[at-l] John Muir Trail info....

[RoksnRoots@aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

In a message dated 1/23/02 3:50:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
baltimorejack@hotmail.com writes:


> 
>    A friend has just announced their intention of hiking the JMT this 
> summer, and has asked me for help and information.
> 

   *** I probably wouldn't be much help to you since I did it in 1991. Some 
short tips:

    We took Greyhound across the US from NYC. If you do it straight it takes 
2+3/4 days direct. You get off in Sacramento and take a bus to Merced. From 
there there's a park bus for a few rubles. If your friend is afraid of bears 
tell her not to turn on a flashlight in camp at night at Yosemite. Had one 
sniffing my empty pack 3 feet from my head and the breathing sounded like a 
massive beast. 

    I'm not trying to brag, but I carried a heavy pack from Yosemite to 
Mammoth Lake and another freight haul from there to Whitney. We got up to 
over 20 miles a day in the High Sierra on the well-switchbacked and graded 
trail. I attached two extra capacity saddle bags to my Lowe pack for extra 
food. Carried with me were four days emergency rations because we did it on 
the fringe of the first heavy snows in late september. Never needed it. 

     My friend brought the maps & guide, so I'm not sure of the options -but 
I'm pretty sure she's going to have to haul a week's worth at a time like we 
did. 

    Bears: We met a british couple in the middle of the most remote stretch 
of the JMT who had had all their food stolen the night before by a massive 
blackie. They said they had had luck so they decided to just hook the food 
bag on a branch in camp. We gave them what little we could spare, mostly 
oatmeal, newtons and gorp. They had a day's hike to reach the end of a 
little-used 20 mile fire road that took them to a long hitch. 

    Our blackie stormed into a camp where our food was in a bear box. I was 
lucky enough to have scared him off before he got to it. However, the 
experience cost me my hiking staff which broke from the pounding and cussing 
fit I threw to scare off the big bear. The rest of the time we hung our bags 
high using the balanced bag method over 15 feet up.

   My only help to you is to tell her to try a lighter system to compensate 
for the required food weight. Try late August early september.

       PS: Greyhound was only $59 that summer. I suggest if she can find a 
reasonable airfare she should perhaps consider that because the bus was an 
endurance test with a rogue's gallery as fellow riders... 


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