Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 16:53:55 -0700 From: lacavacl@ccmail.orst.edu (Clem LaCava) Subject: John Muir Trail Report #3 Hello Friends and Adventure Runners! Part Three! ----------- Before proceeding, a few answers to some questions! I'm sending the reports as I write them. There should be a few more! I hope I'm not boring you all too much. Matt Kavanaugh asked about the Lowe Contour 50 backpack that I used. I mentioned it was not as engineered as well as the Ultimate Directions. What I meant was the stitching needed to be reinforced in some areas. I really like the pack and I thought it was comfortable. But, the stitching did tear on one side of the waist strap. REI in Eugene gave me the name of a seamstress and the next time I'm in Eugene, I just plan to drop the pack off and have some of the stitching, where the straps connect reinforced. Matt asked about the bivy sack rather than a tarp. My friends all used a bivy and had experience with them. I just went along with what they had. Jardine's suggestion about the tarp is probably worth exploring. Were we able to run with 23 lbs? Uphill, no! At least we didn't try! But, flat or downhill, yes! You kind of get into the John Muir shuffle. Run a hundred yards, walk for 10-15 seconds, start running again. Walk any slight uphills, run again on the down. I remember, on day five, there was a stretch in LeConte Canyon of 3.3 miles downhill, hardly any rocks. Larry and I cruised downhill in 45 minutes. Those stretches were few and far between. More on that later! Matt, a heavy hippack, I don't think could work! ______________________________________________________________________ THE DAY BEFORE: I arrived at Yosemite from the west around 1PM, Friday, August 1st with my wife, son and our old golden retriever, Rita. We planned to utilize what was available for the backpackers. Locate the backpackers parking lot and walk to the campground designated for backpackers. I had not been in Yosemite for at least 20 years. I was excited that I was finally here and hoped I would soon meet up with Larry, Curt and Max. While trying to figure the correct turn to the backpacker lot, Curt, Larry and Max drove by. It was great to see that they had arrived. They had already picked up the permits. We then drove over to the backpackers lot. It was approx. 2PM. Upon arriving at the backpackers parking lot, we discovered about a half-dozen cars scattered throughout the dirt lot, had smashed windows. The bears had been hungry the night before! We all decided we could not leave any food in the vans. While my son was driving to Yosemite, I was in the back of the van, packing my food into my backpack. My plan was not to mess with the pack until Jan gave it to me at Tuolumne. Since, my family was on vacation, we had brought along a stash of food for the cabin at Rock Creek. In addition, we had a cooler filled with food. It was 2PM! Before, we would try and locate the backpackers camping area, the decision was made to take all of the food out of the cars and out of the packs and place in the bear boxes, which we did. About 3PM, we started walking to the backpackers camp area. There are lots of restrictions on dogs at Yosemitef, therefore Jan stayed at the parking area with Rita. I wish I had thought about this scenario sooner. If so, I would have driven down Highway 395 to Rock Creek, left the family vacation gear and the dog at the cabin at Rock Creek, then entered Yosemite Valley from the east over Tioga Pass with my gear and supplies. Larry, Curt, Max and I located the backpackers camp area about 3/4 mile away. We reserved two camp areas and walked back to the vans at the backpackers lot, reloaded our packs with food (we didn't want to keep the packs in the bear boxes, just the food for security reasons). We then walked back to the backpackers lot, set up our tents and bivy's, and stored our packs in the bear boxes with the food at the camp site. It was already after 5PM and it was time to go eat some pizza and drink a few beers, talk and relax. The pizza was good and the talk focused on the JMT, we were ready. About 730PM, Curt, Larry, Max and I walked back to the backpackers parking lot. We loaded up more gear and walked back to the camping area. Tim Twietmeyer mentioned in his post that they used the Curry Village tent cabins. He also mentioned, that they left some items like Metabolol, etc. in the car, covered. Our group decided leaving soap and toothpaste in the car was dangerous in addition to Metabolol and power bars. After all of these bear prevention hassles, we may have gotten to sleep around 10PM. I recommend avoiding the backpackers lot and backpackers camp area. They are not conveniently located near each other. I would utilize the tent cabins or reserve a camp site, where you can park your car right next to your camp area. DATA FROM OUR TRIP: Day-Mile Name Elevation Passes Left Trail Into Hang of Camp Gain Hiked Camp Supper Camp Food ------- ------- ------ ------ ----- ------- ----- ---- 1 30.5 Lyell 7,430 Cathedral 640AM Tuolumne 830PM Yes Canyon Pass Meadows 3PM and along trail at 630PM ______________________________________________________________________ 2 60 Few miles 5,830 Donahue 630AM Red's 945PM Yes past Red's Pass Meadow Meadow Grill ______________________________________________________________________ 3 91 Bear Ridge 7,220 Silver 6AM Yes 915PM Pile Trail Jct. Pass & The Climb to Bear Ridge was a Bear! ______________________________________________________________________ 4 118.5 Colby 4,200 Seldon 610AM No 615PM Yes Meadow Pass Evolution Valley (We picked up our Resupply at Muir Ranch between 1 & 2PM.) ______________________________________________________________________ 5 147+ Above 5,550 Muir Pass 6AM Yes 845PM Pile Palisades Lake ______________________________________________________________________ 6 179 Charlotte 6,390 Mather, 545AM No 1015PM Bear Lake Pinchot, Supper Box (Storm) Glenn at All Passes (We located the resupply carried in by Jan Gnass and hung in a tree at 9PM) ______________________________________________________________________ 7 204 Beyond 5,510 Forester 8AM Yes 9PM Yes Crabtree Pass Ranger (Storm) Station ====================================================================== 7 (Clem) Drinking 1,200 Kearsarge 8AM three 187 Beer at Pass Sierra Nevada Rock Creek and Meatballs in Hot Sauce at the Tom's Place Tavern ====================================================================== 8 221 Bishop 3,870 Mt Whitney 7AM 4PM Max, Larry and Curt finished at 4PM. My wife had their car parked waiting for them right at the trailhead. They drove to Bishop and celebrated. Congratulations! What an effort! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DAY ONE: We started on the John Muir Trail at 640AM out of Yosemite Valley. We were planning on traveling at least 30 miles. This was a fun day. Larry and Max took several pictures of us from the start and throughout the day. We were running from the Valley with our waist packs on. The load was light. The scenery of course was beautiful. Although, there would be considerable elevation gain this day, we did not think it would be a tough day, mostly because of the light packs and the chance to eat an extra hot meal in the mid afternoon at Tuolumne Meadows. This was the only day we had a hot meal in the afternoon. Bruce Hoff ate three hot meals per day, as did Bruce Van Borstel who traveled with Tim on their JMT trip. Because of the light packs, we ran 3 1/2 MPH into Tuolumne, ahead of schedule. Larry and Curt were identifying the birds, trees and flowers, it was a fun run. We arrived at Tuolumne approx. 3PM. Paul and Jan were waiting. We ate a some vegeburgers and fries at the restaurant, refreshened up in the rest room and changed into clean shirt, shorts and socks. Max changed shoes. Because, we were so relaxed, we never left Tuolumne Meadows until about 430PM. Jan and Paul left for Rock Creek. We headed for Lyell Canyon. Blue skies and the river was crystal clear in Lyell Canyon. About 6PM, we decided to go for a dunk in the water. After cleaning up, we decided to cook dinner. I remember Curt, Larry and I not be able to finish our corn pasta, because of recently eating at Tuolumne Meadows. About 730PM, we started fastpacking again and a mile or so past the Vogelsang Pass Trail Jct. we stopped and looked for a campsite. It was an easy day. Thirty plus miles put us on schedule. The JMT fastpack was mostly fun. The inconveniences of the day before in Yosemite Valley were already forgotten. We were into the trip we had been planning since last winter. More later! Clem LaCava Corvallis, Oregon lacavacl@ccmail.orst.edu