Into the Valley

Saturday, July 12th,

Hurry up and wait seems to be the common theme of my journey so far. But as Dr. Keller said so many years ago, "to be early is to be in time to be on time is to be late!"  Being so close to a dream finally becoming a reality I slept fitfully. Tossing and turning I awake at 4:30 a.m. and could not fall back to sleep, so I watched a little T.V. before finally getting up and starting my day.  I had the biggest smile on my face as I put on my hiking clothes for the first time. This is for real! It is really going to happen!  I walked a short distance into “downtown” Lee Vining and caught the 7:20 YART’s bus into Yosemite National Park, for the second time in my life.  

A short ride brought me into Tuolumne Meadows, where I went to the backcountry ranger station.  I was hoping to be able to get my permit changed so that I could hit the trail today, rather than waiting for tomorrow. Talking to the ranger said he doubted it; in fact the park was busier than he had ever seen it.   I will check again with the rangers in TheValley later today, just in case. Worst case is I spend the day in The Valley.  From the store and post office at Tuolumne Meadows. I mailed my travel bag and extra clothes to the Dow  Villa in Lonepine. Michael the postmaster was awesome, very friendly and extremely helpful.  I guess it is hard to go “postal” with Yosemite as your work place.

Yosemite Fucking Valley!!! I am finally here! As we rode from Tuolumne to The Valley I was struck by how different this place is from Rocky Mountain National Park. The mountains stand out more here. Granite white mountains and cliffs stand in stark contrast to the green of the forest. The conifers here are much taller wider than the Lodgepole pines Colorado. Their bark appears to be much thicker as well; designed to withstand forest fires I would guess.  At times I found myself reaching out, just to touch them; to feel their grandeur. The bus ride down to the valley was awe inspiring.  There is nothing quite as inspiring as pulling into the Valley and instantly being dwarfed by the towering walls.

I stopped in The Valley backcountry office and picked up my permit for tomorrow.  No luck getting out of The Valley today or changing my destination for tomorrow.  This leaves me with a relatively short hike to Illoute tomorrow; an easy day to break me into the trail.Afterwards I headed over to the deli for lunch where I ran into Don and Karen again.  While eating I had my pack on the ground beside me.  In under 30 seconds a squirrel had made its way to my left hip belt pocket and chewed a dime sized hole in it, in an attempt to get to the trail mix inside.  Not even on the trail yet and I had my first negative animal experience. Damn squirrels!  Hope this is not a sign of things to come.

After lunch I bid Don and Karen goodbye, as they were heading out on the trail today.  I caught the bus to the backcountry campground and set up camp for the night, before heading out to see El Cap.  I wanted to stop at Camp IV, but decided to bypass it in favor of El Cap meadow.  El Cap Is magnificent!   My words fail to express its  awesomeness.  It was great to lie in the middle of a meadow and just stare up at it.  Talk about feeling small!    Lying on my back, staring up at those granite walls I relaxed and dreamed of days to come.

This evening I went to movie about Ron Kauk, one of my climbing heroes. He was actually there to introduce the movie and take questions. As I walked in the theater I saw him sitting there and went up and introduce myself to him. I told him he had been a real inspiration me when I was climbing. He seemed to appreciate that. I even got to take a selfie with him. What a thrill!

I made it back to camp, just as dark set in. No need to leave early tomorrow, except to beat the heat, as I think I'm going less than 5 miles tomorrow. I am sharing a site tonight with Fiona from the Facebook JMT group. It was funny as we talked we discovered that we had both read each other's blog as we prepared for our own journeys.

Time to Go -Travel Day

Friday, July 11th, 2014 

Travel Day

Finally after a year of dreaming and planning part one of my adventure is underway. I had an easy flight into Reno from home. Nice and smooth. Flying will hopefully be the scariest part of this entire journey. I did not enjoy it at all! At least no more planes for 21 days.

Now that I am here in Reno I have about two hours before I catch my bus to Lee Vining. I hope that I am waiting in the correct place, I would really hate to miss the bus!  While sitting here waiting for the bus I just saw my first JMT hiker's, recognizable by the yellow Scotland bandannas (from the JMT Hiker's book group) tied to the back of their packs. I made a comment to them about “nice bandannas” then help my pack to show I was a kindred soul. Not sure that they made the connection as they walked into the terminal. By the time the bus arrived I met five backpackers; the two from earlier, Don and Karen from Connecticut, and three others heading to the JMT for a week long outing.  Don was planning to do a yo-yo of the JMT

Arrived into Lee Vining at 5 PM. The ride was not bad. It was nice just to sit back and watch the scenery go by. The first few of Mono Lake was amazing. We came in from the opposite side of the lake that Karen and I came in from on my other trip here, 10 years ago. Unfortunately arriving from this side of the lake I missed the fun roller coaster road, that I had been looking forward to.

It was a short walk from the bus stop to the Murphy’s Motel in Lee Vining, where I had reserved a room for the night.  After getting settled in, my first chore was to find a fuel canister for my stove.  The only gear shop in town had them in stock, though a little pricey, $10.95 for a small canister (side note - the canister are available and cheaper in the valley). On the way back to the hotel I stopped for dinner at Bodie Mike’s Bar-B-Que.  Very tasty!  Had to have a Sierra Nevada on draft, just to celebrate making it here.

Back at the hotel I emptied my duffel bag and re-packed my backpack.  I decided to leave a few items behind, to save weight. I will mail the bag and left gear to Whitney Portal to pick up after the trip. The whole night I had a smile across my face. After over a year of planning, I am finally here!  The only disappointment was that the ice cream store across the street closed earlier than I thought it would, so I missed out on the treat I had been anticipating.

Trail-sick

I miss the trail!   Yesterday as I left the house for work it was raining, so I grabbed my rain jacket on the way out the door.  Instantly, memories of the trail came flooding into my mind.  In the short distance between my front door and car door I was out on the trail again.  It has been a month and a half since I finished the trail, and I have not had the chance to do any hiking since returning home.  The real world has closed in again, and it’s back to meeting responsibilities.  This is not a bad thing, it just has meant that hiking has had to take a back seat.  Life is all about finding a balance, and like most of us I am still searching for it.

I have not had a chance to upload my trip journal to my blog yet. It is on my to do list.  I have been working on creating my trip video.  Right now the rough cut is over 3 hours.  A little too long for radio play.  Finding the time to work on either has been a challenge. But I will get there with both eventually.  I hope you will hang in there with me, until I can get them posted.

I Made It! A Job Done Well!!!

I just wanted to do a quick update and proudly say that I completed the JMT.  I have been home about a week and will slowly start to transcribe by journal to share with you all.  Overall I have to say that the journey lived up to all my expectations. The JMT is a trail of grand views.  I am afraid that the pictures I took will not do it any justice, but I will post them soon as well.

I would like to give a big thanks to all of the JMT Yahoo! Group and JMT Facebook members, who provided great advice prior yo my departure.  I hope I can return to the favors and advice to others in the future. I would also like to thank all the other hikers I met out there who not only provided some friendship, companionship and inspiration when I needed it:

• Don and Karen - my first JMT "friends"
• Feona - hope your trip went great, and you are feeling good.
• James and Zohar from Jersey - thanks for inspiring me on those days when I really needed.  I hope Vegas rocked.  Next time ... Colorado- the door is always open!
• James and Avery - my Colorado buddies - Vail Rules! 
• Lee and Bob -Sorry Bob I did not get to fish Guitar.  I'll save that one for next time. Lee I can't wait to read the stories.
• Chris - we teachers must stay united!  Best wishes on the upcoming marriage.
• Patrick and Carter - best of luck in France
• Ruby - a jewel by any other name as well.

Stay tuned for the story of the entire journey:

A Few Muir Miles:  A solo Journey Along the John Muir Trail

He aint heavy, he's my pack

“All my bags are packed. I’m ready to go.  Standing here outside your door…”

All my resupply boxes are out of the house and on their way to their destinations.  I have already realized a couple of things that I forget to put in the boxes.  Luckily nothing that will end the trip early.  At least that’s my hope.  Let’s also hope that the hiker barrels are filling up as I write this, just in case.

I laid out all my gear on my living room floor the other evening.  It was depressing to look at the mass of gear assembled before me.  I felt like there was no way it was all going to fit in my pack.  I slowly started to fill up the pack on commercial breaks.  I tried to slim down my load once again.  When I compare my gear list to that of others on the web, it seems like I am taking a lot more.  I

read a great comment on Eric the Black’s website.  It is not necessary about being ultralight, but rather about being able to comfortably carry all the you bring for as long as you want each day. I am not sure that I am there yet, but I will give it another go and see what else I can leave at home.

I had planned on trying to get at least a single overnight trip in as a shake down before I leave, but that is not going to happen due to various reasons.  I did get out for a day hike today with my pack loaded with a 95% of my gear, and without a full food load..  My initial thought while climbing uphill… I have to lighten up!!! On the way down the pack felt great.  I will spend some time tomorrow going through the pack once again to see what I can get rid of.  What I really need is a local thru-hiker to give my pack a good shake down. It is hard to know what I can comfortably do without, with never having done a hike of this length before.  I am erring on the side of too much rather than too little. Rookie mistake I know but I can always donate to the hiker barrels!

Who's Hungry??

I am buried under a pile of food, or at least my basement is.  Food resupply packing for the trip is in full swing.  My basement has been turned into a 12 year old boy’s dream; junk food everywhere.  I felt guilty when I went trip shopping with my five year old. I must have looked like the worst parent ever as I pushed him through the check-out line, with junk food piled in, around and on him in the cart.

I am planning on 3 resupplies: Tuolumne Meadows, Red’s Meadow and Muir Trail Ranch.  The boxes for T.M. and Red’s are all packed and waiting to be taped up and sent out.  The MTR supplies are gathered, but the problem is that I cannot get them all to fit into the 5 gallon bucket.  If I can not get them to fit into the 5 gallon bucket, how in the world am I ever going to get them fit into by ber canister? I am definitely starting to worry. I probably have too much food, but but I am worried about my hunger kicking into high gear during the second part of the trip. I will have to carefully pack once at MTR.  Any extra food will be donated to the hiker barrels.

For my food choices I tried not to rely too heavily on one type, to help prevent boredom and burnout.  I am not sure how well I actually did with this. Breakfast will rotate between the following choices: granola with dried milk, oatmeal, probars and Mountain House Skillet Breakfast.  Lunches will be tortilla based: pepperoni, peanut butter, tuna.  I am a little worried that I am lacking enough variety here.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for now. It looks like I will only have 3 commercial freeze dried meals.  The remaining dinners were either dehydrated by me, or dinners that I assembled.  I hope that my dehydrated meals do not go bad before I get to them. Surprisingly for me, there is no Ramen on the menus.  Can that be right???  I am planning  on 2 snacks per day (a.m./p.m.), from the following: Payday bars, M&Ms (multiple flavors), almonds, GORP, Corn Nuts, Pringles,  Cliff bars and a few Goos for the passes at the end.I also threw in some gum, Jolly Ranchers and Root Beer barrels, for in between snack times, and hopefully a quick pick-me-up.

My goal for tomorrow is to try to get the top on the MTR five gallon bucket.  Then get everything mailed out.  My departure date is going to be here quicker than I had imagined.  It has seemed to have just snuck up on me after the past year of planning.  

Tuolumne Meadows Resupply

Red's Meadow Resupply

Muir Trail Ranch

Muir Trail Ranch - Part II

Getting Closer Everyday

I dreamed of the trail last night.  Well not the trail actually, but the night before getting on the trail.   I was at the house of a trail angle with a bunch of other hikers, as we made one final check of our gear before heading out in the morning.  In my dream I meet a lot of the people that I had been chatting with through Facebook and the Yahoo! Group.  Spirits were high and everyone was laughing and joking with each other.  It was such a positive and supportive place.  As I woke from this dream, I found myself actually trying to force myself back into the dream, as I was not ready to leave it yet. 

Hardly a night goes by without me looking into some aspect of my trip; looking at maps, re-evaluating my gear and food lists, looking for chargers for my phone, searching for undiscovered JMT websites or Youtube! videos…  I hope I am not alone in this; that I have not turned into an obsessive person.  I think, for me it is more of a way to help pass the time until I actually fly out for this grand adventure.  And for me it is a grand adventure!

Many people have said to me that this is a trip of a “lifetime”.  I hope that this is not the case.  A trip of a lifetime to me is a onetime thing; an event never to be exceeded.  My hope that this is just the start of many great adventures to come.  As I look back at the things I have done in my life, I do not see many great adventures yet.  There have been a few like volunteering at Chena River State Recreation Area in Alaska, before my junior year of college, moving from Ohio to Colorado, and of course parenthood (this is the true “lifetime” adventure).  Most of my exploits have been relatively short, 3-4 days in length at most. This trip will be my catalyst to more adventures (or a good reason to take up golf if I end up hating long distance backpacking).  While this trip will be solo, the future ones must include my family. 

This trip will prove to me that I can undertake such grand adventures, but for me to fully enjoy it, I want to share it with my family (I am already planning a 2019 JMT hike with the full family.  My son should be old enough to make it by then).  One Bbog that I really like is The Big Outside by Michael Lanza. In this blog he shares his stories of experiencing the natural world with his family.  If you have kids and have not checked it out I highly recommend it.

Until next time ... HIKE ON!!!!!

“Don't be afraid of your fears. They're not there to scare you. They're there to let you know that something is worth it.” 
― C. JoyBell C.

One of the most reoccurring questions that I get asked when I tell people about my trip on the JMT is “who’s going with you?” Most seem quite shocked when I tell them that I am going alone? Is it because they cannot imagine me going alone or themselves? Afterwards come the questions: What if you get hurt? Won’t you get lonely? What about the bears and mountain lions?

To be honest I am afraid, but my fear does not come from wild animals or wild people, but rather from my doubt about my ability to actually finish the trail.  As I prepare for this hike I have little doubt that I will be able to do it.  Finishing simply boils down to putting one foot in front of the other; one step at a time; day after day.  However, in the back of my mind there is a little voice that keeps asking “but, what if….” 

I have been dreaming of doing a long trail for over 20 years, and now that I am finally getting the chance to do one, I cannot help but wonder if I have the mental toughness to actually be successful.  Can I actually get up day after day and put one foot in front of the other and enjoy the moment, rather than worry about what is up ahead?  Will being away from my wife and son for longer than I have ever been before mentally beat me down? 

It is not the unknown trail that puts fear into me, but rather the doubt and fear of my own unknown self.  Do I have what it takes to live up to the image that I have constructed of myself in my own mind’s eye?  What if I do not?  How will this change me as a person and my own belief about myself and my own abilities?

Am I an addict???

My free time has been given over to planning my trip.  I wake up in the middle of the night and I am thinking about the trail.  Hi, my name is Jay, and I am a trail addict. I imagine I am not alone in my growing obsession with the trail.  With still over 5 months to go before I need something to do to help the time to go faster, and as I said before I love to plan.  I came across a great JMT trip planner program (Excel file) through the Yahoo! JMT group. It allows you to enter your campsite (based on Elizabeth Wink’s book) then calculates your daily mileage, elevation gain and loss. It is even customizable to your departure date, and will give you the sunrise and set time each day. A big thanks to its creator!

Currently it looks like I am going to be doing the trail in 18 days.  I am trying to get one of my permits changed to be able to leave a day early which would give me a 19 day trip.  The longer the better! It will be nice to be able to take it slow at the beginning and enjoy the trail.  The only fixed date I have is to get to Muir Trail Ranch 8 days before I finish, due to the amount of supplies that I am sending there. Using the Yahoo! Planner I have come up with the following plan:

Day	Daily Mileage	Campsite
1	4.4	Little Yosemite Valley CG
2	13.4	Lower Cathedral Lake
3	11.7	NW Evelyn Junction*
4	13.8	Thousand Island Lakes
5	12.2	N. of Minert Creek Crossing
6	9.2	N. of Deer Creek Crossing*
7	11.8	Lake Virginia
8	11.1	Quail Meadows
9	15.5	Sallie Keys Lakes
10	5.7	MTR South Cut-Off*
11	9.0	Evolution Valley Area
12	13.2	North Evolution Lake+
13	16.0	Upper Palisade Lake
14	16.1	Sawmill Pass Trail
15	10.3	Sixty Lakes Junction
16	18.2	Tyndal Creek
17	11.6	Guitar Lake
18	13.07	Lone Pine Hotel

                                                                       *Resupply                               + possible zero day

Even as I put this plan down in type, I wonder if I will actually stick to it once I hit the trail.  The best laid plans of mice and men and all.  It is a good way to pass the time, but I hate to think that I am going to be so rigid that I will not take advantage of opportunities when they arise out on the trail

Travel Logisitcs

Logistics are coming along well.  I made flight and hotel reservation this week.  The plan is to fly into Reno, then take the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority bus from the Reno airport to Lee Vining.  I’ll spend the night at Lee Vining and then catch the YARTS bus the next morning to Tuolumne Meadows. I plan on catching the first bus of the day, which will give me a 2 hour layover in Tuolumne Meadows before the bus leaves for Yosemite Valley.  I plan to use those 2 hours to check in with the Wilderness Rangers to see if there are any same day or next day’s permits available out of Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley or beyond.  If there are, I will jump back on the bus to the valley.  If no permits are available I will probably spend the night at the backpacker’s campground in Tuolumne Meadows, then head to the Valley the next day.

I looked at the possibility of taking the ESTA bus all the way into Mammoth and spending my first night there.  My thought was that I would be able to hand deliver my resupply package to Red’s Meadow, and save a little money.  But the reality is that the cost of lodging in Mammoth would be at least double of the money that I would say.  Plus the timing would be a little tight to make all the public transportation to and from Red’s Meadow once in Mammoth.

Trying to keep up my routine of getting to the gym 5-6 days a week.  Usually 2 of those days are spent in a lifting class (Body Pump) and the other days are divided between running on the treadmill, stair climber with a weighted pack and a spin class.  Not sure how well these workouts will actually transfer to the trail, but it is much better than sitting on the couch and eating Bon Bons.  I need to get outside!  I am starting to get a little cabin fever being at the gym so much.  

It's Official!!

I GOT IT! A Happy Isle to Little Yosemite Valley permit for July 15th, 2014. My hike is officially a-go. I feel like a big weight has been lifted, and I can breath easier. I am feeling very fortunate, after ready many forums and blogs, I started to worry if I would be able to get a reservation for the day I wanted.  I have read numerous stories about people trying 3 or 4 or more days in a row and getting rejected each time.  Going solo gave me a big leg up I guess.  It it easier to slide one person into a spot, than try to find an open reservation for two or more. However, I did not get my permit on my first try, nor my first choice of permit options this time.

Sunday night I braved an incoming snow storm to get to FedEx Office in order to fax in my reservation form.  It took only a minute to fax it in, but another 15 hours before I got my answer: "Thank you for your reservation request. We are sorry to inform you that your wilderness permit reservation request has been rejected for all choices listed. Your requested trailhead is full or we do not have space for a group of your size." Crushed! That was how I felt. How could I not get my permit?  I knew it was not a for sure thing, but I had a feeling that I would be one of the few lucky ones. The ones that actually got their permit the first time. O.K. time to come up with plan B.  I knew I would be back at FedEx tonight sending in another request, but what if I got rejected again?

From somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered reading a trip report where they had started their JMT hike with a Happy Isle to Illiloute permit.  From what I could remember from their report it was not that bad, it just added a couple of extra miles (with an out and back from the actual trail).  With over 211 miles of hiking waiting for me, what would a couple or more miles early on matter? So I searched the net for information on this option and found out that is was a viable option.  My thought was that if I could at least get this permit, I would hopefully be able to upgrade once I got in the Valley.  I quickly typed up a new permit request and faxed it in from work. And then I waited... again!  By the time I left work I had not heard back from the pack service, so once again I went back to FedEx to fax my request for July 15th.  

I think I checked my email every 5 to 10 minutes this morning. By 1 o'clock I was starting to worry as I had not heard anything on either permit request. I tried to call the park reservations to ask a question about the Illiloute option (how far down the trail I had to go before I could camp) and maybe see if I could find out about the status of either request.  After numerous busy signals, I talked to a very friendly and helpful woman who told me I would have to hike about 3 miles off the JMT before I could camp. When I asked her if it was easier for me to fax in my request or do it over the phone, she said she could do it over the phone.  I then mentioned my request for the Illiloute option yesterday, and that I had not heard back about it or today's request either.  She was nice enough and looked into both, and it turns out I now have 2 permits:  the Illiloute option from yesterday and I had gotten my second choice request from today. She asked me which one I wanted to keep, and I decided to keep both for now; at least until I have a little more time to compare my 2 options.

Now all I have to do is patiently wait another 168 days.

In the Beginning

I have made one previous trip to Yosemite. The second summer I knew my wife (2002) we took our first real road trip together, which we started with several days in Yosemite National Park. One of my goals of this trip was to hike up Half Dome. At this time no permit was required to hike half dome. We took the first shuttle bus of the day to the trailhead and headed out.

This turned out to be my longest hike to date, almost 17 miles. My memory of the hike in is a bit blurry; the only thing that really sticks out in my mind was what I called the “never ending forest”. I never thought I would get out of it. My wife made it to just below the cables, before she decided she had gone far enough, as she is not a lover of heights. As I went up the cables she took a nice nap, waking to find a coyote napping just 10 feet from her at one point. 

The view from the top of Half Dome filled me with joy. I had spent many years rock climbing and to me Yosemite, and especially Yosemite Valley, had always been hallowed ground. Being and Environmental Science major in college, I spent many hours reading John Muir so to finally be there was a very special moment in my life.

On this trip I think I am going to bypass the trip up Half Dome. Part of me says “Been there, done that”, but more importantly I only have so many days complete this hike. While Half Dome only adds 4 miles or so to the trip, I think it will tire me out more than I want to be during my first couple of days. Next time through  the JMT, when I bring my wife and son here with me, and take 3 weeks to complete it, we’ll all take the detour together.

Hike On!

And then there was a plan

It took me a good 2 to 3 weeks to work up the nerve to tell my wife that I needed to hiked the John Muir Trial (JMT) next summer, and ask for her blessing to go. Let me say right off the bat that my wife is a wonderful and supporting person. But asking her to let me leave home, and our 4 year old son for 3 weeks, was asking a lot of anyone. It is hard enough to keep the house and family going with 2 of us, but to put all the responsibility on her, well that might be too much. Without even a flinch she quickly gave her blessing (I hope it was not too easy a decision for her, to be without me for 3 weeks).

“Need” to hike the JMT? Yes! All of us build up an image of ourselves and what we hope we are or can be. But until we test that image we never know if it is truly what or who we are. I have an image of myself as a hiker. While I have done numerous backpacking trips over the years, I do not feel that I have ever truly pushed myself to see if I have the right hiker stuff. For years hiking the Appalachian Trail has been on my bucket list (and still is). One of the best pieces of advice I got was to set a date for my hike, even if it was 10 years in the future and work towards that goal. Several years ago I set 2015 as the year I would hike the AT. However, as the day/year has drawn nearer the reality has also become clearer. There is no practical way I can escape the real world for the 6 months that it will take me to hike the AT. But 3 weeks, now that is doable.

I teach, so I have the summers off, while still getting paid. So if I can manage to save up a little money beforehand there will not be a major financial cost to our family. During part of the time I am gone I think I can talk grandma and grandpa into coming for a visit to help my wife with our little one. This may also provide chance for my wife and son to fly out to visit her parents in Texas. Her parents are great so I do not mind visiting, but Texas in the middle of summer… I’ll happily pass on that trip.

Now that the seed has been laid, it’s time to tend to them and let them grow and flourish. My hope it that I do not ramble too much here, but what can I say I am a Trial Journal junkie. I hope to be able to feed the dreams of others of on here, as many other journals have feed mine and kept my dreams alive and going.


Hike On!!