Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Grand 2010 Summer hike

Well it's almost that time again! to set off for a grand adventure and take up the healing touch of the mountains that I so desperately need! In just over two weeks I will set off but it's never too late for planning something that may add to the adventure so any suggestions are apprechiated, do you think this trip is John Muir worthy? =P

Here is the layout for my hike: formatted as day of week/month/day of trip/location I plan to camp that day.

The trip begins at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir heading East:


SJuly 11 - 1 - Tiltill Creek
MJuly 12 - 2 - Lake Vernon
TJuly 13 - 3 - Jack Main Canyon
WJuly 14 - 4 - Rancheria Creek
TJuly 15 - 5 - Benson Lake
FJuly 16 - 6 - Spring Junction
SJuly 17 - 7 - Muir Gorge
SJuly 18 - 8 - Near Glen Aulin
MJuly 19 - 9 - Tuolumne Meadows
TJuly 20 - 10 - Layover
WJuly 21 - 11 - Echo Lake
TJuly 22 - 12 - Clouds Rest
FJuly 23 - 13 - Echo Valley
SJuly 24 - 14 - Triple Peak Fork Junction
SJuly 25 - 15 - Upper Merced Pass Lake
MJuly 26 - 16 - Rutherford Lake
TJuly 27 - 17 - Harriet Lake
WJuly 28 - 18 - Bernice Lake
TJuly 29 - 19 - Tuolumne Meadows
FJuly 30 - 20 - Below Donohue
SJuly 31 - 21 - Garnet Lake
SAugust 1 - 22 - Devil's Postpile
MAugust 2 - 23 - Iva Bell Hotsprings
TAugust 3 - 24 - Layover
WAugust 4 - 25 - Purple Lake
TAugust 5 - 26 - Work
FAugust 6 - 27 - Work
SAugust 7 - 28 - Work
SAugust 8 - 29 - Work
MAugust 9 - 30 - Silver Pass Lake
TAugust 10 - 31 - VVR
WAugust 11 - 32 - Grinnell Lake
TAugust 12 - 33 - Pioneer Basin
FAugust 13 - 34 - Layover
SAugust 14 - 35 - Lower Morgan Lake
SAugust 15 - 36 - Near Honeymoon Lake
MAugust 16 - 37 - JMT Ranch
TAugust 17 - 38 - MCclure Meadow
WAugust 18 - 39 - Little Pete Meadow
TAugust 19 - 40 - Palisade Lakes
FAugust 20 - 41 - Layover
SAugust 21 - 42 - Lake Majorie
SAugust 22 - 43 - Rae Lakes
MAugust 23 - 44 - Onion Valley
TAugust 24 - 45 - Kearsarge Lakes
WAugust 25 - 46 - Below Forester
TAugust 26 - 47 - below Tyndall
FAugust 27 - 48 - Climb Tyndall camp at Tyndall Creek
SAugust 28 - 49 - Wallace Lake
SAugust 29 - 50 - Layover
MAugust 30 - 51 - Crabtree Meadows
TAugust 31 - 52 - Soldier Lakes
WSeptember 1 - 53 - Horseshoe Meadow
TSeptember 2 - 54 - Rock Creek
FSeptember 3 - 55 - Lake South America
SSeptember 4 - 56 - Layover
SSeptember 5 - 57 - Kern Hotsprings
MSeptember 6 - 58 - Moraine Lake
TSeptember 7 - 59 - Precipice Lake
Weptember 8 - 60 - DeadMan Canyon
TSeptember 9 - 61 - Belle Canyon junction
FSeptember 10 - 62 - Lodgepole

Two notes are I will take the long way to Echo Valley through Little Yosemite Valley since I have never hiked through there and the days listed as "work" I am hooking up with an SCA trail crew working the PCT at Purple Lake.

Now assuming I make it all the way I will call to see what the status of work is at home and if there is nothing worth going home for then I will just buy food at Lodgepole and keep on hiking, maybe off to Kings Canyon to buy more food then off through Tehipite Valley or something.

Will I be passing anyone on the trail?

Good Luck, Rogue. I hope you enjoy the trek. You'll be out a long time.

Even if you don't meet anyone from here, you WILL meet friends on the trail.

And I MAY be in the DPP - VVR area in August. Not likely as early as your dates, though.

Well heading off to Yosemite to begin the hike on Sunday! looks like I have to throw in more days at any random point to make meeting up with my dad and a friend later in the trip at Onion Valley so now the trip will be 66 days.

Hope everyone has a good season! if you see me wondering around all haggard I am the one with the big ass camera pack on my chest lol

"Way impressed" and "slightly jealous" does it for me.
Yes, definitely JM-worthy. Have a blast and soak in every moment!

"Grand" is definitely a good word to describe this!

CaT

Have a great hike, RP. And be safe.

Success! 68 days from when I walked into the trail to when I walked out, 71 day total trip.

Lost 40 pounds of body weight, my rough calculations are about 130,000 feet of altitude gained and lost.

Had 2 friends along the first 10 days then on day 49 my dad joined me for 8 days, the rest alone.

Only climbed two peaks this time, Clouds Rest and Mt. Barnard.

This is perhaps my best photo from Mt. Barnard, note the Altitude reading: =P



The GPS was jumping around between 14,004 feet and 14,012 with it staying steady most around 14,007.

I'll post more details about the trip later.

Congrats Rogue - it hit me the other day that I hadn't seen you post in quite a while, but I had forgotten about this long trail itinerary you had posted back in June. Look forward to the TR.

Welcome back. Good to hear it went well. 71 days... amazing!

That Barnard picture may prompt more people to climb it. ...and take their gps unit to see for themselves.

Looking forward to some reports.

heard of most places on your route but have no idea where this one is - had to be good, give you spent 4 days there

TAugust 5 - 26 - Work
FAugust 6 - 27 - Work
SAugust 7 - 28 - Work
SAugust 8 - 29 - Work

Great job Rogue. I am not sure I could handle 71 days in a 5 star hotel let alone BPn the trail.Awesome!!!

Weather wise this was the most mild summer I have ever spent in the Sierra, got rain on only 4 days and the two worst days it sprinkled on and off for an hour. Thunderstorms on 3 days and only one day it was even over head, a few flakes of snow came down only on one day and the rest was clear skies sometimes going more than a week without a single cloud in the sky!

The trip changed a bit on the go but stayed mostly the same, locations I camped and notes here:

I used stars instead of that little circle because I am not sure how to get that circle on my keyboard. =/

1 - Diamon O Campground
2 - Tiltill Valley - 37*58.546 119*41.863
3 - Lake Vernon - 38*00.806 119*43.712
4 - Jack Main Canyon - 38*02.393 119*42.306
5 - Rancheria Creek - 38*03.571 119*35.434
6 - Benson Lake - 38*01.174 119*31.435
7 - Layover - Tiny sprinkles of rain, some thunderstorms
8 - Rodgers Canyon - 37*57.690 119*31.731
9 - Tuolumne River - 37*55.906 119*33.455
10 - Tuolumne River - 37*54.946 119*26.088
11 - Tuolumne Campground - 37*52.177 119*21.653
12 - Sunrise Camp - 37*47.642 119*26.041
13 - Clouds Rest - 37*46.078 119*29.355
14 - Echo Valley - 37*44.547 119*26.391
15 - Triple Divide Fork - 37*39.524 119*20.704 Thunderstorms far off
16 - Lower Ottoway Lake - 37*38.663 119*25.228 Sprinkled for 2 minutes
17 - Layover
18 - Rutherford Lake - 37*35.828 119*22.253
19 - Along the high trail - 37*40.320 119*19.756
20 - Lewis Creek - 37*44.991 119*21.818
21 - Sierra Nevada Lodge Mammoth
22 - Layover
23 - Reds Meadow Campground - 37*37.158 119*04.491
24 - Iva Bell Hotsprings - 37*31.989 119*01.540
25 - Layover
26 - Purple Lake - Crew Camp - 37*31.335 118*57.168
27 - Work
28 - Work
29 - Work - Thunderstorms & Rain
30 - Work
31 - Work
32 - Silver Pass Lake - 37*27.734 118*55.282
33 - Vermillion Valley Resort - 37*22.588 119*00.784
34 - Layover
35 - Grinnell Lake - 37*27.675 118*51.093
36 - Pioneer Basin - 37*28.254 118*48.200
37 - Layover
38 - Rock Creek Lake - 37*27.137 118*44.086
39 - Pine Creek Trailhead - 37*21.670 118*41.456
40 - Hutchinson Meadow - 37*15.980 118*46.892
41 - Muir Trail Ranch - 37*14.098 118*52.842
42 - McClure Meadow - 37*11.238 118*44.472
43 - Muir Hut - 37*06.722 118*40.258
44 - Leconte Canyon - 37*03.154 118*34.771
45 - Palisade Lakes - 37*03.472 118*28.923
46 - Layover
47 - Lake Majorie - 36*56.799 118*25.910 Rain on and off for an hour
48 - Arrowhead Lake - 36*49.638 118*24.582
49 - Kearsarge Lakes - 36*46.086 118*23.163
50 - Onion Valley Campground - 36*46.290 118*20.470
51 - Kearsarge Lakes - 36*45.942 118*23.340
52 - Below Forester Pass - 36*42.793 118*22.297
53 - Tyndall Creek - 36*38.530 118*23.295
54 - Wallace Lake - 36*36.683 118*18.971
55 - Climbed Mt. Barnard
56 - Rock Creek - 36*29.789 118*20.222
57 - Soldier Lakes - 36*30.166 118*16.178
58 - Horseshoe Meadow - Forgot to mark the camp =/
59 - Rock Creek - 36*29.754 118*20.274
60 - Wallace Creek - 36*35.602 118*22.250
61 - Lake South America - 36*40.622 118*24.230 A few snow flurries
62 - Kern Hotspring - 36*28.766 118*24.370
63 - Layover
64 - Layover
65 - Moraine Lake - 36*27.741 118*27.286
66 - Hamilton Lake - 36*33.826 118*34.720
67 - Deadman Canyon - 36*37.936 118*35.048
68 - Sugarloaf Creek - 36*42.670 118*40.951
69 - Lodgepole Campground - 36*36.266 118*43.780
70 - Saw some sights
71 - Ride Home

Longest stretch with no rain was 22 days.

Those work days Fishmonger were when I joined an SCA trail crew, I was supposed to work for 4 days but did 5.

I'll post more on this later since it took so long for those waypoints!

> a few flakes of snow came down only on one day

What day and where were you?

I was at Lake South America, same day I made the note in your Mammoth snow thread.

It was so cold I couldn't get my fingers to work to light my stove before I warmed them up!

So anyway what are some details on the trip? I wish I could post more images to go along with any details but I am not ready for that yet.

Starting out was comical enough as a friend of mine and one of his friends gave my friends Tyler, Kelly and I a ride to Hetch Hetchy after they dropped off their truck at Tuolumne Meadows for their exit and the five of us stayed at Diamond O Campground. Well my friends friend forgetting his name had never even been camping before and in the middle of the night a mother bear and her two cubs decide to play around in our camp so one of the cubs climbs a tree right next to his tent and leaps off the tree plopping down right next to his tent which was all mesh and see through so he jumps up all scared shitless as this big mother bear and her cub is right in his face lol so he got a good introduction to the wild in Yosemite! =P

Starting out was a brutal task as it was 100F with 9 days of food on my back! Reaching Wapama Falls we decide to go for a swim not knowing or giving a damn that it was illegal! and already floating in the lake just below this beautiful falls I could feel the filth of society being washed away! As the day went on we reached Rancheria Falls just plain dead from the heat and heavy loads on our back which seemed amplified as we walked through the burn zone out here, exposed, hot, miserable! And now it was time to climb 1500 up and over to Tiltill Valley! Climbing the switch backs I felt faint and could hardly keep up with the other two as I ran low on water and the agony grew. These are the times in the wild I begin to question my very purpose in life as I find myself in agony engaging in the only activity that brings me any happiness, "is it worth it?" "can I even do it" "do I even want to do it" Blah!! F$%k this hill!!! up and over I go!!!!

Reaching the top is a foragers delite with wild straw berries covering the ground every where! but to our dismay we were about a week early from the bloom and feast! Timbleberries were also abundant yet still flowering.

The trip to Lake Vernon was mostly uneventful yet hot, hot, HOT!!! all of us were feeling the pain of starting out but this night I decided to give fishing a try as I had bought a new set up for this trip and it had not been used yet. I also was not a Sierra fisherman and generally had little experience fishing at all. After fishing all down the shore without a single bite using spinners I finally close in on the outlet of the lake and catch a 15 inch Rainbow Trout and then a 13 inch! Dinner!!, not bad for my first fish of the trip!

I had slightly intimidated Kelly by telling her as we passed through Jack Main Canyon we would be crossing the rubicon and there was no choice but to make it to the finish line! This had been the most physical demanding challenge of her life as she had never been backpacking for more than 3 days! and she admitted she began to wonder if she could make it but push on she did.

Yet again generally speaking the slog to Jack Main Canyon was mostly uneventful, HOT, dry slogging but discovering a pool on the river so large it could pass as a small lake we decide to call it a day a few miles short of our goal which no one seemed to mind. Nothing like good fishing, swimming, bathing and rest to bring morale back up! While I was out fishing my camera got played with and I found images on it that perhaps I cannot post here without some censorship post processing.

Most of the grind to Benson Lake over the next two days was very standard other than some deep fords, Rancheria Creek was a chest deep ford which a number of PCT through hikers did while we were there but we went up stream and found a scary as hell log and rock crossing that left Kelly pretty scared but I assured her not to feel bad because that crossing was F%&#ed! =P

It had not been part of the plan but we all felt a layover day was in order and Benson Lake was the perfect place to do it. Oh what a paradise Benson Lake is! This staying true even though as the ranger that came by told us the beach was smaller than she had ever seen due to the high water levels, the fact that the winged demons were in the thousands and you could name it spider beach as my tent was covered in at least 50 spiders! Later the first night off I went down the beach looking for a nice private place to strip down, bath and change clothes and I reach the inlet continuing off into the water thinking it was not too deep but well it was not long before I found myself swimming with one arm as I held my clean dry clothes above my head trying to keep them dry! blah!! the current was sweeping me into the lake and like a pathetic looking dog I reach the following shore not being able to touch bottom until about 2 feet from shore! but wait? I find myself surrounded by thick bush, steep shores and steep rock faces! blah DAMN! off I go back across the inlet with my clothes in one hand above head until I reach the shore "that was good" so up and into the inlet I go thinking this will do until the winged demons attacked me like bees angry from their hive being smashed! ARG!! FILTHY!! RETCHID!! UNHOLY!!! DEMONS FROM THE FIREY ABYSS!! BACK!!! BACK!! YOU FREAKS!!!

The next morning the Ranger with her giddy composure and adorable pigtailed hair was not too happy about our camping location and indeed we were not 100 feet from water. Our choice was made based on the fact that behind our camp that you cannot see in that picture was also water and the whole shore line this was true but she did not make us move.

Two days later we drop 4000 feet into Pate Valley and here comes the heat once again! back to jumping in the river every chance we had!

Only ran into one rattlesnake which was a total baby on this trail and despite the wonderful cascades day 9 was an extremely brutal day for all of us as we had to push on way beyond where we had planned to camp because there were no options for camping.

Reaching Tuolumne Meadows was a victory for both Tyler and Kelly as for both it was their longest hike and as hard as it was for us all they did it, it was then time for burgers and a steak at the lodge as this was my birthday.

I do not believe I would have enjoyed this section much had I been alone due to how hot and difficult it was yet I would still recommend it to anyone as a beautiful trip.

After breakfast in Tuolumne they dropped me off at the Cathedral Lakes Trail Head and it was time for me to head off alone...

I'll bore you all later with more on this trip. =P

Thanks for the story, RP. Loved the bear encounter. Nice pictures! Looking forward to more.

Your experience at Benson Lake was totally different from mine ...almost 10 years ago. No mosquitoes, more fish than we could eat, but we only stayed a few hours.   But it was truly a heavenly place with that fantastic beach. Oh to get back there sometime....

And since it was so far from civilization, I didn't much worry about looking for a private spot to swim

So continuing on this thing a bit when I had reached Tuolumne my original plan was to layover there but I decided not to yet still knew I would need rest sometime in the next section so once again brought 9 days of food for a 10 day section which I had not been looking forward to. Luckily for me the good food the day before had filled me with energy and made the trek easy. I had been torn on the Echo Lake idea as it was cross country and I had no worries at all about getting to the lake but what I did not want to do was back track to the trail so I planned a cross country route out of Echo Lake to the South and back to the trail but what worried me was having 8 days of food on my back and going cross country through forest when I had no idea of what the terrain was like and when I entered the Cathedral Lakes Trail Head and saw the sign "Sunrise Camp 7.8" I was sold on skipping it since it would mean an easy day of hiking, I would have a bathroom in the back country and it would get me onto Clouds Rest early to enjoy the whole day up there.

Clouds Rest was a bit comical when I got up there at about 12:30pm and talked to all the day hiking tourists and they would call me crazy for saying "I am sleeping right there!" next to the cliff. =P

I had Considered doing star trail photos up there but sadly I was too lazy to do anything other than a simple shot like last year.

Dropping down to Little Yosemite Valley I was surprised to see a doe with two newborns as I did not know that a mammal such as a Deer could have more than one baby at a time, lesson learned!

Everything to Red Peak Pass was a standard slog but wow! Read Peak Pass had beautiful views all the way up with that beautiful quality of red rock . My only trouble was in the fact that most of the trail was still covered in snow and I was post holing up to thigh deep in snow but over all it did not prove too difficult, this also would be the only pass of the whole trip where snow was any problem at all.

Near the top I had talked to a group of hikers and they had told me how nice Lower Ottoway Lake was and told me about a trail crew that was base camped there so I decided to change my plans a bit and stop there and it seemed the best option for a layover day.

At Lower Ottoway I went looking for the trail crew camp and found it, I really wanted to talk to them since I have been doing so much trail work and I had only been talking to a couple of their members for a couple minutes when the chef walked up and offered me a pork chop! It's like ok! can't say no to that in the back country lol and after talking to them for awhile the chef invited me for dinner and then breakfast also which was perfect considering I was short a day of food anyway and he was such a good cook with all kinds of great food! The whole crew were tons of fun and made me decide to try and get one of those jobs next season.

Leaving the area was mostly a viewless slog as you cross the speed bump that is Merced Pass and stay in the trees almost all the way to the top of Fernandez Pass but two miles before the pass I see something moving and noticed a bear running away from me and then stops, looks at me for 2 seconds and runs off, typical wild bear I thought but it also marked one of the only times I had ever seen a bear in the "backcountry" and would be the only bear I saw until reaching Lodgepole.

Reaching the top beautiful views of Ritter, Banner, the Minarets and Fish Valley opened up before me and I felt as if in a dream as I moved down the switch backs surrounded by wild flowers and grand vistas .

Leaving Rutherford Lake yet again was a slog through the forest with endless Shooting Star to keep morale up but the trail itself was very poor and I lost it a number of times. At one point I just had to scratch my head as the trail goes straight into a tarn and resumes on the other side despite the fact an easy and proper route around the tarn could be built.

Climbing Post Peak Pass offered typical nice views but nothing all that great until I reached the top... oh my!!! once again yet way better than Fernandez Ritter, Banner and the Minarets show themselves being much closer this time. The trail then drops down along the ridge and the vista becomes much larger and just when you think it can't get any better you come to the edge of the ridge and all of Yosemite comes into view also! It is nearly a 360 peak view and is without a doubt the most beautiful pass I have ever been on! The winds were gusting perhaps 70MPH at times and I felt nothing but giddy up there, singing, dancing, skipping down the trail. Just floating through a dream!

Moving on my planned route was to Harriet Lake but I decided against it when I learned more about the proper route and that it would be further with it already getting late.

But the next day everything went wrong and it's funny how things happen when they do, giddy like a child the day before and now the weakest day of my life on trail! I woke up at 4am with a mild case of diarrhea and hitting the trail it took all my energy from me to the point where I was ready to collapse on the trail, I had to take one step at a time saying "I can do this, I can do this" and come about noon the last of my TP ran out! "oh great that is just awesome!" lol reaching Lewis creek I could hardly go on and began looking for a camp but no luck so on I pushed getting more pissed off as the trail began climbing again, finally after more than a mile of agony I reach a crap camp site that was clearly illegal due to how close it was to the trail and offered little flat spots for my tent but literally unable to push on I set up camp and before I knew it the diarrhea was creeping up on me for the first time with no TP so I said to hell with the wilderness regulations, I got to do what I got to do and I went down to the creek and went near by and stripped down, got into the creek with soap, yes WITH SOAP!! and cleaned up! which proved pure agony in this extremely cold water!

Doing laundry and placing it out on rocks I close this horrible day! Waking up in the morning I find some of my clothes chewed up from the Mice, "little f&^$ing bastards" I thought, they chewed up my 100 dollar shirt the worst! and also my diarrhea was not fully gone and I had to make use of socks this time. Resuming the trail I did ok but generally did not feel that good so I decided when I got to Tuolumne Meadows I would take the bus into Mammoth and get a hotel room so I could rest up for the rest of the trip since after all I had already done the section between Tuolumne and Reds Meadow.

So reaching Mammoth late since the bus leaves Tuolumne at 7PM the driver dropped me off at the motel 6 since I told him that is where I was headed but to my dismay they had no vacancy! What!? Damn! Who does?? so they sent me to the Sierra Nevada Lodge but they wanted a credit card for a 75 dollar deposit and all I had was my prepaid card and I only had 30 dollars on it and they would not take cash for a deposit so I was like f%^k! I hate society! but luckily a Rite Aid was down the street and they had free internet in the lobby so off I went once again to get a money pack then back up to the PC but blah! the internet was so slow what takes me 2 minutes at home took 30 minutes! and people are pouring in getting rooms and I couldn't help but think what if this place fills up while I mess with this bullshit? But finally I got it sorted out and got my room.

Two days of rest and good food and I was ready to hit the trail once again.

Leaving Mammoth I needed to burn days to keep on proper schedule for arriving at the SCA project so I decided that just going down to Reds Meadow for the day then keeping my plans of a layover at Iva Bell would allow for good rest.

Camping at Reds Meadow was nice as always and I saw a couple typical sights such as the Devil's Postpile and Rainbow Falls. Later at night I offered to share my camp with 4 hikers and they all offered me 5 dollars for the site so I stayed for free, then I found out later that two of them were friends with the two friends of mine that came for the first 10 days of the trip, small world!

Reaching Fish Valley late due to spending a couple hours talking to a PCT hiker I hurry to scout out the hot tubs before I am wondering around in the dark trying to find them and took the hard way to the top hot tubs and realised I would not return to them on that night! For informations sake there is a trail that will take you up to the top ones if you find it!

I found 6 pools in this area, 3 top pools, here, here, and the last pool was a slight cold pool located at the very bottom just behind the large camp that is just beyond the creek crossing.

Reaching Purple Lake and the trail crew I was surprised how primitive working with SCA turned out to be, they had very little in the way of food for any meal of the day and one volunteer actually left due to the food because it was not enough protein for him but for me it still turned out to be allot of fun as I helped fell a tree which is something I had never done before even though it made me feel a bit bad since it turned out to be 294 years old! We then cut it up and built steps with it which took 4 of us 5 days of work. Here, here, here and here.

After two days of beautiful travel to Vermillion Valley Resort I enjoyed two days there of good food and rest but I found myself ready to get back into the wild due to the crazy nature of the place.

Traveling Mono Creek and starting up the Grinnell Lake trail it was not long before I realised that this trail was never more then calling a cross country use trail an official trail as the thing goes straight up most of the time and is hard to follow at times. Reaching a meadow at the top of the canyon wall I lost the trail completely and this area had a strange feeling to it, a feeling of truly being remote or wild even though it was not really so. Continuing on cross country after about a mile I was able to pick up what you could hardly call a trail "clearly class 1" but it helped to navigate steeper sections before I lost it again at more meadows. Pushing on it was easy to navigate cross country to Grinnell Lake and to my surprise there were two hikers camped here. I tried fishing and was catching them on every cast but they were mostly small.

The next morning I planned a route and began up the ridge to the East and other than some fine scree slopes it proved mostly easy, dropping down the other side I planned to go past Lower Hopkins Lake which turned into a mistake as I found myself down climbing cliffs with a full pack on, at one point I had to climb through the branches of a tree on the side of a cliff and then stretch my body all the way out while holding the very tip of the branch to reach the next ledge. I almost never feel any fear while doing anything in the mountains but in this case I did which says allot!

Reaching Pioneer Basin the last of my fuel ran out because VVR let me down since they were out of fuel and I had to dig through the hiker bin and take two almost empty cans and I only got two hot meals out of them so the next morning I tried to hydrate food with cold water and I learned for the first time that it does not work! First try was a Pasta Sides meal that was disgusting to say the least after waiting an hour and then a Hawk Vittles meal was the next failure so plan B showed itself, I would hike out to Rock Creek Resort and hope they had fuel...

I realise that most of this is probably boring as shit but at least it gives me a chance to write it down so I can direct people here if they want to know anything.

Another statistic is passes:

Hardest: Elizabeth Easiest: Cahoon Gap

Seavey
Cathedral
Red Peak
Merced
Fernandez
Post Peak
Vogelsang
Tuolumne
Silver
Mono
Morgan
Pine Creek
Muir
Mather
Pinchot
Glen
Kearsarge X2
Forester
Guyot
New Army
Guyot
Kaweah Gap
Elizabeth
Silliman
Cahoon Gap

RP,
I love the way you are documenting your trip. I am planning on doing the JMT in 2013 and it's the little details that I really want to make sure I now how to deal with.

Thanks!

Trying to catch up... just read your post (two above)...

Enjoy your travelogue, RP. The pictures are soo nice!

I particularly like the shot from the top of Clouds Rest and the lights of Turlock. I've got to get up there and spend the night sometime. Your larger image shows what appears to be a light on the coast -- maybe Mt Wilson above San Jose?




And keep up the documenting. Makes for good reading.