Scott on Life : Life, Nature

A Wrapup of Our 2007 John Muir Trail Attempt

Scott Mitchell — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:39:00 GMT

As I blogged about over several previous blog entires (enumerated below), in August of 2007 my in-laws, a family friend, my wife, and I all tackled the John Muir Trail, a ~220 mile trail stretching from the Happy Isles trail head in Yosemite and to the summit of Mt. Whitney, which, at 14,505 ft., is the highest point in the contiguous United States. We tackled the trail from north to south, starting at Yosemite. Unfortunately, we did not complete the entire length of the JMT; we bailed out about half way through the journey due to some severe blister problems.

Our initial plan was to hike the distance in 23 days, with 21 of those days being hiking days and two of them being rest days (one at Reds Meadow, the other at Vermilion Valley Resort. We ended up spending 14 total days in the wilderness, with 13 hiking days and one rest day (at Reds). We departed from the JMT shortly after Muir Trail Ranch (the half-way point), winding up Piute Creek and exiting at the North Lake trail head.

Even though we didn't meet our goal of completing the JMT, I am glad we made an attempt. Hiking the JMT requires a lot of planning and effort up front, from securing the appropriate permits to determining the necessary supplies and mailing or physically dropping them off at resupply points. Any sort of backpacking trip is physically trying since it involves carrying anywhere from 25-50 pounds on your back, and the trails in the Sierra Nevada are not without a degree of difficulty. The JMT starts at a mere 4,000 ft., but quickly elevates to 9,000 feet and then only drops to 8,000 ft. at a few spots (Reds Meadow, Lake Edison / VVR, and Muir Trail Ranch). 95% of the trail is between 9,000 and 12,000 ft., and three stretches in the southern half of the JMT exceed 13,000 ft. There's a lot of up and down each day, and terrain ranging from soft, yielding dirt to steep granite steps that are hard on the knees.

The hardest part of backpacking, though, is not the physical exhaustion, but just being removed from the creature comforts that we take for granted each day. Going to the bathroom means digging a hole and squatting over it. Dinner means dehydrated meals or trail mix or beef jerky. A shower means a quick dip in a mountain stream or lake sans shampoo or soap where the water temperature is in the 50s. What's surprising to those who've not done a lengthy backpacking trip is the amount of damage your hands receive. They are out in the sun and dirt all day long. They dry out, and crack, causing small nicks and cuts to form, and those sores can quickly develop into infections if you don't take care of them. What I've found works best is to wear lightweight glove liners day-round. You'll still get injuries, because there will be times the glove liners are off and you need to do something with your hands, but they help. When a cut forms, put some antiseptic on it and bandage it up; alternatively, you can encase any developing wounds with climber's tape, which will stay in place and protect against further damage for days.

Despite these hardships, backpacking is a lot of fun and definitely an activity I would encourage all to try. It's nice to get out into the true wilderness, where the nearest road or cell phone or computer or microwave is literally 25 miles or more away. Nothing clears the mind like hard, unceasing physical effort. After a day or two in the wilderness, thoughts about work or stresses from the everyday life are no longer a concern. They have been pushed cleanly from your mind, leaving one's consciousness unpolluted and in a meditative-like state. At night, the stars dance in the sky, and in the day the mountains and trees and meadows and lakes and streams provide an unspoiled scenery too few today get to enjoy.

If you'd care to learn more about our 2007 JMT attempt, you can read about the planning and the various days of our joinery at the following posts:

I'll close with some interesting statistics and links.

Pictures from all 14 days
Estimated Total Mileage: 140 miles
Estimated Total Vertical Ascent: 26,600 ft.
Estimated Total Vertical Descent: 21,300 ft.
Highest Elevation: 11,423 ft. - Day 14 (Piute Pass)
Lowest Elevation: 4,040 ft. - Day 1 (Happy Isles trail head)
My Starting Weight: 165 lbs.
My Finishing Weight: 158 lbs.

Since our JMT bid we have yet to take on any new backpacking trips, although we'll likely pick back up in Spring of 2008. We have, however, done two interesting day hikes. In October we drove up to Yosemite and hiked from Happy Isles to the top of Half Dome. Then, in November, we drove to the Grand Canyon and hiked down to the floor of the canyon and back. I'll blog about those trips in future posts...

The Upcoming Summer of Travel!!

Scott Mitchell — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:44:00 GMT

This past summer my wife and I embarked on a seven-day backpacking trip through the High Sierras along a portion of the John Muir Trail. I blogged about this in a previous entry here on ScottOnLife.com: Week Long Backpacking Trip in the High Sierras Completed. During our jaunt, we hiked along about 40 miles of the JMT through the break taking Evolution Valley, up to Evolution Lake, and over Muir Pass. These 40 miles we covered were but a preview of the trail, seeing as it stretches over 210 miles from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney (and then another 20 miles or so from Mt. Whitney to civilization).

Shortly after finishing our seven day trek in the summer, my wife and I discussed tackling the entire trail. She expressed how it was a challenge she'd like to tackle as I tried to envision what it would be like to go without a shower, a mattress, laundry service, indoor plumbing, and warm, non-dehydrated food for three weeks. (To be fair, there are some developed campgrounds and even a resort along the first half of the trail, where it is possible to launder your clothes, have a hot shower, use the restroom without having to dig a hole in the ground, and to eat real food. But still.)

Despite craving the creature comforts of civilization, such backpacking is enjoyable as it clears the mental cobwebs and concerns and worries and stresses and pressures better than anything else. There's something about the serenity of the wilderness, the utter physical exhaustion, and digging holes to poo in that sort of puts the brain into a semi-comatose state where there are no worries, no distractions, and no errant thoughts. There's just walking and soreness, and the soreness does fade over time. The walking, however, is constant.

In any event, we decided that if we didn't tackle the JMT sooner than later, we'd look up one day, with a couple of trouble making kids scampering around the abode, and have regrets that we didn't tackle this trail while we had the stamina, freedom, and flexibility. So we promised ourselves last fall that we would do the JMT this summer. This involves a lot of planning, mind you, so it's not something you can say, "Hey, let's do the JMT this weekend." Firstly, you need a permit and they only give out a limited number of them each year. The permits are first come, first serve, and are available starting six months in advance of the departure date when the ranger's station opens in the morning. For more popular starting dates - weekends, usually - the day's permits can be gone before lunchtime. In addition to the permits, you need to plan the trip's logistics. There are a handful of resuppy points where you can drop off or mail non-perishables to pick up during your trip so that you don't have to carry three week's worth of food and supplies starting from day 1 on the trip. Many of these resupply points require shipping the supplies at least a month in advance, if not two. In any event, back in February we secured our departure date in August and we recently finalized our supply list and packed and organized and our resupply packages.

Talking about and planning for the JMT brought up other grand ambitions. Many years ago I read Studs Terkel's book Working, which is a sociological look at Americans and their work. It was written in the 1950s, if I recall correctly, and is full of one- to five-page interviews conducted by Studs. The interviewees tell Studs about their work: what they do, how they do it, how they got started, what they like about it, what they hate about it, and so on. He interviews a wide array of people and jobs, from illegal immigrants working hard manual labor jobs to CEOs, and everything in between. What I most enjoyed about that book was the cross-section of America it offered, how it all sort of fits together, and how we are all much more alike than we are different.

I've traveled throughout a good portion of this country, but traveling focuses on the endpoints too often. I drive of fly from point A to point B ignoring what comes in between. Reading those interviews, though, showed that there is a story in between. While the metropolitan areas and tourist hotspots might be the most exciting parts of any country, it's only a tiny slice of it. The rest of the country, while not as glitzy, still has a story to be told.

I would like to see what comes in between points A and B. I would like to enjoy this country's natural scenery that, too often, I only saw from 30,000 feet. To this end, my wife and I (and Sam, our fearless Terrier) are embarking on an ambitious road trip this summer, starting in mid-May and extending until early August. Our plan is to putter around this immense country, taking in the sights, the places, the people. Visiting friends and family. Exploring new cities. Hiking and camping in new national forests and wildernesses. I think it will be an interesting experience and one, like the JMT, is an opportunity that can too easily pass and become a regret.

And if that's not enough travel for one season, we have a two-week trip to Korea that departs in a few days.

During this traveling we will be "working" as little as possible and our connection to the Internet, email, IM, and so on will be radically cut back from several hours a day to probably just a couple hours a week. My wife's last day at her company was yesterday and I've put my consulting projects on hold. My main writing commitment over the past year - the Working with Data in ASP.NET 2.0 tutorials series - has been completed. The only commitments that need to be kept during this trip is my weekly 4GuysFromRolla.com article and monthly Toolbox column in MSDN Magazine. This should give us a chance to recharge and reinvigorate and come back with a renewed focus and intensity on work. My wife will be joining me to work on consulting projects, and we are always kicking around ideas for commercial components/web applications we would like to create and sell.

We are both looking forward to this time off to recharge and reflect as well as the travels to Korea, the road trip across the US, and our long walk through the High Sierras. Should be a fun and interesting summer!

UPDATE [2007-09-11]: We're back! I've recapped the various trips this summer A Recap of Our Trip to Korea; From Sea to Shining Sea (our road trip); and Our 2007 John Muir Trail Attempt.