A Bit of Background - Three Months Later............

I had good intentions to get to this a tad sooner, but here it is more than three months after we started down the trail and I'm finally getting around to putting fingers to keyboard.  I'll see how much I have left in my memory bank and also rely on notes and books to do some filling in of the blanks.

The following are some excerpts from "Trekking the John Muir Trail Through the California Sierra Nevada" by Alan Castle (published by Cicerone).

"The John Muir Trail, one of the world's most spectacular treks, runs for 216 miles through the unspoilt (their spelling, not mine) High Sierras of California.  Beginning in Yosemite, it crosses three national parks, ending with an ascent of Mount Whitney (14,496 ft) (which apparently has grown another 9 feet to 14,505 feet according to the signs on the mountain), the highest peak in the USA outside Alaska.

"While the John Muir Trail passes through high mountain country where spectacular peaks and high passes abound, the JMT itself is a relatively easy trail to walk.  Gradients are rarely very steep, as the trail was originally intended for pack animals, mules and horses."

Some words, as well, from "John Muir Trail; The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail" by Elizabeth Wenk (published by Wilderness Press).

"The John Muir Trail (or, more simply, the JMT) passes through what many backpackers agree is the finest mountain scenery in the United States..... This is a land of 13,000- and 14,000-foot peaks, of soaring granite cliffs, of lakes by the thousands, and of canyons 5,000 feet deep.....  It is a land uncrossed by road for 140 miles as the crow flies......  And perhaps best of all, it is a land blessed with the mildest, sunniest climate of any major mountain range in the world."

This hike has been on my to-do list since sometime before I retired.  Of the 200+ miles, it shares the Pacific Crest Trail for about 160 miles.  I have no intention of doing the PCT (Mexico to Canada), but 200+ miles seemed to be a do-able challenge.  Elevation change would be about 45,000 feet up and slightly less than that down as the starting point is a bit lower than the end point.  While the trail is indeed well-marked and a "guide" is not required for the trail itself, I chose to do a guided trip for a couple of reasons.  (1) I didn't know of anyone else who had this on their bucket list and I really wasn't interested in going solo, and (2) the logistics of prepping food for three weeks and arranging food drops really didn't interest me.  So - hello Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides (SYMG).  Sign me up for the guided group trip July 11 - Aug 2.  Also - permits are notoriously hard to come by, and  SYMG manages all of that for the group.  They also provide shuttle services from Fresno to the trailhead, from the exit point to Lone Pine and then back to Fresno as well as safekeeping for any extra gear we may decide to jettison during the first 6 days.  Kind of nice to have all of that looked after.