John Muir Trail, September 2006

Another late life crisis? Well, I am a biker, not a hiker. This whole thing started because of my need to lighten my load when I went self-contained biking. Most of the guys use upright bicycles. I use a recumbent. Specifically, I use a Lightning P-38 recumbent. With the panniers, you should only carry about 30 pounds of gear.

In my quest to lighten the load, I cruised the Internet. Through various hiking sites, I came upon Ray Jardine's website. Through his website, I found the answers to many of the questions for lightening my load. Jardine has many kits that can be made. I made a two man tarp kit. Then I made a 40° quilt kit. After that I made a net tent. And then ancillary things such as the bomber hat, and finally a backpack.

I put these things to good use in our self-contained bicycle rides. In further gleanings of the Internet for my self-contained biking, I began to read about all the hiking exploits. Specifically, the Pacific Crest Trail was intriguing to me. It was patently obvious that in my station of life, I would have to get a divorce; if I tried to do the entire Pacific Crest Trail. That would leave Susie alone for some time. The condition of her feet would not allow her to do such a hike, although I think she really does have the stamina to do it. In fact I wasn't so sure I could do anything like that either. Bicycling and hiking are obviously not the same. Unless you fall off, there is no impact from bicycling; as there is with running, or hiking with extra weight. This was painfully aware to me when I did hike this summer.

In any case after looking at a number of books over the last year and a half, I thought I could do a section hike. The John Muir Trail appeared to be the best section hike of the Pacific Crest Trail. So I set about to see if I could do that. Susie said: "Why don't you go and get it out of your craw." That was a blank check to me.

So, I started the arrangements, compiling the many lists, and trying to get my pack weight down to ultralight standards. Then there was the question of how to get to California, make it to the Happy Isles start with only my hiking clothes, and then get home without any outside help. I read a number of online accounts. It is very hard to get northbound starting permits for the Mount Whitney area. That, plus the huge elevation gain, suddenly appeared to be not the thing to do for a flatlander from Iowa. I applied to get a permit from the Yosemite Valley, starting at Happy Isles. This was in January, and I was pleasantly surprised when I received a backcountry permit reservation for the starting date as requested at the end of August. Now that I had the permit, I could go seriously forward. I did a number of short walks, nothing more than 10 miles. And I did hike out to the local park and stayed overnight with my gear. The temperature dropped to 37°, and I was finding out that I needed to wear more clothes; if I was going to use my 40° quilt. I had the makings for a heavier quilt, but never got around to making it; plus I wasn't sure that it would fit in my self-made Jardine pack with all the other things I was taking. I also did use the gear when I went to Wyoming in July. It worked fairly well there. After all, California Sierra is a Mediterranean climate, and even with the rain and snow, I didn't think it would be as severe as Iowa winters or even what I expected on the Continental Divide.

For getting there, we settled on a plane ticket to Las Vegas. Then a half day wait until I could take a commuter flight to Merced, California. The Yosemite area transport bus goes from Merced to Yosemite Valley. I knew the TSA wouldn't allow my packed camping gear. I stayed at a motel in Merced overnight, and geared up with clothes and my pack FedExed to the motel. After a taxi to the downtown station, I took the bus to Yosemite Valley. My traveling clothes were shipped FedEx to my cousin's husband in Fallbrook, California. If I made it, he agreed to pick me up at the end of the hike (265 miles one way for him!). So all I had with me when I left Merced for Yosemite was my hiking clothes and pack. If I didn't make it, I would have to make other arrangements. Having Rob come to get me at the Whitney Portal would take care of getting out of that area at the end of the hike. As it turned out, this was a good thing. I think one can hitchhike successfully down to Lone Pine, but making arrangements from there would be rather difficult. There are buses that run in the local area, going even to Reno. But it would take a few days, including moteling or camping to get out of that area, unless one had transportation specifically arranged. Researching, I couldn't find one-way rental agencies for cars. Enterprise car rental is in Bishop, but you have to bring the car back to them. There is a flying service out of Mammoth. It is rather expensive to have them pick you up at Lone Pine and take you somewhere. Of course, you could always do the hitchhiking thing.

I stayed at the Curry Village in Yosemite for two days. I gave myself a one-day buffer, which I did not need. But, I didn't know that at the time. I did bicycle around the Valley (rental there), and up to the starting point those two days. I also listened to the bear lectures, and car alarms going off in the night from windows breaking; due to bear attacks on the cars looking for food contained therein. The Park Service really doesn't do anything about this, claiming it is up to you to keep the food out of your car and camping area.

The day before my hike I did a round-trip up to Half Dome by way of the Mist Trail coming back on the John Muir Trail leg. I took my mostly loaded pack with me. Unfortunately, I injured my right knee coming down. Probably a right anterior meniscus or ligament. I did not use trekking poles. This turned out to be a big mistake. The injured knee plagued me through most of the trip, being very severe the first few days. It hampered my mileage and almost caused me to quit. With my light pack and previous conditioning, I could pass most going uphill, but the down hill impact killed my knees. I did persevere, however, and by the end of the trek my knee was feeling fairly good again. The problems with the knee had been replaced by foot blisters through the second part of the trip. The foot blisters, I believe, were because I was carrying too much weight after my last resupply. I didn't need all that food, but since I wasn't making my daily mileage, I did not know how much longer the trip was going to take me. After the Muir Trail Ranch, there are no resupply points. So, you have to go with what you have. Otherwise you lose a day or so with 10 to 20 miles extra, having to resupply at a town off the main trail. I was also concerned that if I left a trail to resupply, I probably would give up and not return.

In my preparation I read Mr. Jardine's book on hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. He did that leg of the trail in 10 days. This is based upon a 2 mile an hour average, and hiking 10 hours a day. This idea is probably okay in the springtime. Hiking towards late summer and fall, however the timeframe is a lot less. I found that I could rarely leave before seven o'clock in the morning. Also, one needed to start looking for a campsite at five o'clock in the afternoon. The housekeeping chores, including the evening meal, made it imperative that you are ready for sleep by 7:30 p.m. When the sun goes down, it is dark there. All I had with me was a small pinch light, and not a headlight. So, the total available time hiking is not 10 hours. Also, that precluded resting during the day, the extra time that Mr. Jardine did. That is, 10 minutes out of every hour. There are things you have to do, such as cooking, eating, getting water and preparing the water; and the sanitary things. These all take time, lessening hiking time. There are a number of things I would do differently, and I will relate these later. But, basically it's hard to make a 20 mile day that late in the summer in the high Sierra. When I ran into Mike and Jeremy on the trail, Mike commented on that. Mike is at least 10 years younger than me, and did his PCT through hike around 1980. He is very fit, and out hiked me easily. He is an alumnus of the Pacific Crest Trail, and told me that 13 to 16 miles a day would be very good through the Sierra. This proved to be quite prophetic, specifically with my knee injury, which kept my downhill pace quite sedate.

In addition, I was told in my reading, that the Pacific Crest Trail is "stock grade". Well, it may be stock grade, but there are plenty of boulders and rocks to go up and down over. It's hard to keep a good pace when you're climbing over boulders, up and down passes. It is certainly not a sidewalk or simple path. I also wonder that many of the writers were doing this trail in the spring. At that time the trail is covered with snow. I know it might be hard if they fell through the snow, but if walking on firm snow, it would certainly make the walk a lot easier than boulder climbing during the summer.

I based my hike on the Jardine 10 day time frame. I sent packages for resupply to Red's Meadow and to the Muir Trail Ranch. I wanted to start out very light, and progress up to the mid-hike heavier pack weight. I was very happy with my packages sent to both of these places. I sent them the first of August by Priority Mail. This turned out well, but I did have to send both places e-mails to confirm that the packages had arrived properly. Although I asked for Priority Mail return receipt requested, I never did get that from the post office. The e-mails confirmed that my packages had arrived, which was exceptionally important to me. Especially so at the Muir Trail Ranch, because a loss of supply here would stop the trip cold. I sent more supplies than I needed to the ranch, thinking I could leave or throw away extra material.

For gear I tried to go as totally Jardine as possible. Basically, I looked like a Jardine clone. From my study of him I could see that he is a bona fide genius with over 50 years of outdoor experience. I settled on wearing Pearl Izumi triathlon shorts, two pairs of nylon dress socks, running shoes (Brooks T4 racers), a Paramo short-sleeved shirt, and a Sunday Afternoons Adventure Hat as my "on person" base gear. Because my hands are so soft, I wore oversized protective lightweight bike gloves. I also took a Suunto Vector watch, although I had an Observer watch that I left behind. The Observer weighs slightly more, and did not appear to be as easy to keep clean. I sent a small GPS home at VVR. You don't need it, and probably not a compass either. I used photo gray sunglasses with an additional polarizing lens, rather than separate sunglasses; and got a very short haircut prior to leaving. These things with my loaded pack were the standard hiking day gear. I did get a lot of strange looks, but then I've never cared about the appearance, only the function. This clothing did have some slight flaws. The triathlon shorts function well, specifically in the perspiration wicking function. They did not dry well, however. Mr. Jardine makes his own. I tried a number of Lycra shorts, and after removal of the chamois probably should have used regular biking shorts. The triathlon shorts fit very well, have a small crotch pad which does help buffer your genital outline, and the close fit does prevent chafing. The Lycra workout shorts appeared to be too revealing to me, and I did not want to carry the weight of a pair of over shorts for social reasons. The socks I chose had nylon, and also another microfiber in them with bacteriostatic properties. The sox never did dry on my pack. I believe it was because they were not 100% nylon. In the future I would be certain that if you went this route that your socks were 100% nylon. With creek fordings and perspiration, having wetness on your feet is a good way to foster blisters. The hat and the shirt performed beautifully. The running shoes weighed less than 1 pound a pair. They did work well, but definitely you need to be going ultralight in weight. I ended up taking two pairs. The first pair was the best, but I did not think they had enough miles left in them for the entire trip. I probably had almost 200 miles on these in preparation for the trip. I bought another pair just like them, but they did not wear in as well, and the insoles kept sliding back on me. I carried the extra pair until the Muir Trail Ranch, at which point I finally made the decision to jettison one pair.

I used Bear Valley Pemmican Bars. I ate four of these a day. They are rather bland, but I got used to them. Four of these a day is 1,600 calories. In addition, I used powdered milk, sugar, muesli, corn cereal, and corn pasta. I also used dehydrated pesto sauce that I made at home. I had beef jerky and homemade trail mix. Daily, I would just swallow an ounce of the best olive oil. This came out to 3,641 calories a day. Most of the time I did not eat all of this, specifically the things that needed to be cooked. Using an alcohol stove at altitude is a real pain. It can be done, but it burns up time. Time is something you can't lose. Mostly I settled on the jerky, trail mix, and the bars. I did make sure I had a cooked dinner every night. Usually, I would also eat the muesli cold with milk and sugar at midday. The food was always carried in the pack while hiking. The Park Service mandated bear canister only had a few light things in it by day. Throughout the entire trip I think I lost only about 10 pounds. I did eat like a horse at the Vermilion Valley Ranch. My experience was excellent there. I essentially lost a day, but I needed the recovery. John was instrumental in getting me to detour there, as VVR was not in my original plan.

The backpack and the rest of the gear worked perfectly. At night sleeping I found that wearing Paramo thermal underwear with an ultralight mont-bell vest and jacket, nylon wind suit, along with homemade booties, headgear and gloves; was enough to keep me warm the entire trip. The temperature did go below freezing a number of times. An alpine quilt would have been nice. Because of the large amount of carried food, I'm still not sure a larger quilt and gear would all fit in the Jardine pack. Certainly it would not fit in there with the jacket and the vest and food. Since I only wore those at night, and when I summitted Mount Whitney; possibly the alpine quilt would have fit in the pack without the warmer clothes. However, going with the lighter quilt allowed me more versatility with my clothing. It only rained slightly just before the Muir Trail Ranch, and the afternoon and evening at Guitar Lake, prior to the Whitney summit.

The Whitney summit the following day was "February in Iowa" with snow and high wind. Mt. Whitney is the highest point in the lower 48 states at 14,496 feet. The summit is 1.9 miles off the main trail down. The summit is the official end of the John Muir Trail. It was good that this was my last day on the trail as my clothing is only 3 season. The wind and snow chased me all the way down to the Whitney Portal. All I ate that day hiking was jerky, trail mix and a couple bars. I couldn't risk a blizzard or white out by stopping. When I got to the Whitney Portal Cafe, I ate a double cheeseburger, fries and a Coke...pure ambrosia!

Things I would do differently:

An alcohol stove may be light, but it's function is marginal at altitude. At least the small stove I used was. It would go out repeatedly, before it would finally take hold. Then it would take about an hour to prepare a meal. A canister stove or one with white gas is the way you should go. I know it is extra weight, but the loss of time is more important. I went with the pasta thing, specifically the Jardine corn pasta. It worked well, and was a last-minute choice after I tried many freeze dried foods. I think it would be a lot simpler to use the freeze-dried foods, but I was concerned about healthy, energetic foods. You do have to repackage those for your bear canister. Corn pasta takes up a lot of space, and fills your bear canister very quickly.

Use trekking poles. I ended up using sticks from the forest the last 150 miles. I was going to leave them, but Bruce said: "After all that time with those, you have to take them home". Rob FedExed them to Sioux City. The sticks worked well, but trekking poles are the way to go. I know many ultralight hikers do not use them, but my old knees simply would not take the shock of the unassisted downhill walking.

Take a water filter. It weighs more than iodine or other drops. But if you are drinking at least a quart of water an hour, you will find that half that time you will be carrying an extra couple of pounds. This is because it takes about a half hour for the purification process to work. It's better to use a filter or something else to give you immediate access to water. Then you don't have to carry the extra water on your pack before you can drink it. Also, I think you will drink more water if you use a filter, rather than waiting for it to sterilize. I did have gastrointestinal problems twice on the hike. I was very careful with my sanitation, and also my purification, so I don't know how I got nailed. Possibly from one of my off trail stops along the way. Each time it responded to antibiotics that I took with me.

Footcare. Fortunately, I threw in New Zealand lambswool [Foot Fleece NZ Ltd, PO Box 185, Te Anau (B. A. Neilsen)] from previous treks in New Zealand. The Milford Hike in New Zealand is in the rain, because it is a rain forest. Your feet are wet all the time. What they use there is a powder called Grans remedy and merino lambswool on your feet. This isolates your toes, and by the end of the day the wool has turned into felt. I tried the usual things the first few days and started acquiring blisters. I went to this setup and fortunately had enough lambswool, including my resupply at the Muir Trail Ranch, to make it all the way to Whitney. I don't think I would've been successful without using this technique. I had one particularly severe ulcer that developed on my right fifth toe which I treated with antibiotic ointment, antifungal ointment, and wrapping it in lambswool. With this technique you dress your feet with these things in the morning, and only do it again at night or the next morning. I would only frequently change the outer sock, and leave the inner one alone. The wool felts through your sock, binding to it, as well as your toes. The John Muir Trail is exceptionally dusty, and the fine abrasive dust will sift in everywhere. Irritation also developed on the skin over my Achilles' tendon. I stopped this by using lambswool, and also some judicious duct tape to my shoe. When I did ford streams, I kept my shoes on. I was afraid of falling on the algae covered rocks. I think a better way to go would be to use your insoles, or an extra pair of insoles, inside of socks. Also, you can make mini sandals of old insoles and heavy fishing line. Wade across keeping your hiking shoes dry. Other hikers carried spare shoes for fording (mostly Crocs). Of course, extra shoes increase your pack weight.

High altitude acclimation. Make sure you spend a least one day prior to hiking at some altitude around 5,000 feet. If you are a "flatlander", you need to acclimate to high altitude. Going immediately to the Sierra can give you high altitude sickness. I saw a number of individuals who had this to varying degrees, and were unaware of it. High altitude sickness can be lethal. You can get pulmonary edema, or fluid on the lungs leading to a lack of oxygen with severe breathing problems, or pneumonia. In addition, you can get cerebral edema (brain swelling), which can cause loss of consciousness or coma. If you start at Yosemite, it is 4,600 feet and all up from there. Towards the end you are dwelling at 10,000 feet or higher.

I dictated into a mp3 player as I hiked. If you want to hear the wave files as I dictated them, go to this Daily Journal virtual directory. There are also some more thoughts, some redundant to this page, that I made after listening to the tapes.

My gear list. I only used what was in the far right two columns. Yes, I really do own all that stuff.

Follows is a virtual directory of the trip pictures, reduced to under 500K or less. Move your cursor over the thumbnail pictures below for a caption.

A taste of the trip: