JMT Day 3- Sunrise High Sierra Camp to Tuolumne Meadows

July 18, 2014

Today was a much easier day, only 500-600 feet of vertical gain right away in the morning up Cathedral Pass, then it was mostly all downhill, all the way to Tuolumne Meadows!

Our destination lie on the other side of that peak!

Last night and this morning was the first time I really felt the elevation- I was out of breath just walking around camp! We camped at 9300 feet last night, which is 2000 feet higher than the previous night at Clouds Rest. We lost some elevation in Tuolumne and camped at 8500 feet tonight and I didn't feel the elevation at all.

The view from Cathedral Pass, 9703 ft

Looking south from Cathedral Pass

Is this real life??!

Today was the first day that my feet hurt from all the downhill hiking, this would become the norm for me every day. I came to dread the downhills because it hurt my feet and my knees so much!


We passed a lot of day hikers/tourists and also met a ton of other JMTers. It was fun to chat with them and share our experiences so far. We happened to cluster up at Tuolumne, where the trail meets the shuttle stop. We all opted to take the "Burger Shuttle" to Tuolumne Grill so we could get burgers before it closed at 5:00 pm. We got rowdy and a little slap happy on the shuttle, which had about 6 or 8 non-hikers on it, and chanted "burgers, burgers, burgers" to the amusement of the shuttle driver. We were all so happy to not be walking and about to be eating some greasy burgers! We were all dirty and smelled terrible and felt slightly bad for the other non-hikers on the shuttle...sorry we stunk up the place!

BURGER SHUTTLE!

We all feasted on burgers and ice cream cones and bought beer at the small store. We met who we would come to call "The Wild Boys", who were 3 childhood amigos, all around the age of 21. They were young, funny, fit and on a very fast schedule to finish the trail. We also met the brother and sister duo Ethan and Haley, who we had actually met on day 1, right at the trailhead sign! We took turns taking each other's pictures! We also met Thomas, the German, who was OF COURSE an engineer! He pretended to take offense when I said "of course you are, you're German!" when he told me he was an engineer :) Along with the above mentioned and more, about 10 of us in all, walked together to the nearby backpacker's camp and found tent sites to crash for the night.


We met some PCTers at the Grill, which at first I was thrilled!!! Wow! PCT hikers! I had been following so many PCTers and now here I was meeting some! Too bad they were loud, obnoxious and mostly drunk :) And one dude tried to hit on me which I shut down immediately. I understand that there aren't a lot of females out there in the backcountry, but I was having none of it! I was wondering what they were doing in Tuolumne as a lot of PCTers were in Northern California or Southern Oregon by now....then they said they were a couple weeks behind schedule. Now it all makes sense.

We camped near Haley and Ethan, who were hiking the JMT to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes and we also met Amelia and her crew. We would come to be good trail friends with Amelia and her crew in the coming days.

After some hanging out and use of the flush toilets (!!!) we called it a night and I fell asleep immediately! Hiking is tiring!

I think this is one of the only campsites I forgot to take a picture of...whoops. Elevation 8593.

JMT Day 2- Clouds Rest trail junction to Sunrise High Sierra Camp

July 17, 2014


Day 2 would go down in my journal as one of the toughest days on the trail. We heard from many, many hikers that the first 3 days on the trail are the toughest and a lot of people quit the trail after just 3 days, when they reach Tuolumne Meadows. I thought they were full of it as I couldn't believe anyone would quit after just 3 days, I mean you've only just begun! Then we started day 2. And I didn't eat anything for breakfast because I wasn't hungry. Then we continued our upward trek, up, up, up 700 vertical feet of gain in the first couple miles: GOOD MORNING!! Whelp, that was the first and last day on trail that I did not eat breakfast. I was completely out of gas within the first mile! As we continued to gain elevation, I continued to slow down...and gulp for air...and then the bugs came...and then I was out of powers. We had to stop to eat something and take a break. I ate with my bug head net on <--- the bug head net would become one of my favorite accessories on trail!! Kept the bugs out of my ears, eyes, nose and mouth and kept me sane and from having to swat at bugs constantly. Hurray for the bug head net!

Those are sour patch kids I'm eating, breakfast of champions!

As we were sittin on a rock eating our breakfast, a friendly gal came trotting by and asked if we were doing the JMT. We smiled real big and said "yep!". Then she said "can I see your permit?". Fudge. I got out our permit and she said "you came all the way here from Illouette Basin this morning?!". I tried to be vague and said that "no, we camped on "this" side of Illouette...", she asked if we stayed in Little Yosemite Valley (LYV) the night before and when we said no, she said OK, gave back the permit and wished us happy trails. I thought we were going to be in trouble as our permit had us camping south off the JMT in Illouette Basin for our first night...well, I thought that was dumb as it would've added another day to our trip, so we didn't stay there and instead camped at Clouds Rest. Really, it seems that as long as you do not stay at LYV no one really cares. LYV permits sell out instantly as a lot of people hike there, stay the night and then summit Half Dome the next morning. I thought for sure we were going to be in trouble! Great! Our second day on trail and we get....kicked off? I don't know what they would do but I was grateful the gal didn't really seem to care. Phew.

The view from the trail a few miles east of the Half Dome cutoff trail. The Sierras seriously never disappoint

As we started up the switchbacks at Sunrise Creek I hit another wall. It was so HAWT! And dry! I stopped at every single corner of every single switchback to sip water and gulp oxygen. All the corners were shaded so I would hide in the shade for as long as it took to take 3 sips of water and 3 deep breaths, then carry on. This was my cadence all the way to the top of the 1000 ft gain of the switchbacks , about 2 hours! Daveed tanked it up the switchbacks with seemingly effortless pace, stopping patiently to wait for me every so often. And this was the day that the "shade" rule came into existence: I would only stop in the shade. If Daveed stopped in the sun, I would either stop before I got to him or walk past him until I found a shade patch :) He would tease me and call me a princess, until a day or 2 later when he adopted the same rule :) We became shade dwellers during the day and sun seekers in the early mornings once we got to higher elevations.

After the Sunrise switchbacks we were rewarded for our efforts with our first views of Echo Peaks and Cathedral Peak.  We stopped to have lunch and enjoy the beautiful views. I couldn't get my boots off any faster. The sweat and heat had warped my feet into what looked like pale, wrinkly, anemic fish. I also had a small blister that started to form on the back of my heel, which would plague me the rest of the trip. It was easily dealt with by putting duct tape on the outside of my liner sock. I found that nothing would stick to my feet once they started sweating so I tried putting the tape on my liner sock and it worked beautifully. I was also able to reuse the tape; I would wear the same socks without washing for 2 days in a row. Which meant I used half as much duck tape and didn't need to carry as much with me. It also meant my feet were extra ripe smelling!!

Decent lunch spot

With tired, aching feet we chugged on until we arrived at Sunrise High Sierra Camp. A lush, spongy meadow opened in front of us with great views of Cathedral Peak. An old chatty lady approached us and informed us that there were small campsites on the hillside, a spigot for water and a pit toilet. What??!! Really??!! Water and a pit toilet?! We HAD to stop and camp here. I was super tired and practically begged Daveed to stop here to camp. He agreed to explore the hillside to find the water and pit toilet, then we ate an early dinner around 4:00. Then I was really done. Our goal for the day was Upper Cathedral Lake, which was another 2 or 3 miles away and another 800 feet of gain. I was so full and sleepy after eating. Daveed agreed and we camped where we were for the night.

The meadow at Sunrise High Sierra Camp, with views of Cathedral and Echo Peaks

"Laundry"

We heard the dinner bell ring for the campers who were staying at the staffed and very expensive Sunrise High Sierra Camp. Imagine that! Dinner served to you. Wow! All supplies are packed in daily via pack mule trains, all garbage is packed out daily via pack mule trains. A strange concept to me. But I suppose as long as people continue to pay for it, they'll continue to do it. At any rate, I appreciated the water spigot and was very psyched on the pit toilet!

Pack mule train passing us on the trail

Camp at Sunrise High Sierra Camp, elevation 9300 ft  

JMT Day 1- Happy Isles to Clouds Rest trail junction

July 16, 2014

"Holy shit we're actually doing this!!"

Day numero uno. After nearly a year of planning, it's finally here! I can't believe it! Today is the day we start the JMT!

Our packs felt super heavy. "We test drove all of this at home before we left and it did NOT feel this heavy, what gives?? Damn this bear can stuffed with food is SO heavy! Dang, Imma fall backwards at the slightest imbalance. Or face plant. You got my spot? My pack is too heavy, I can't bend down to pick up my trekking poles, can I get an assist?"-- and on and on, poor Daveed had to help me so much! And through it all, with his bigger, heavier pack, with patience and grace, he helped me get my pack on every day, at every break, at every lunch n munch, at every pee stop. Never complaining, what a sweetheart.

Well....we got a late start. What else is new?! This would be a daily recurring theme for the entire trail :) I realized about 300 yards after we started hiking that I had forgotten to pack a contact case. Whoops. Back to the car! OK, lets get started for real this time. But after I use the bathroom at the trailhead, one last time. OK, ready Freddy.

Here we go! 211 miles to Whitney!

We joined the masses of tourists at Happy Isles and started up the Mist Trail. The Mist Trail isn't actually part of the JMT but it meets with the JMT at the top of Nevada Falls. The JMT skirts around the Mist Trail and rather than taking hundreds of steep stone steps up next to waterfalls, the JMT zig zags on switchbacks just to the south, making the hiking less steep, but more dusty and slightly more boring. Daveed wanted to take the Mist Trail up. OK. So we stomp along with our giant packs as the tourists bound past us carrying only small water bottles, if anything. It was already hot. I mean HAWT. My shirt was soaked through with sweat before we even got to the last treated water fountain, which is maybe a mile or 2 down the trail. We stopped to drink some cold water, I splashed it all over my face and soaked my shirt. Ahhhh, it felt good! Then the business started...up to this point the trail is pretty mellow with maybe 300 feet of vertical gain. Then BAM you start up steep stone steps. Last year we somehow did it without stopping to take a break...granted we had a lot less weight on our backs, but I still don't know how we did it. This time, I needed to stop at least 4 or 5 times and towards the top of Vernal Falls I was feeling dizzy! My trail journal said "We took the Mist Trail and it about killed me. Woof."

Daveed headed up the Mist Trail

Vernal Falls

Made it past Vernal Falls and then continued up, up to Nevada Falls. It was great to see the sights again: Half Dome, Mt Broderick, Liberty Cap etc. We trudged past LYV on the dusty, sandy, sun baked trail and then continued up, up towards the junction to Half Dome. The switchbacks seemed endless! My pace was slower than slow and I paused often to drink water from my camelback and would also try to suck in as much oxygen as possible. The sun beat down on us and I somehow managed to coat my entire shirt, and my legs in dirt... Dang it. I couldn't even stay sort of cleanish for a few hours! The dirt clung to the sweat dripping off me every where and the sunscreen made me sticky! This would be something I would get over and not even notice after day 4 on the trail :)

As we neared our destination for the day, Clouds Rest trail junction, giant, black, thundering, menacing looking storm clouds started to roll in and looked like they were headed straight for us. Crap. We hustled as fast as my cement boots would allow up to find the campsite. We set the speed record (only to be broken the day we did the Golden Staircase in a bad storm) for setting up our tent and dived in! And then we waited for the storm to rage. And then we were still waiting, and then some rain sprinkled for about 10 minutes....and then that was it! Turns out the gnarly storm started to go south of us as it approached so we barely even got sprinkled on! Hurray!

Hiding in the tent from the non-storm

After the storm passed we made dinner, I had the most delicious Backpacker's Pantry meal: Pad Thai!! It was so good Daveed bought a bag of it in Tuolumne! We passed the rest of the evening chatting with some duders nearby who were from out east, North Carolina I think. They had come from Tuolumne and were heading out via the Valley the next day. We suckered them into taking a bunch of our extra food, including the better part of an entire package of Daveed's MEGA stuffed Oreo's! We didn't have appetites and didn't have space for the extra food in our bear cans. I also gave away some of my precious gluten free snackies to a gal who was also gluten free. It pretty much made her year.

Our first day on trail was tough! My feet hurt but my ankle felt mostly OK. We knew it would be a very physically demanding day as it's all up, up, up all day long. The elevation gains didn't seem to bother us apart from the usual huffing and puffing that happens even in WI at sea level when I walk up a flight of stairs. It was a great first day, we made it to our goal destination and in really good time considering we got a late start! We were so excited to finally be on the trail and starting our big backpacking adventure!

Camp at Clouds Rest junction, elevation 7237 ft

A Note About "The Dailies" from the JMT

I've decided to write one blog post for each day on the JMT. I know, it's a lot. You don't have to read them. Just look at the pictures if you want, I won't be offended, I promise. To me, I feel that I'm not doing the adventure justice by just glossing over it and summarizing it in a few, easier to digest posts. This backpacking trip was the greatest adventure of my life so far! It was RAD! I wanna share all the deets! And I hope to inspire others to do it, because it was really special. And beautiful. And simple. And satisfying. And physically demanding. And at times, mentally challenging. And it took teamwork. And when you put all those things together, you get a rad adventure!!

I will be reconstructing each day using 4 key sources of information: my trail journal, which I wrote in every night, the JMT Atlas we used as our map, the 1000+ pictures we took, and the most unreliable source of all: my memory.

I hope you all enjoy these posts, it's been so much fun for me to write on this blog as I get to relive all of these memories all over again as I try to put the experiences into words.

One small glimpse of the Sierra range

A lot of people have asked me if I'd do it again. My answer every time is YES! I will admit that the modern conveniences of being back in civilization are greatly appreciated and I have very much enjoyed using/having them again, but there is such beauty in the simplicity of trail life. You walk. Just walk. Every day. With everything you need on your back. There is something empowering about that to me. Food, water, shelter. Nothing more. You have no where else to be and nothing else to do. Just walk... Just take in those mountain views... Just walk. So would I do it again? Yes, please! I miss that simplicity even though I strive to live a simple life. I miss those views. I miss those mountains. I would live out there forever if I could.

Forester Pass

So with that long winded introduction, I give you The Dailies.


Hopefully I'll have the blog all caught up by the end of the year ;)

Yosemite: Abbreviated, and JMT Prep

We each took what would be our last shower for 10 days and left the motel early, headed towards the Motherland, Yosemite! We stopped in Oakdale, CA at a small, family owned and operated barber shop. Daveed wanted a haircut and a shave before we hit the trail. The barber shop had a mascot: Leia the fuzzy princess dog! Leia and I bonded while Daveed got his hairs cut. 

Leia the lap dog!

We stopped at another roadside fruit stand on our way to Yosemite and got some pie and fruit. We passed by many farms, orchards and tons of almond trees! 

Noms

We eventually made it to the Valley mid-afternoonish. It was SOOO great to see my old friends in the Valley again! The Capitan! Half Dome! Upper, Lower and Middle Cathedral! Royal Arches! Washington Column! Oh how I missed all of you! So wonderful to be back in the Motherland, even if for an abbreviated stay of only 16 hours.

Rainy day in the Motherland

We went straight to the wilderness permit office and picked up our backpacking permits and wag bags (more on wag bags in a later post, we didn’t have to use them until we entered the Whitney zone, our last 2 days on the JMT). Then we parked Soobs in the Curry Village parking lot and exposed all of her innards. We completely unpacked her. Everything out on the pavement! Group all of the food and smelly things together! We needed to pack our backpacks for the JMT and also gather, consolidate and store all of our extra food and smelly things in the bear lockers in the parking lot. It took 3+ hours. Woof. 

Starting to unpack Soobs

We met an interesting guy named Thomas in the parking lot where Soobs would reside for the next month: the trailhead parking lot at Happy Isles. Thomas was a Marine and had spent the past 2 months backpacking around Yosemite with a 95 pound pack. He would carry 2 bear cans so he could stay out in the backcountry for 8-10 days at a time. And he had all sorts of other gear, that when stuffed into a giant pack, weighed 95 pounds. Woof. We chatted with Thomas until it got dark, then we all 3 walked to the backpacker’s camp for the night. Yosemite's backpacker's camp would turn out to be my favorite as it had PLENTY of space for many many tents, pit toilets, restrooms with water nearby and a very straightforward system for registering for camping. Other backpacker's sites could not say the same.

We were up early next day to finish off the last of the prep before hitting the trail. We said goodbye to Thomas and wished him luck, then walked with all our camping crap (it didn’t occur to us to bring backpacks to carry our stuff back to the car) the mile or so to the Happy Isles lot. Once we got our camping stuff back into Soobs, I said goodbye to her, checking to make sure one last time that the sunshade was positioned correctly so she wouldn’t get too hot or sunburned on her dash. Made sure the parking permit was clearly visible so no Rangers harassed her. Promised I’d be back in a month to fetch her. Then it was the final packing of our backpacks (Crap! This stuff will hardly fit in here!), a quick breakfast at the bear lockers (how many Snicker bars do I have for the rest of the day if I eat one now?) and…..OMG.....are we really doing this?....did I bring a contact case?! crap! I have to go back to the car!…..OK I think I have everything now...OK...aaaaand, time to start the JMT!!!!! WOOT!!

Breakfast at the bear lockers, this is where we left all of our extra food and smelly stuff while we were on the JMT

South Down the Coast!

After leaving Portland, we headed south down the coast on Hwy 1/101. We drove past many roadside fruit/produce stands. Finally we had to stop! We picked out fresh Rainer cherries and blueberries and pretty much ate them all within a couple hours :) It was the first fresh fruit we'd had since leaving on our trip! Hwy 1/101 follows the coastline through many, many coastal towns. Some of which were very touristy, some of which weren’t. After passing through most of these towns over the course of several hours, the highway emerges right along the coast and makes for some very scenic views. We pulled over to check out the more dramatic coastline and happened to stop exactly where a pod of whales were hanging out off shore!! How neat is that!! They looked like big dark blobs under the water and would surface every once in a while for air, spraying water up. It looked just like it does on National Geographic.

Whales off the shore!

Southern Oregon coast

We decided to camp for the night in Brookings, OR which had a dumpy beachfront RV park/campground. It was neat to be right on the beachfront, but I was glad we were only there for the night. It wasn’t a particularly clean or scenic place. We first looked into camping at the state park up the road, which was much prettier, but they were full. We made the best of the place we were at and walked on the beach and did some exploring before watching the sunset.

Next morning we continued our drive south with the end destination of San Francisco! We drove on the Redwood Forest Parkway and stopped in the forest to check out the big trees! So much greenery!! The Redwoods were super tall and skinny. The Giant Sequoias weren’t as tall but were huge around their trunks! With all of the humid air coming in off the coast, I could see why these trees thrive! I had the song from grade school “This Land is Your Land” stuck in my head, “...from the Redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters, this land was made for you and me…”

We rolled in to San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge! How neat is that?! 

After snapping a few pictures of the bridge from Golden Gate park, we headed into the city to take a look around. We parked at Fisherman’s Wharf….sensory overload! It’s a big tourist trap. And it was really dirty and smelly. I grabbed some chowder (which was delicious!) and then we got the heck out of there. We had fun walking up Hyde street, watching the cable car trolleys and checking out the views of the Golden Gate Bridge from the neighborhood streets. We wandered around looking for nothing in particular. We happened to see 3 Teslas on the same block, that was cool as neither of us had seen one in person! The steep hills sure were different than what we’re used to! We passed a young woman walking with her groceries up some steep stairs, looking miserable, like it was the worst day of her life. We found it quite amusing for some reason. In retrospect, I feel kind of bad for laughing at her misery. But I mean, one of her armloads was a 3 pack of paper towels...was it really THAT bad...?

Golden Gate Bridge from Hyde Street

We stumbled upon Little Italy and enjoyed some gelato and people watching. We wandered around some more looking for a place to eat dinner that had some gluten free options for me. That was difficult as most places served pizza and pasta! :)  We stumbled upon an Indian restaurant! Kind of out of place, but we were psyched on it! We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then called it a day. It’s been real San Francisco! We headed out of the city by way of the Bay Bridge and saw another Tesla! We drove about an hour inland and crashed at a cheap motel. We thought sleeping in a bed before we hit the JMT would be nice. Oh, and a shower too.  Next day it was only about a 4 hour drive to the Motherland! Yosemite!

Portlandia!

After leaving Glacier NP, we headed west towards Portland! We had a very scenic and exciting drive through the Sawtooth Mountains in northern Idaho! And before we knew it, there was Mount Hood! BAM! That means we’re getting really close to Portland!

Mt Hood! As seen through the bug covered windshield

Portlandia reminded us a lot of Milwaukee. It’s situated on a river, has lots of micro breweries and lots and lots of hipsters! Milwaukee hipsters WISH they were as hipster as Portlandia hipsters. Get on their level people. I mean the coffee shops had decoupage mustaches on the tables. And there were pinball machines at the “beer gardens”. Everyone and I mean everyone has full tatted up arms and legs, hair every color of the rainbow, the ugliest summer dresses you've never seen and they all ride a bike- even their dogs ride along. Level up Milwaukee.

We stayed with The Bears while in Portland, thanks for the hospitality friends! We rolled into town around 8:00 pm and enjoyed a nice night of catching up! My journal says "...super luxurious to have a bathroom, tap water and a couch to sit on!" :) Next day we were up early and had homemade cherry pie for breakfast when T got home. It was the best pie I've ever eaten! We walked to REI to pick up a few last minute items for the JMT, it was awesome to walk there! It was only about 2 blocks away! We met Josh for lunch and ate way too much at a delicious Indian restaurant whose buffet was SUPERB! 

We went downtown to check out Powell’s bookstore- the largest used bookstore in the world!! And holy cats was it big! And we didn’t even go into the main store! The main store is one full city block and 3 floors chock full of any and all books you could imagine! We spent our entire parking meter time across the street from the main building, in another city block sized building that was all math, science and engineering. Nerd Alert! Daveed had fun looking through all the math, physics, architecture etc etc books! I had fun looking through the neuroscience and psychology books. We both walked out of the store with a few new books and Daveed even found a cool antique book for his dad that was a sales book for an old coal furnace company. How neat is that?

We also checked out the rose gardens. Roses. Everywhere! My mom would have loved these gardens as she is a flower lover and especially loves roses! Over 70 varieties of roses! Who knew there were so many?! Daveed definitely didn’t as he told me there were exactly two kinds of roses: "old world and new world". Well, we both got schooled. We had a nice time strolling around the gardens and finished our tour with some sno-cones!

Later that night we went out for some din with Josh, we went to some fun hipster places. A Mexican place with cheap food and no service. And right next door a “beer garden” (outdoor picnic tables) with pinball machines! The beer place had an impressive selection of I think 50+ international beers plus big glass front refrigerators with tons of bottles to choose from! Then we met my cousin Alani and her boyfriend Mitch for a drink. I hadn’t met her squeeze yet so it was really great to finally meet him!

Alani!

Next day we went to the coast! We checked out Ecola State Park and the surrounding beaches. 

Ecola State Park

T wanted to fly kites on the beach so we stopped at a kite shop and picked out kites-- I haven’t flown a kite since I think preschool, it was SO fun! Lots of smiles and giggles as we all enjoyed flying our kites!

Flying kites on Cannon Beach

We went tide pooling at low tide, which was a first for me! Starfish, muscles, anemones! So cool to see them all up close! We went exploring down the beach climbing up and around on the exposed boulders. We found a cool cave that had a GIANT metal thing stuck all the way in the back. It looked like a piece from a ship or something. It was hollow and huge! We wondered how it got stuck way back in the cave!

Starfish!

Muscles!

Anemones! 

Sea Arch

This is the cave we found the big metal thing in

Next day, Sunday, it was already time for us to leave :(  We wanted to stay longer and hang out, the Bears are just the best! We had to move on though if we wanted to make it to Yosemite in time to start the JMT on our assigned date. So we got up early on Sunday morning and we all went to meet Alani and Mitch for breakfast. We had a great time chit chatting and then it was time to say our goodbyes. Thanks for the hospitality and fun, til next time Portland, put a bird on it.