The John Muir Trail
The most epic trail I’ve done to date! When I heard of the John Muir Trail I knew I absolutely had to do this! The entire trail is about 220 miles of back to back awe-inspiring landscapes. It begins in Yosemite National Park and ends 220 miles south at the top of Mt. Whitney (the highest point in the continental United Sates!).
The challenge of 3 weeks in the Sierra Nevada Wilderness both exhilarated and terrified me. That’s how I knew it was for me! :)
At 10 miles per day that would still take me 22 days to complete the trail. That’s just over 3 weeks of hauling a 35 to 50 lb pack, 10 miles per day, replenishing drinking water from fresh mountain streams and lakes, only eating food and using equipment I could carry on my back, AND if shit really hit the fan, I’d have only my wits and fortitude to keep me alive…. GAME ON!
Day 4 on the John Muir Trail: Banner Peak and my first glimpse of Thousand Island Lake. Don’t let the picture fool you, Banner Peak is MASSIVE.
So HOW DID IT GO?! It was an incredible beautiful challenge that I’ll remember for a lifetime! Even the planning of this trip was a feat! I’ll get into the planning and logistics in a bit, but first I’ll get to some pictures.
Day 1 on the John Muir Trail: Nevada Falls with the back side of Half Dome in the distance.
Day 0
I’d made my way into Yosemite Valley around sundown the night before and set up my tent under a light rain. Tomorrow was my official start date, but for today my only goals were to pick up my wilderness permit and meet up with Becky, my new travel buddy I’d met online.
Yosemite Valley
I packed up my gear and headed over to the Wilderness Center in Yosemite Village to pick up my wilderness permit.
The Wilderness center is also where I picked up my Half Dome permit as well, which was basically just an extra stamp on my Wilderness Permit. Anyone with a Donahue Pass eligible wilderness permit was allowed purchase a Half Dome permit on-site for only $10 if I recall. There are only 9 Donahue Pass eligible permits issued per day (5 reservable, and 4 walk up) so I felt very lucky to have won my permit in the lottery.
The rest of the day I spent wandering around the valley taking in the beauty of the park.
I met Becky at the Bus stop by the welcome center, we picked up her wilderness permit as well, and then spent a little more time in the valley.
Day 1:
7 miles to Clouds Rest Junction
Becky & I woke up in the valley, packed our stuff, did one last check to make sure we had what we needed and unloaded what we didn’t. Stocked up our water and started our hike. This was it!
It took us no time to meet up with Ben & Nate, brothers from the east coast. We hiked together for a spell, leap frogged each other, and hiked together some more along the way. Passed Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, and Little Yosemite Campground.
Day 2
On day 2 I got up LONG before daybreak and headed to half dome. Check out my half dome side trek here:
Day 2 part 2…. I got back to camp from half dome packed up my tent and gear and started hiking! My goal for the day was Sunrise High Sierra Camp. On this leg of the journey I passed the old burnt forest that was now absolutely covered with wildflowers, said goodbye to the backside of half dome, got a peak of the next mountain range (which was absolutely jaw dropping), got a little wet in the rain, and headed up the switchbacks through the mosquito forest before finally arriving at High Sierra Sunrise camp. This was a pretty brutal day.
Day 3 High Sierra Sunrise Camp to Lyle Canyon
Thank the Lord! Not a lot of elevation this day. I spent most of the day taking in the scenes by myself. Through the meadow, through the Cathedral Peaks Pass, up the Columbia Finger, then a long way through the Tuolomne Meadows forest until I reached Lyle Canyon. A peaceful Canyon with a stream and tons of wildlife, allegedly even a ‘beautiful blonde bear’ that some other hikers had seen but I was rather happy not to come across since I was still rocking it solo lol. Just before the end of the day I found myself catching up to Becky, Ben, & Nate filling their water from the stream. We made camp shortly after.
Day 4 Lyle Canyon to Rush Creek
Day 5 Rush Creek to Vivian Lake
Day 6 Vivian Lake to Reds Meadow (the end for now)
Planning & Logistics
Since this was definitely the biggest hiking challenge I’d ever try to do, I knew I needed to do some research first! I started with google and decided on these books and maps!
John Muir Trail Pocket Atlas
Elizabeth Wenk’s guidebook is packed with a TON of information to help you get on the trail! However, I also needed to find out how to get to and from different trail heads, especially since it was very possible that I’d be doing this trip solo. If i’d rented a car, i would have rented it for 21 days to only drive it for 2 since it would be sitting at the trail head once I start hiking. that seemed silly so I decided on Public Transportaion.
Logistics
Figuring out how to get from one place to another was a challenge. I knew I’d start at Happy Isles Trailhead in Yosemite Valley, but how would I get there. Also, what if something critical happens while I was on the trail? I needed to know all the exit points, and since I would be using public transportation, what are all the transportation options at each exit point. This took a LOT of planning. To make it worse, 2023 had a LOT of snow that year, so much that it damaged some of the bridges on the trail as well as a lot of the infrastructure at Tuolomne meadows, so Tuolomne meadows was completely shut down.
I drove my own car from Sioux Falls to Omaha so I could take a direct flight to San Fransisco.
From San Francisco International Airport I took the Barts Railway System to Richmond, a train from Richmond to Merced, and a bus from Merced to Yosemite National Park. I had to download an app to pay for my Barts ticket.
I wouldn’t be able to drop a car off at one end of the trail.
Gear List
Tent: Big Agnus Copper Spur
Sleeping pad: Nemo Tensor Insulated Mummy
Sleeping Bag: Kelty 20C
Pillow: fluffy one
Lantern folding one
Multitool (knife, pliers, etc)
Sun Glasses
Toiletries
tooth paste
tooth brush
hydrogen peroxide
triple antibiotic oinment
toilet paper
dog poop bags
trowel
Cooking and water filtration
Camp Stove: Pocket Rocket
camp stove fuel
lighter
spork
2-liter camel pack
water purification tablets
sawyer squeeze water filtration system
bear canister
