John Muir Trail

How it began for us…

For several years, my husband and I have talked of taking our boys out on the JMT. We thought the perfect time to tackle this trip would be when the boys hit 13 and 11 years old. We wanted our youngest to be old enough to carry a full pack and 11 seemed like the right age. Then fate stepped in and we were suddenly given a few months in the summer of 2015 when my husband would be free of his commitment to his company and the kids would be on summer break. Did it matter that our youngest was only 9 years old and weighed in at 68 pounds dripping wet? Nahhhh. Did it matter that the farthest we had taken the kids on a backpacking trip was 8 miles in to a lake where we camped for three nights and then hiked back out? Naaaaaaahhhh! We would get the permits first and then we would figure out the rest of it. And so, with little thought for how we would actually execute this 200+ mile trip, in February I set out to book permits to hike the JMT from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney in July or August of 2015.

The first thing I had to do, however, was figure out how long I thought it would take us to hike the JMT from north to south. I knew I wanted to go that direction because it would allow us to build strength and to acclimate along the trail in preparation for summiting Mount Whitney at the end of our journey. I spent several days reading trip logs and websites and looking for info on hiking the JMT with children. I found very little online about taking kids on the JMT. I discovered many bloggers who shared their adventures and photos and trip information. I figured out roughly how many miles we would hike each day and where I thought we could camp each night. The best resource for JMT thru-hike planning is Elizabeth Wenk’s book, John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America’s most famous trail. I also built in a few layover days along the way, assuming we would run into some sort of problem or just need a break from the daily hiking at altitude. Then it was time to secure the permits. I have booked wilderness permits many times before using the recreation.gov site and I thought it would be that easy with the Yosemite leg of our journey. It was clear that Yosemite permits would be really difficult to secure unless you were planning well in advance (which we were not), and even then, there are strict quotas in place to limit the number of hikers on the trail each day. And I learned that you don’t just pop online and book permits out of Yosemite. So I settled for the next best thing — we would join the JMT just south of the Yosemite park boundary. The easiest point of access for us would be just outside of June Lake Village on the Rush Creek Trail.

We have a family home in June Lake and my in-laws generously give us the house whenever we want to be in the Sierras. We arrived in June Lake on Wednesday, July 9, 2015 and were greeted with thunderstorms, hail and lightning and 48 degree weather. The storm pattern was expected to hold for several more days. We would begin our hike on Sunday, just 4 days away. I crossed my fingers that the storm would pass quickly. I didn’t want our first day on the trail to be a rain-soaked one. We spent a few days in June Lake packing up our gear and food and securing our permits. On our way up to June Lake a few days prior, we stopped at the Whitney Portal and left our car in the trail head lot so that it would be waiting for us when we hike out of the wilderness one month from now. We hired a gracious and kind man known as Lone Pine Kurt to drive us from the Whitney Portal to June Lake. After months of preparation, our departure date was finally upon us and we bade farewell to the comforts of June Lake and hit the trail.

JOHN MUIR TRAIL July 12 – August 3, 2015

(click on any photo below to enlarge and enjoy)

Part I: Rush Creek to Red’s Meadow Resort

Day 1: Rush Creek Trailhead to Waugh Lake (approx 8.5 miles)

Day 1: Rush Creek Trailhead with Alexander Robinson

First night on the trail

Waugh Lake

Our first day was really lovely. The hike out of Silver Lake was steep but not complex. We passed Agnew and Gem Lakes and the water levels were extremely low thanks to the multi-year drought plaguing the West. We had lunch at Gem Lake, passed a few pack trains, and reached Waugh Lake in time for a quick swim and then donned our mosquito head nets and set up camp. Our dear friend/step-brother Alexander Robinson decided to join us for the first few days on our trek. It was fun to share the journey with him and to learn from his experience in the wilderness. Thanks for sharing your carton of Sake, Alex!

Day 2: Waugh Lake to the John Muir Trail and Garnet Lake (approx 6.5 miles)

Thousand Island Lake, high noon

Up by 5:30 am and making coffee. It took us a rather long time to break camp so we need to focus on getting faster with these tasks going forward as we have another 22 mornings to tackle on trail! Both boys need to learn to stuff their own sleeping bags and we have a few tasks that we need them to own, otherwise we will never get the early starts we need each day. The best hiking is in the early morning while it is cool and crisp! By 9 am we were hiking the steady climb up Island Pass. My youngest was struck with an altitude headache that just got worse and worse, even with Advil. We found him a spot to nap under some bushes on the shore of Thousand Island Lake and after an hour nap he was a new boy. We ate lunch while he dozed and then made the 2.5 mile trek to Garnet Lake and found the greatest campsite ever. Everyone swam and jumped off the rocks and it was a great night.

Our fabulous camp at Garnet Lake

Day 3: Garnet Lake to Johnston Meadow (approx 10.8 miles)

Up by 5:30 am and making coffee (deja vu) — we wanted to catch the alpenglow on Mount Ritter and we were not disappointed. Moreover, the fish were jumping and we were the

Fishing at dawn, Garnet Lake – 10 stars

only witnesses for miles. My eldest broke out his brand new Tenkara fly fishing rod and took it for a test run. He was thrilled to cast over and over again. He quickly caught and released two small lake trout. We took this as a good omen for the rest of the trip. Hubby wanted to fall asleep seeing the stars so we did not put up the rain fly the previous night. We woke up wet thanks to the morning dew and had to pack the kids’ bags and the tent while they were still wet. Lesson learned (do I need to mention that I had cautioned against sleeping sans rain fly the night before? Naaaaaahhhhh!). We bade Alex farewell — he would hike out and return to civilization — and set out on the JMT toward Shadow Lake and the Ediza Lake junction. Alex generously offered to call my parents to let them know that we were still alive — my mother was convinced mountain lions would devour us along the trail (thank you Alex). We backpacked to Ediza last summer and spent 4 glorious days there. It is a perfect place for a family trip with lots of great lakes to visit on day hikes.

Near the Ediza Lake junction

Life on the trail

Gorgeous Gladys Lake — 10 stars!

From there, we had a steep switch-back climb through forest to Rosalie Lake (lovely). Just over the summit we saw gorgeous Gladys Lake and enjoyed a perfect lunch spot overlooking the lake. A long, dry descent on a dusty pumice filled trail took us to Johnston Meadow. The kids were wiped out and we all felt trail weary as we set up camp near the pond (green and murky). Not a great place to camp, but our only option as it was 4:30pm and we need to eat and go to sleep. Had to filter water from the pond and the murky water clogged up our filter. Yuck. It worked, however, and at least we had potable water. We fell into our tent after dinner to get ready for bed and that was when we first noticed the foul odor coming from our older son’s feet. It smelled like someone had taken a moldy hunk of stinky cheese and stuffed it in his socks and then left it to spoil in the hot sun. The tent reeked. We quickly shoved his feet into his sleeping bag and told him not to remove them until morning. How could a boy that cute and loving produce a stench that disgusting?

Part II: Red’s Meadow to Muir Trail Ranch

Day 4: Johnston Meadow to Red’s Meadow Resort (resupply) to Deer Creek (approx 9.5 miles)

More food than we can carry. Uh-oh!

Red’s Meadow junction

Opening our resupply buckets

The greatest burgers of our lives!

Day 4 found us up and out early. Our camp left little to be desired and we knew there were burgers to be had for lunch if we could get our butts to Red’s Meadow Resort! We had a lovely hike through Devil’s Postpile National Monument. We caught 2 glimpses of the rock formations from the JMT (we have been there many times before) and we reached the resort by 10 am. The resort general store was perfect: first aid supplies, drinks, and food. Of course they didn’t have what we really needed — a pack of playing cards and moleskin — but we forgave them because they did have our resupply buckets ready. Hubby paid $1 for some shampoo and conditioner, $2 for a towel and $7 for a shower. He took our eldest to shower and wash that boy’s extremely stinky feet. I spent a good hour filling our packs with food and supplies (and I had mailed us a pack of cards!). I gave away several salamis and half the oatmeal I had prepared. I also donated about 30 Kind bars, a hunk of Manchego cheese, a small pack towel and 2 sierra cups to the backpacker’s bin. I made a lot of PCTers very happy with the loot I added to the cache. We had to cut weight wherever we could as hubby and I would be carrying food for 4 people for 7 days. You would not believe how heavy our packs were! We ditched half of the tortilla packages I shipped and still the packs were soooo heavy. We had an amazing lunch in the cafe, shouldered our very heavy packs, and set out on the trail. I tried my cell phone and managed to get a call out to my parents. They were so happy to hear from us and to know we were ok. We hiked through the burned out forest of the ’92 Rainbow Fire. Erie. We could see Mammoth Mountain and it was odd to see such a familiar site after days in the wilderness. After a hard, dusty uphill climb we arrived at Deer Creek about 4pm. The creek is gorgeous, kids caught and released a bunch of fish and we had dinner by a small campfire. That and a hit or two of bourbon and what more could you want in life?

Day 5: Deer Creek to Duck Creek (approx 5.5 miles)

Hanging with our new friends Callie, Pam and Jody

Camp sweet camp at Duck Creek

Cards by headlamp light

We have gotten much better with the morning routine and now we start packing while the coffee is brewing. The kids are still working on mastering the art of stuffing a bag into a stuff sack and every day they get closer to doing the task all on their own. I have the fun task each morning of pulling all of the food and toiletries out of our 4 bear cannisters and then re-packing our packs so that Mike and I have the heavy loads and the kids carry the light loads. We have so much food weight and it makes me want to hurry to the next camp so that we can eat another meal and lighten the loads. Hubby’s back was bothering him last night so today I carried a heavier pack than usual (about 48 lbs on my 5’5″, 115lb frame) and my eldest carried about 30 lbs today. Hubby’s pack was still at least 65 lbs thanks to the food we had to carry. I was in bad shape on this day — it was hot and my pack was too heavy. We arrived at Duck Creek at 12:30 today and stopped for lunch. My youngest’s feet were in bad shape with blisters and hot spots everywhere. His boots were just poorly made and I felt terrible. I announced that I was done for the day. We found a place to camp and we met a really nice man, Jody, who was solo hiking to celebrate his 65th birthday. We also met a mother daughter team, Pam and 9 year-old Callie, from Minnesota. It was their first time hiking the Sierra Nevadas and they were doing the entire JMT! Awesome! I spent the afternoon doing laundry and charging the camera battery with my solar panel (so cool!). Boys had a blast fishing and just being free.

Day 6: Duck Creek to Squaw Lake (approx 9.8 miles)

Morning comes much too quickly

Coville’s Columbine

A deer at Virginia Lake — 10 stars

Heigh ho, heigh ho!

Hubby suggested we skip cooking this morning and we ate bars for breakfast. Boy did that save us some time! I had to doctor my poor younger boy’s feet — he has been so brave this trip and has endured long days of hiking as his boots rub his feet raw. Each evening we air out his feet and then put on dry, clean socks only to have his boots chew up his feet again the next day. His boots were really poorly constructed. They completely lost their structure after 20 miles of hiking and gave him zero support. I will never buy Hi-Tec brand boots again!!! We were on the trail by 7:15 am and reached the lovely Virginia Lake by 9:30. Too early to swim and have lunch — too bad because it is a perfect spot! We had a long descent to Tully Hole and lunch by the river as it roared through the rocky canyon. It was a steep climb out of Tully Hole but we made it to Squaw Lake by 3pm or so. We connected again with Jody and also with Pam and Callie. The kids had fun chasing frogs in the marshy banks of the lake and the quiet beauty of the sunset was breathtaking.

The sun sets on Squaw Lake

My camp kitchen sink

The climb up to Squaw Lake

Day 7: Squaw Lake to Mono Creek/Lake Thomas A. Edison (approx 9 miles)

Hiking above Squaw Lake

On our way up Silver Pass

Coming down the back side of Silver Pass

A long hike downhill

We had an early start and it was a very chilly morning. We said goodbye to our friends and started up Silver Pass. We soon summited the 10,895′ Silver Pass, our first big pass!! We headed down into a lovely basin and soon found ourselves back in switchbacks through trees. We all wore fleece layers, hats and gloves. This day was probably the most trying of the whole trip. My youngest’s feet were raw and I was running low on bandages. Hubby’s back was grumpy and I took a sleeping bag off his over-loaded pack and added it to mine. Then my back was grumpy. We were tired. My sweet son was miserable with his feet and then his pants were chafing his thighs. Ugh. I applied some salve but that stung and he was not happy. I felt the doubt creep into my thoughts — was I asking too much of a 9 year old kid? Was he going to look back on this and hate us later in life? We trudged on downhill and reached the Mono Creek Trail that would take us off the JMT and down to Lake Thomas A. Edison. My plan was to continue a few miles down the JMT to Quail meadows, but it was clear we needed to stop for the day. We found an old horse camp along the Mono Creek Trail and it should have been on the banks of Lake Tho. A. Edison but the lake had been drained down (it is a man-made reservoir) and our camp was on the banks of a dry lake bed with a creek quite a ways off. We set up the tent and my boy and I crawled in and fell asleep for a solid 3 hours while my husband and older son went exploring. We woke up refreshed and spent the early evening swimming in the creek and exploring together. After dinner, hubby and I finished off the flask of bourbon we picked up from our last resupply. You have no idea how amazing bourbon and whiskey taste at altitude after a 9 mile hike. I prayed that I remembered to include a flask in the resupply shipment we would be picking up next!!

Where is Lake Edison? It’s supposed to be right here.

Here is Mono Creek and there is Lake Edison waaaaay in the distance.

A lovely pool for fishing and swimming

Big boy sunbathing

Beauty rising from the lake bed

Day 8: Mono Creek/Lake Thomas A. Edison to Bear Creek (approx 9.2 miles)

Our morning routine is really dialed in now. We fill our hydration bags and I prepare lunch the night before so that we can hit the trail early. We had to hike a mile back out to the JMT. The trail started to climb immediately and we climbed switch-backs for over 2 hours. Thankfully we had cool weather and high cloud cover so it was bearable. We met many nice people on the trail and they all had encouraging words and praise for the boys.

Planning the next camp spot

Bear scat — we never saw any bears.

Threatening skies…

This is the trail. Icky mud in July.

Sierra button

There were signs of recent rains everywhere and the flowers along the trail were abundant. We soon arrived at Bear Creek and crossed it, searching for a good camp site. Clouds were building overhead and thunder began to rumble so we hustled up the trail to escape the mosquitos near the creek. We found a flat, grassy spot just off trail and as we threw the tent up, the first rain drops began to fall. We threw our gear and ourselves inside and then hunkered down as it rained for two hours. Our youngest snoozed, I organized our food and gear, and my husband and eldest played cards and took turns passing gas. There are no words to describe what it smelled like in that tent with 4 bodies and all of the flaps zipped up tight to keep out the mosquitos and the rain. Death would have been a welcome respite from the stench. The rain subsided and we escaped the tent — the boys off to fish the creek and hubby and I to prepare drinking water and dinner. The boys unfortunately snagged their last fly on a log under the surface of the water and lost it. My eldest was heartbroken. It was only Day 8 and he had lost all 10 flies. He now had a mission: to find a kind fisherman along the trail and offer to trade for, or buy, some flies. Both boys showed amazing fortitude this day — the tough hike, the rain, and the loss of the flies — they took it all in stride and stayed positive. The trail is forming them, shaping them, building them up.

Making dinner in a mosquito head net. So stylish.

Scarfing down dinner before the mosquitos attack

Day 9: Bear Creek to Sallie Keyes Lakes (approx 8.2 miles)

Jawa Sandcrawler Mountain (may actually be called Seven Gables).

We were up and out early today. There were a few mosquitos at 6 am and we couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Not a great place to camp. The boys were very proactive in looking for ways to help pack up camp — something is changing in them. Eureka! Today we would climb from 9,330′ to 10,880′ Seldon Pass and then on to our final destination, Sallie Keyes Lakes. We summited the pass fairly quickly and watched the sun rise. It lit up a mountain to the east that looked just like the Jawa transport vehicle (a sandcrawler, to be precise) from Star Wars. From there, we continued to climb through marshy and forested sections of the trail until we reached beautiful Marie Lake. The trail skirted the lake and Seldon Pass was at the far end. We summited Seldon by 9:30 that morning and met a hiker named Thaddeus who captured a great family photo at the top. He also interviewed the boys for a

One of our many stream crossings on the trail

Almost to the top

Figuring out how to secure his own pack

Our family a top Seldon Pass, 10,880′

youtube video diary he was putting together on this JMT hike. We gave Marie Lake 10 stars and it would be an epic place to camp. We started down hill and in an hour we had reached Sallie Keyes Lakes. We planned to stay 2 nights here. We needed a bit of down time and also, we were scheduled to pick up our resupply at Muir Trail Ranch on July 22, two days later. We were only 5 miles from MTR and so we decided to hang here until the 22nd. We found a beautiful campsite in the trees and overlooking the upper lake. After lunch I washed some of our clothes and the clouds began to gather overhead. Then the thunder and lightning ripped through the valley. Hubby and the boys were off exploring and I could hear their voices echoing but could not see them. I wanted them back at the tent with me. I called to them and told them to get back to camp. There were several more bolts of lightning before they made it back and we hunkered down in the tent to ride out the storm. Hail came crashing down and the noise in the tent was intense. You had to yell to be heard. The sound of the storm lulled me to sleep. Hubby and boys played games and it hailed and then rained for over 3 hours. By 5:00pm we were out of the tent and hungry. Dinner was sucked down in a matter of minutes — the boys are experiencing real hunger for the first time in their lives. It is almost impossible to consume enough food for the amount of calories we are burning each day on the trail. We simply do not have enough food with us! The boys explored after dinner and found an amazing meadow. They ran back to tell us and we all walked over to see it. It was a pristine green meadow with a waterway snaking through it and it was magical. We were so happy we had a whole extra day here tomorrow!