was Palisade Creek and on the other was a huge mountain. I wondered this until I saw the real Golden Staircase, switchbacking up the face of the wall. I was very impressed now. The engineering and the amount of work it must have taken to build it were amazing.

Looking back at Deer Meadow

Golden Staircase

Golden Staircase

One last look back at Deer Meadow

For the first one the JMT, my legs were feeling the climb. Before this point, when I got tired it was mostly from running out air, but not muscle fatigue. The following next 5 miles to Mather Pass seemed very long to me.

Heading toward Mather Pass

I met a older couple doing a 3 day hike. The lady told me that her husband was stopping at every lake to fish. I found a nice spot at Lower Palisade Lake to eat lunch before moving on.

Upper Palisade Lake

Palisade Lakes right before Mather Pass

The final ascent to Mather Pass (12,100 ft, 3,688 m) was very rocky. I had to watch each step very carefully to avoid spraining an ankle. Since I miscalculated and didn’t bring enough water, I had to ration it on the way up. I finally hit the pass around 2pm.

On top of Mather Pass

I stayed on top of the pass for a while, enjoying the view, until I fell a few drops of rain fall. I scrambled and started racing down, but it turned out to be a false alarm. The switchbacks immediately after the pass were very rocky too, but after a while the trail became very smooth and enjoyable. I stopped around 4pm for a snack and when I stood up again, my ankles were pretty sore.

I arrived at Main South Fork Kings crossing, my intended camping site, around 5pm. Lots of streams and rivers in this area. Since it was still early, I did some laundry and washed my socks. It took me a long while to get them somewhat clean, so much dust were collected in them. I spotted 4 other people camping in the area but they were kind of far so I didn’t make an effort to go talk to them. All day this day, I had a numb feeling on both of my big toes. I later found out that it wasn’t an uncommon thing to happen in longer hikes.

John Muir Trail Journal Index

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for September 2, 2009.
Approximate distance hiked: 11.3 miles, 18.2 km.

I was starting to realize how much a good night’s sleep regenerated my body. Usually after a long day’s hike, my ankles and feet would be sore, and my quads would be fatigued. But after a good night’s sleep, which was generally at least 10 hours, I would wake up fresh and with no pains.

Small lake west of Helen Lake in the morning

As usual, I was the last one to break camp. Brian and John left first, followed by Jack and Kathy. The trail continued its descent from Muir Pass. This stretch was beautiful, surrounded by huge beautiful mountains such as Black Giant, and plenty of waterfalls created by Kings River’s Middle Fork.

Kings River's Middle Fork

Black Giant on the left

I saw four people from Forest Service clearing bushes and trimming pine trees around the trail. I then saw 3 guys taking a rest from building new switchbacks. It looked like a lot of hard work.

Forest Service workers taking a break

I was hungry all morning. The Snicker and Cliff Bar I had for breakfast were not enough. It seemed like my appetite was getting progressively bigger as the days went by. I couldn’t eat all I wanted at each meal, but I was managing just fine. I stopped at Big Pete Meadow to eat lunch. My visit to Le Conte Canyon Ranger Station was uneventful since the ranger was out on patrol. I was hoping to get some weather information. Grouse Meadow was beautiful so I stopped there for a while to take it all in.

Kings River's Middle Fork

Grouse Meadow

Back on the trail, I soon arrived at Middle Fork Trail Junction. It was there where I saw Jack and Kathy again. They had set up camp and I took a long break to chat with them. They are my heroes. Married for 30 years and they gave each other a JMT hike as anniversary presents. They give me hope that a long and happy marriage is indeed possible. I said good bye to them knowing that I was probably not going to see them again for the rest of this hike.

With Jack and Kathy

I still had 3.6 miles to go until Deer Meadow. By this time, I was starting to feel the weight of the backpack again. My hope was that it was still the food resupply that was causing this, even though I was then carrying 7 days of food instead of the 10 days when I left Muir Trail Ranch. The blister from the previous day was starting to bother me again, but the worst of all was the chafing in the inner thighs. I was a bit worried that all this would dampen my enjoyment of the rest of the hike.

A couple of raindrops started to fall, making me pick up the pace.

Burnt forest right before Deer Meadow

I found a large and empty campsite at Deer Meadow. The rain had stopped by then. I dipped my feet in the stream but the water was freezing. I tried to start a fire but failed again. It didn’t matter though because rain started to fall again soon after. I hurried through dinner and chores and got in the tent around 7:30pm. Once inside, I accidentally caught my Platypus drinking tube’s valve underneath the sleeping mat and lots of water came out. Took me a while to do the best I could to dry the tent’s floor.

I think this was the first day on this hike that I missed a bit the comforts of home.

John Muir Trail Journal Index

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for September 1, 2009.
Approximate distance hiked: 12.2 miles, 19.6 km.

I hit the trail around 8:15am. Jack and Kathy left about 45 minutes earlier than me. It was a cold morning and I started the hike wearing my fleece and the bottom halves of my convertible pants. At the beginning my backpack felt much more tolerable than the previous day, but soon after I went up some switchbacks that made me struggle a bit.

I arrived at Evolution Lake. From this point, the views of the Evolution Range Mountains were up close and very dramatic.

Evolution Lake

Evolution Lake

For a while, I tried to catch up to Jack and Kathy. After a few miles I realized this was pointless. I should just hike my own hike as long as I’m not behind my schedule. It was quite windy and somewhat cold. I run into a guy named Dexter who asked me “Is that you Kevin? From Los Angeles?”. I didn’t recognize him, he told me he knew me from some past web development (my actual job) project but that he couldn’t remember the specifics such as exactly when or where. It struck me as odd since I have pretty good memory and couldn’t remember knowing him from anywhere. He got me for a while and I was very confused. It turns out that he had just met Jack and Kathy and they had told him some info about me, and to look for me. What a character!

Right before Wanda Lake, I felt a hot spot on my left heel. I stopped to check it out and confirmed my first blister of the trip. I applied moleskin around it. The knife I bought at Muir Trail Ranch wasn’t sharp at all, making the task of cutting the moleskin very time consuming. I also had lunch here, enjoying the impressive views of Mount Solomons.

Lots of frogs by Wanda Lake

Approaching Muir Pass

Big fat marmot

Looking back west, right before Muir Pass

Only a few more steps to Muir Pass

The climb to Muir Pass was neither steep nor hard. A few yards before reaching the top I met a group of 2 guys and 2 girls. One of the girls asked me “Are you Kevin? You just missed Jack and Kathy by 15 minutes”. It seemed that everybody on the trail knew my name. I finally reached Muir Pass (11,955 ft, 3,644 m) with pretty Muir Hut on top. Muir Hut was built to offer shelter to hikers caught in bad storms.

Muir Hut

Muir Hut

There were lots of people around the hut. Some checking it out, others waiting for the rest of their group to catch up to them. I stayed there for half an hour before starting my descent. The views to the west of Muir Pass were unreal.

Coming down west from Muir Pass

I planned to hike until a small unnamed lake west of Helen Lake. The 2-mile or so hike to the campsite has extremely rough terrain, which wasn’t helping my blister. I had to pay so much attention to where I landed my feet and hiking poles that I barely looked at the amazing scenery. Arriving at the unnamed lake, I was felling pretty beat. I saw Jack and Kathy waving at me from the distance. We shared the campsite with two very nice guys, Bryan and John. I had seen them the previous day on the trail. They were ending their trip the following day and had a huge bag of extra trail mix. Kathy and I devoured it in no time. A man looking for his daughter dropped by and asked me if we had seen her. We hadn’t. Luckily he was able to find her shortly after and camped closeby.

Looking west from campsite

I was hoping the blister wasn’t going to slow me down for the rest of the trip. I also had terrible chafing in my inner thighs and on the back of my knees. I didn’t have any moisturizer but Kathy let me borrow some of hers, which alleviated the problem a little bit.

John Muir Trail Journal Index

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for August 31, 2009.
Approximate distance hiked: 10.6 miles, 17.1 km.

Mark, Misty, Mike and Andy were already on the trail when I woke up a little bit before 8am. Jack and Kathy were almost finished packing. I met Tom from Alaska, who camped nearby and whom I had met briefly a few days ago at the ferry landing spot at Edison Lake. He was nursing a shin injury and was hoping to get back on the trail soon. I wished him the best before hitting the trail.

My pack was weighting  almost 35 lbs (16 kgs) with the fresh 10-day resupply, and I struggled greatly on the trail. I know most people’s base packs weight more than that and do just fine, but to go from 15lbs to 35 lbs was a huge change for me. I also don’t think the Osprey Exos 46 was designed to carry that much weight. My shoulders were really strained.

The hike was beautiful, especially after crossing Piute Creek and going into Kings Canyon National Park.

Piute Creek crossing

Kings Canyon National Park

I felt that a blister was starting to develop on my left foot. After close inspection, it was just one of the scratches I got crossing the river to Blayney Hot Springs the previous day. No big deal. I stopped at a very nice spot covered by very long and thin tress for lunch. It was a little windy and the trees were swinging left and right, making some cracking noises. Very cool.

Nice shady spot for lunch

For most of this section, the trail runs right by the San Joaquin River, so water was everywhere. After crossing the bridge over the river, a series of switchbacks make me struggle even more. All of my camp mates from last night had resupplies too and were way ahead of me. That made me wonder if I was the only having trouble. But just one look at the scenery around me made it all worth it. The trail now paralleled Evolution Creek and offered a series of small impressive waterfalls.

Evolution Creek

Soon after, I had to get barefoot and cross Evolution Creek. With the help of hiking poles this time, it was a bit better than previous day’s crossing. I was surprised there was not a bridge here and I could imagine this crossing to be difficult earlier in the summer. Not that I expect there to be a bridge every time there is a crossing. It was just strange because the JMT is so hiker friendly with its great number of well maintained bridges.

Evolution Creek crossing

After a while, I emerged from the forest I’d been in for the last few miles and got my first glimpse of Evolution Valley. Many people had told told me how beautiful it was and they were absolutely right. It was very impressive. I was really looking forward to my intended campsite at McClure Meadow to end this long day. When I got to the McClure Ranger Station I knew the end was near. I chatted with the ranger for a bit, inquiring about the weather for the upcoming days. He told me that it should be dry for the rest of the day and the following day, but some moisture was expected after that, caused by the remains of a hurricane from Mexico. Yikes! Bad news. The ranger also told me that there was a very large fire in the Angeles National Forest, about 20 miles from home. More bad news.

McClure Ranger Station

Evolution Valley

A few steps from the ranger station, I found the campsites I was looking for. Right away I recognized Jack and Kathy’s tent. I was great to see them again. It was also great to put my backpack down. No sight of Mark, Misty, Mike or Andy. They must have pushed on and camped at Evolution Lake, about 3 miles down the trail. I had dinner but ate just enough to not feel hungry. I wanted to eat more but decided to conserve food with the storm coming in. With no rain gear, I might be stranded for a few days if it gets nasty.

Evolution Valley

What followed dinner was the best sunset I’ve ever seen in my life. Incredible views of Mounts Darwin, Spencer, Huxley and The Hermit. The scenery was unreal and the silence all around made the whole experience even more surreal. I’m an atheist but for that hour or so I felt spiritual. If I had died at that moment in that spot, I would have died happy.

Evolution Valley sunset

Evolution Valley sunset

Evolution Valley sunset

Evolution Valley sunset

Back at camp, Jack and Kathy had started a nice fire. We had a nice chat before retiring to our tents. Judging by how much I struggled, I was expecting a long 12-mile hike the following day. I planned to get up “early” (by my standards) around 6:30am.

John Muir Trail Journal Index

John Muir Trail Journal Index

Journal entry for August 30, 2009.
Approximate distance hiked: 7.9 miles, 12.6 km.

I slept until almost 8am. The sun was roasting me. It was a hotter morning than usual. Ryan, Andy and Mike were just getting ready to leave when I woke up.

Pond by Marie Lake

Marie Lake

Selden Pass (10,900 ft., 3322 m.) is only a very short climb from Make Lake. There’s always an exciting anticipation when going over a pass to see what’s on the other side.

Look back at Marie Lake from Selden Pass

Look south from Selden Pass

I saw Mark and Misty on the top of the pass. I moved on ahead knowing we would see each other at Muir Trail Ranch in a few hours. Shortly after I stopped at Sallie Keys Lakes for lunch.

Sallie Keyes Lakes

Sallie Keyes Lakes

Making its first appearance on the JMT were manzanita trees which covered the switchbacks going down to the MTR junction. They looked like they were perfectly manicured by a gardener.

Manzanita trees surround the trail

Mark and Misty caught up to me at the MTR trail junction and we hiked the last stretch together. Muir Trail Ranch is a real ranch, with a lot of horses in it. It’s not really backpacker friendly. You basically just pick up your resupply and go. They don’t sell food or drinks. I was able to buy a knife to replace the one I had lost a few days before. I opened my resupply bucket and started sorting out my stuff. There were also about 5 buckets of stuff there for the taking left by previous backpackers. These “hiker bins” were sorted by categories such as toiletries, dehydrated food, snacks, etc. I exchanged some of my Bear Valley bars for Snickers and Cliff Bars. I was really craving very sweet stuff. I also ate two Snickers bars while stuffing my bear canister. Andy and Mike were also there, and Jack and Kathy arrived shortly after. Kathy and I shared a huge bag of almond M&Ms.

After everybody finished packing their stuff, we all hiked together to the nearby campground. We got there by following the trail to Blayney Hot Springs.

Muir Trail Ranch and Blayney Hot Springs sign

There were several suitable camping spots. After settling down, we all went to check out Blayney Hot Springs, which required fording the San Joaquin River. I went barefoot since I didn’t want to get my shoes wet, and as a result I slipped a few times and had a couple of minor scratches on my feet. The rocks in the river were very slippery. The hot spring we found was a big tub. The water was very hot and muddy. We stayed there until the sun started to set.

Back at camp, each of us started to cook dinner. Perhaps feeling sorry for me and my cold food diet, Jack and Kathy were kind enough to share some of their curry noodles with me. We all got together after dinner. Some played cards while others talked about work, travel and other stuff. Good times.

I had completed half of the JMT. The second half promised to be spectacular and challenging, with 12+ miles most days and a series of big passes.

John Muir Trail Journal Index