The red line is the route we walked in 2015. The orange lines show alternate wilderness entry/resupply points.
Interested in doing the John Muir Trail (JMT), but the permits are sold out? That happened to us, so we just moved the route south by ~100 miles. Permits were easy to get, and it was neat to see the transition into the dessert. We missed Yosemite, but that meant we did NOT have to carry a bear box. We started at Vermilion Valley Resort. They offer a shuttle service. We took the Amtrak to Fresno, and they picked us up at the train station. We intended to finish at Walker Pass, which has a bus service Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays that will take you to Bakersfield via Lake Isabella. Bakersfield has an Amtrak station. It was a great trip and a route that we would highly recommend! Just be careful in the late summer/fall, as the water sources after splitting from the JMT become a bit sparse. We kept a trail journal on that trip that we have posted below.
Resources:
We used Halfmile’s PCT Maps for this trip (California Section H and G): https://www.pctmap.net/maps/
We started at Vermilion Valley Resort, which offers a shuttle between Fresno and the trail: http://www.edisonlake.com/hikers/transportation
We intended to finish at Walker Pass, which is served by a public bus system: http://kerntransit.org/
You can get a permit from the High Sierra Ranger District: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/sierra/passes-permits/?cid=stelprdb5361798
August 26th to September 8th, 2015
8/26/2015, Vermillion Valley Resort to PCT Mile 874ish, 4-6ish miles
We woke up at 4:30am this morning to hit the road. (We didn’t go to bed until almost 1am because of moving out and packing, so we were exhausted!) Martha picked us up at 5:30am, gave us coffee and treats from Starbucks, and had us on the bus at 5:55am. After an uneventful bus ride, we arrived at the Sacramento Amtrak Station and were off to Fresno at 6:40am. On the train to Fresno we made a lot of phone calls and texts and Renee set her voicemail to an away message. We got to Fresno a bit late, but the shuttle driver was waiting to drive us up to the mountains. He was very friendly, and his other job was driving semis full of cattle. In HS he tried to become a professional bull rider—he belonged in Montana, not California! Finally, at 1:45pm he dropped us off at the trailhead. We ate leftovers for lunch and were on the trail at 2:30pm.
It was a very hard day of hiking! We climbed ~2,000 ft over 4+ miles, and between the altitude, being unconditioned, and being exhausted from moving, it was very, very hard for us both. Renee even carried some extra weight at the end because Tim was losing it. We got to the PCT and found a campsite shortly thereafter, around 7pm.
Dinner: Spicy Shrimp Chowder
-Tim
8/27/2015, PCT Mile 874 to 861.6, ~12.5 miles
We slept in today. We probably got over 11 hours of sleep. We woke up a little after 8 and were slow getting on the trail. We had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. We got on the trail around 9:45. Shortly after we met two rangers. They checked our permit and quizzed us on the rules (camp 100+ ft from a waters source or the trail, poop 200+ ft from water). Tim admitted right away that we didn’t have a bear box, which is ok because he called King’s Canyon and they said we didn’t need one if we use the bear lockers. He also admitted we didn’t use the counter balance method of hanging food. They weren’t that happy, but they gave us some tips on how to make the counterbalance method work. We ended up meeting lots of people today. Many were doing the JMT. All of them were stopping or had stopped at Muir Ranch to resupply. One guy also has me convinced that we should hike Mount Whitney—the tallest peak in the continental United States at 14,500ft elevation. It’ll add 14 miles to our trip, but we don’t need to carry our packs. We’ll see if we can squeeze it in—our daily goal is ~14 miles, but today we only made it ~12.5. The hardest part of today for me was climbing Seldon Pass. We climbed from 9,000ft to almost 11,000ft. I got pretty sick from the elevation. The last quarter mile or so I couldn’t stop hiccupping and felt pretty nauseous. We took about a 20 minute nap at the top and had some food. I felt much better on the way down. We passed some gorgeous lakes when we were above 10,000ft. We also saw some marmots. We are camping near Senger Creek. Two deer walked through our campsite. Tim is in pretty rough shape—super sore and exhausted. We had some tasty Veggie Mac for dinner. Counterbalance = success tonight.
-Renee
8/28/2015, PCT Mile 861.6-846.6, ~15 miles
Today we started out with a relatively easy descent to the San Juaqin River at ~ mile 5.5. We got there before 11, after starting at 8:10, so we were feeling great. But the descending didn’t last. After crossing the river (and into King’s Canyon NP), we started a steady climb toward Muir Pass, which we’ll reach tomorrow. Parts of the climb were quite steep, so by lunch (at 2:15), we were both kaput. But we pushed on because we really wanted to make 15 miles to cancel out our lower-than-desired mileage yesterday. A little while after lunch, we had to ford evolution creek barefoot. That was neat. Also around that point, the smoke from nearby fires got so bad it was making Tim’s eyes hurt. All day we had been passing people who turned back due to smoke, but we never considered it… It is bad though, and sadly it’s making it difficult to see the valley around us (probably called Evolution Valley). We took a break in McClure Meadow with 1.6 miles to go, and Renee wasn’t sure if she’d make it. Tim took the lead and tried to set a steady and slow pace, and it worked–we made it to camp at 5:30pm, after 9:20 on the trail. It was a long day, and we’re both pooped. We saw a mom and baby deer in our campsite (and another pair earlier on the trail). We succeeded at counterbalancing our food for the second night in a row!
Dinner: smoked salmon couscous
-Tim
8/29/2015, PCT Mile 846.6-831.8, ~14.8 miles
Today was a long, slow day, but we both felt pretty good. We got on the trail at 8:05. We ended up hiking over 10 hours because we overshot our water source/campsite by about a mile. We started the day with an 8-mile climb up to Muir Pass (12,000’). Once we got above 10,000’, we passed lots of gorgeous lakes again. I think we both agree that these high elevation lakes are some of the prettiest sites we’ve ever seen. At the top of Muir Pass there was a hut built out of rocks in 1930. We ate lunch inside because it was really windy. It had been clear in the morning, but by the time we got to Muir Pass, the smoke had rolled in again. We saw a cute, mouse-like thing–probably a pika. We also saw lots of marmots. Based on the people we’ve talked to so far, we may be a bit crazy. Most people seem to carry a maximum of 8 days of food at one time–we’re carrying 17 days! (Only 13 now. But our packs are really heavy still!) The maximum number of miles hiked per day that we’ve heard so far is 12–we’re trying to average 14. The descent down from the pass was steep and slow. We are camping in an illegal campsite (too close to the trail and too close to water), but we were a bit crabby and didn’t care after overshooting the last campsite. We ate unstuffed peppers for dinner, which cheered us up a bit because there was a lot and it was super tasty!
-Renee
8/30/2015, PCT Mile 831.8-819.4, 12.4 miles
We had a great hike today. We woke up a bit later than planned and got on the trail around 8:45. But, we made great time with a downhill first four miles and were doing pretty good. After those first four, the path switched to uphill, but it was a gradual uphill until around mile ~9, so we made great time still. At mile 9, the climbing really began and it was relentless. But, we were feeling so good from the morning that we just powered through. Toward the end the mountains were taking their toll on Tim, but thanks to Renee’s positive attitude he survived. We set up camp high above a lake and near a waterfall. It’s a beautiful site. We got there at 4:45, so only 8 hours on the trail today! Smoke from the nearby fire is the thickest it has been yet. Despite being surrounded by mountains, we can barely make them out. Dinner was “seafood ramen”. It was wonderful. All of our dinners have been yummy and filling, and I’m starting to think we should eat like this at home too! We almost slept with food in the tent, but at the last minute we found a tree and hung it. Also, we washed our legs near the waterfall, so we’re feeling clean! We saw many pairs of deer today too. Also, we finally had enough time at the site to put up a line and dry some of the sweat off of our clothes.
Dinner: Seafood Ramen
-Tim
8/31/2015, PCT Mile 819.4-808.4, 11 miles
So far the trail has been either up or down, never very flat. The lowest point is the river valley, where you find big trees and meadows. We have seen a lot of deer, black squirrels, bear scat, and chipmunks down in the river valley. The trail out of the river valley has tended to be pretty steep, following the streams and waterfalls. Usually at around 10,000’ you are above the big trees and at the lakes. The trail following the lakes has been a more gradual up. This is where we start to see marmots, pikas, and small chipmunks.The vegetation around the lakes is sparse–a few small trees and shrubs. Then the trail gets steep again as you finally head up to the pass. Eventually there is no more vegetation and all you see around you is granite. The reward is the great views from the pass. There are big peaks all around you, and you can look back on the lakes you were just at and forward to the lakes you are heading to.
This morning we had breakfast at Mather Pass–oatmeal and coffee. We hung out at the pass for an hour. The weather was perfect–no smoke yet. On the way down, we found a sealed Nuun tablet! Lemon-lime. Very tasty! We were only on the trail for a little over 8 hours today. Tomorrow we enter the part of King’s Canyon where we need to use the bear lockers, so our choice was 11 miles or 20 miles (and two passes instead of just one). We opted for 11 only! It worked out well though because we are camped at a lake. Hopefully the smoke will be clear by tomorrow morning, so we can see all of the peaks around us. The lake is freezing. Tim jumped in. I stepped in and rinsed off but didn’t get my hair wet. Tomorrow is Tim’s birthday–the big 2-8.
Dinner: Double A Root Bark (we added too much water … )
-Renee
9/01/2015, PCT Mile 808.4-795.2, 13.2 miles
Today is my birthday. After we woke up around 6:25 and I was making breakfast, Renee told me to check what we’d be eating today. When I looked in the food bag I found a birthday Snickers and a birthday note with a word scramble and crossword puzzle (both made by Renee) on it. Fun! We hiked to Pinchot Pass and took a long break to have some Snickers and a second round of coffee (to celebrate). At the pass we saw Pam (who we’ve seen at three passes in a row!), and a man who was shooting for 20 mi/day. The four of us discussed unexpected aspects of the trail: hilliness, bareness, dustiness, lakes up high, rockiness.
After 9.5 hours of hiking (7:40-5:10), we got to our campsite at Arrowhead Lake. We jumped in, and I thought the water was much warmer than expected, but Renee was still freezing and didn’t go in above the waist. While I pumped water Renee made my standard birthday dinner: lasagna! It was great. For desert, Renee cooked pumpkin apple pie, while I did the word scramble and crossword. We took our food to the nearby bearbox at night and chatted with our neighbors. They’re from Australia and traveling the world, USA first. This was a very special B-day.
Dinner: Lasagna
-Tim
9/02/2015, PCT Mile 795.2-784.3, 10.9 miles
Today was our 8th day on the trail. The morning was beautiful like usual. No smoke. A little chilly—there was frost on the grass near our campsite. We started the morning by hiking past Rae Lakes. They had an emerald color, and we could see trout swimming in them. Glen Pass was a bit challenging—both the ascent and descent. Tim was in ok shape. The ascents are hard on the lungs, and we are usually too out of breath to talk. The descents are hard on the feet. On our way down from Glen Pass, we gave some guy ~20oz of water because he was out and in rough shape. The smoke today was the thickest it’s been so far. Supposedly the smoke will be gone after we cross over Forester Pass tomorrow. Most people out here are doing the JMT. In a few days, we’ll be off of the JMT and suspect it might be a bit lonely. Most of the people we have been playing tag with headed out on the onion valley trail today to resupply, including Pam and the Australians. We are camped near Bubb’s Creek tonight, which is a change from the lakes we have camped at for the last three nights. We have started to dream of food. Tim really wants a chicken sandwich. We have also talked about cheeseburgers, rootbeer from the tap in a frosted mug and BLT from the Birchwood, McDonald’s French fries, and breakfast sandwiches from Bariques or Babcock. We always enjoy our dinners though! They are filling and really tasty. Tonight we had salsa rice and beans.
-Renee
9/03/2015, PCT Mile 784.3-770.3, 14 miles
Today we woke up early hoping to get an early start at chipping away the miles over Forester Pass, the highest point on the PCT. Between our early rise and temps below freezing pushing us along, we hit the trail at a record hour: 7:25am. I was nervous for the pass, but Renee thought it would be a breeze… Renee was right. The trail up was long but steady, and we were over by 10:30am! From there, just ~9.4 miles of easy hiking to camp. And it did prove to be easy! We took only a few short breaks and reached a wonderful campsite at 4:22. Bonus: NO MORE SMOKE! Trail rumors proved true, and this side of Forester Pass is totally smoke free. Sadly, today was our last chance to see many of our trail-friends because everybody we were leapfrogging with was doing the JMT, which veers away from the PCT just three miles down the trail from our campsite. Goodbye to Pam, the Australians, the in-betweeners, Diane & her husband, the Japanese guy, and even to our trail enemies: Tom and Sharon. Our campsite tonight is great! We got here early enough for bright sun, so we put up a clothesline and dried out our soggy, sweaty gear. We also washed ourselves in the nearby stream, which we have been doing naked even though there’s the chance of somebody coming by. We don’t think we’ve been spotted yet, except by the Japanese guy a few nights back. Oh well.
Dinner: Spinach Bean Ramen (5*)
-Tim
9/04/2015, PCT Mile 770.3-753.8, 16.5 miles
We are over halfway done with our trip in terms of days and miles. Ever since we passed over Forester Pass, things have been a bit different. The smoke is gone!! It’s also much dryer and things feel more spaced apart—mountains, trees, etc. Today was a long, slow day. We hiked 16.5 miles in order to get out of Sequoia NP because there wasn’t a good bear locker. We were on the trail from 7:30-6. We met another ranger who checked our permit. We passed another backcountry ranger station—we’ve seen probably four now. We passed a group of Japanese people with guides—maybe like 10-15. About 15 minutes later two guys came riding by with 10+ horses carrying the stuff for the Japanese people. Rumor has it they are doing a $3000, 23-day guided tour on the JMT. Later in the day we passed another tour group—no horses this time though. We met a guy who started at Kennedy Meadows. He told us a lot of water is dried up. He told us the 4 sources that are still going. We have about 3 and a half days until we get there, so we’ll just have to be smart and time our water right. Today we had to pump about 6 miles before we set up camp. We hovered between 10,000 & 11,0000 feet today. There was what felt like a lot of up. We are looking forward to getting to lower elevation where it’ll hopefully be warmer at night. Tim got the rope stuck in the tree when we were trying to hang the food. We had to cut it and the food is in the tent.
-Renee
9/05/2015, PCT Mile 753.8-736.3, 17.5 miles
Last night we went to sleep at >11,000 feet and expected to be freezing. Between dressing warmly for bed and a warmer than expected night, we were both fine. Renee had trouble falling asleep because our food was in the tent and she was fantasizing about animals, but I slept great. We hit the trail later than I hoped but at an acceptable 8:00. For the first time we’ve started seeing ‘PCT’ plaques marking the trail instead of no markers, as was the trend while we overlapped with the JMT. The trail has changed dramatically in the last few days! We suspect Forester Pass separated the eastern and western side of the mountains because now we seem to be in the rain shadow. The landscape is made up of much more rolling mountains, the ground is nothing but sand/gravel with virtually no small vegetation, and large trees are spread throughout with lots of space between them. It is like a desert and a forest at the same time. Also, since there are no more passes or jagged mountains, the trail has become much more tame. We’re making great time! We set up camp after 9.5 hours on the trail, checked the map, and realized we went 17.5 miles! Our farthest day by far, but not even close to the longest. That includes a stop at a tiny spring to stock up on enough water to get through breakfast… It is so dry now, water is spread about 15 miles apart! Lastly, we finally met our first thru hiker! He started in Canada on June 30 and is averaging 28 miles per day. That’s ~double our pace… very impressive.
Dinner: Taco Mac
-Tim
9/06/2015, PCT Mile 736.3-717.6, 18.7 miles
Today was another good day on the trail. It was our earliest day on the trail (7:25am) and longest in terms of mileage. We hiked for about 10 and a half hours. We were motivated by burgers. We met another thru hiker today, Paparazzi. (He informed us yesterday’s thru hiker was nicknamed Orange Crush). Paparazzi is doing the high Sierra’s now. He had to come back to do them because they were snowed out in May. He is headed northbound and does 20-25 miles per day. He also told us that the Kennedy Meadows General Store sells greasy burgers until 4pm and pancakes in the morning. We are really hoping to make it there tomorrow for BURGERS!! We have about 16 and a half miles to go. We are also excited for a potential package from Jenny. We saw some cars today in two different valleys far far below us. At the same time, we could look back and see the rocky peaks of the high Sierras behind us. We made it down to lower elevation today. We are camped at 8,000 ft. The landscape changed again. As we got lower today, we started to see tons of sage and other small bushes. It was also one of the hottest days it’s been in a while. We were wearing shorts and t-shirts by 10am. We had to filter water in the morning again. The stream we filtered it from was a bit gross. Tim filtered 3 liters and had to clean the filter 3 times. Normally he cleans it once every 12-20 liters. We were pretty beat by the end of today, but we hope to get an early start tomorrow, so we can make it in time for burgers—we just hope they’re not closed on labor day!
-Renee
9/07/2015, PCT Mile 717.6-702.2, 15.4 miles (+0.5 to General Store)
Today ended up being our last day on the trail. Last night we fell asleep with it still being warm, and we drifted off to the sound of coyotes yipping in the distance, but it cooled lots overnight, and we ended up freezing cold in the morning. I woke up and was out of the tent before dawn to make sure we got a head start on the trail to Kennedy Meadows. Burgers! Renee was a bit colder, but she survived. We timed the walk to water (with known mileage) and realized we had to up our mileage estimate from yesterday because we were walking faster than we realized. Nice. After filling up from the Kern River, we set off at a fast pace down a relatively easy trail with burgers on our mind. As the day progressed it changed from cold to roasting, but we were flying along. We descended through a burned forest with no shade, which was hot but neat. We started to see cacti today, and it definitely switched to desert by the time we got here. We met a hiker just as we were getting on the road to the general store who said he was tortured on the leg up from Walker Pass due to no water. Then we got to the store and the owner told us not to go on because there’s not enough water. He told us the last reliable resupply is 32 miles from the pass, which by our calculations means 2.5 days and 19 liters of water. In the end, we decided that this has been a great 180, that we don’t want to die of thirst or break our backs, and that the sensible thing to do is head back to Davis and enjoy our remaining week doing other things.
-Tim
9/08/2015, Kennedy Meadows
We woke up in the TP still happy with our decision to stop the trip 50 miles early. We hung out with Scott in the General Store. He made us some coffee in the percolator. His parents drove us to Ridgecrest at around 8:30am—a “larger” town about an hour and a half from Kennedy Meadows. They make one trip to Ridgecrest and one trip to Lancaster (larger and farther than Ridgecrest) every week. Our plan was to take a bus to Bakersfield and then the Amtrak back to Davis. On the drive things started looking even more deserty. We saw Joshua trees. Scott’s dad told us that pine nuts come from Pinyon Pines, which grow in the desert mountains. When we got to Ridgecrest, we found out that the bus only runs MWF and today is Tuesday. Tim came up with the brilliant idea to rent a car. Turned out we were only a block away from Avis. Only $168 to rent a car one way to Davis. The six hour drive back to Davis was pretty uneventful. Martha hadn’t rented out Bucklebury yet and let us stay one last night. She had dinner and ice cream waiting for us!!
The only regret we have is not hiking Mount Whitney. When we were doing the calculations the night before Forester Pass, we decided against it. Without taking a day “off” to do Whitney, we had to hike 14.75 miles per day to make it to Walker Pass on Friday. If we took a day to do Whitney, we would have had to hike 16.5 miles every day. 16.5 seemed unrealistic at the time considering we were only doing about 12 miles per day on the JMT. Turns out we averaged well above 16 once we got off of the JMT and we cut off 50 miles. Oh well. Next time.
Our trail routine stabilized after a few days and became pretty efficient in our opinions. 😊 Tim would wake up every morning at the first signs of light between 6 and 7. He would throw on some clothes and head out to retrieve our food from a tree or locker (or the tent…). He would make coffee and breakfast. Renee got to enjoy ~15 extra minutes of warmth in the tent while she packed up the sleeping bags, pads, clothes, etc and got dressed. The goal was to be on the trail as early as possible, which ended up being between 7 and 8:30. Renee always walked in front. She carried the food for the day in the top of her pack and wore the watch. In the mornings when we were feeling fresh, we would take a break about every two hours until lunch, which was around 1:30 or 2. After lunch we would take a break about every hour and a half. Breaks usually lasted ~15 minutes. We would take a pee, eat a snack, apply some sunscreen, and occasionally take off our shoes. We’d get to camp between 4 and 6 depending on how we were feeling or where the bear locker was or where the next day’s pass landed. Tim would filter water while Renee set up the tent and cooked dinner. Tim claimed Renee didn’t have enough upper body strength to filter, but Renee thinks he was just tired and wanted to sit. On the last few days when we had to filter on the trail, we would take turns setting up the tent and cooking (cooking being the more desirable job because you could sit). We would make it in the tent before dark, do some writing, and fall asleep before 8pm.
-Renee
