John Muir Trail

I recently hiked the John Muir Trail from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney, plus extra miles to Taboose Pass for a resupply, and VVR for some rest, food, and a few showers. Here are some photos, click to get to flickr and view the whole set of images. Lots of places worth going back to for some extreme picnicking. Enjoy.

Yosemite, Northern terminus of the John Muir Trail

Tony, rarely photographed, seen here in front of Nevada Falls on our first day.

Jeremy heading up Donahue Pass.

A group of hikers showing off their gossamer gear backpacks. Lots of gossamer gear packs on the trail. 2 mariposa plus, 2 mariposa, and a g4 in this shot I think.

Good morning Banner Peak and thousand island lake.

I went into VVR a little sick, and a little injured. I came out of VVR with a new hiking buddy, Kellie. We met her before Red's Meadow and she was flying down the trails at unbelievable speeds. I was impressed and glad to get to hike with her.

Sunset, Marie lake, just before Seldon Pass.

Drainage into Evolution Valley.

The sunset at the Evolution lakes was my favorite sunset of the trip. Best show I've seen.

It was a tough spot to leave. I could have stayed here for a couple of days.

Lake Wanda was awesome. Everyone was loving this scenery and the excitement was contagious. Made it like seeing it for the first time.

Muir Pass had the most snow left on it.

Muir Hut

Looking back at the Muir Pass

Mac and Cheese with some nice veggies. Crushed fritos and cheetos made great texture. Great hiking, great dinner. This was my favorite day on the trail. One awesome thing after another.

Just a few miles off the trail, at Kellie's pre-cached resupply

Heading into camp just outside of Rae Lakes.

Fin Dome overlooking the Rae Lakes.

Bug nets were in fashion most evenings on the trip.

I ran up onto some higher ground for sunrise at Rae Lakes

Glen Pass

Toward Forester Pass we go

Look back view as we climb towards Forester Pass

The view from inside the Duomid, camped below Junction Peak below Forester Pass. I remember this dinner being a nice end to the day. I think we did a rice and lentils with TVP, spiced and thickened with instant potatoes.

This was a very long day for us, and these were not the greatest campsites, sleeping wise, it set us up for another hard day going over Forester Pass. Kellie was using a waterproofed Wenzel Starlight [ i think] and I had the MLD Duomid.

First Light on Junction Peak.

Climbing the snow field to Forester Pass.

Last pass, so nice, sans crowd.

And then we head down Forester

Crossing the Big Horn Plateau . Mt Whitney, now so close. 16 miles to go.

Duomid at Guitar Lake, resting up for night ascent of Whitney.

The view from inside the Duomid.

Guitar Lake, as we begin our last climb.

Trail Crest. Almost there. Cold. One flashlight.

We made it. The end, Southern terminus of the John Muir Trail at Mt. Whitney. Not much celebration. Shared some excitement about an incredibly orange moon.

Mountain Laurel Designs Duomid on Mt. Whitney Summit.

First light hits the peaks

Sunrise on the summit, Duomid to the right of the shelter.

Sunrise on the summit.

Thru Hiker fashion show in front of the Whitney summit hut.

The final descent was my least favorite part of the trip.

At the Whitney Portal.

Thank you Tasty !

Obligatory BPL pose.

Food Overview

I took a nice pantry with me for the JMT, always had food I wanted to eat, and enough variety I wasn't sick of any of it. I carried a Bearikade expedition, and now know I can do at least 12 days, no resupply, from that canister. I carried this beast inside of a BPL Absaroka backpack. This pack was amazing. It carried as well as my Gregory, was 3 pounds lighter, and never put any pressure on my shoulders. Just an amazing frame system for a small pack.

The main protein source was buffalo, seasoned and cooked, dried to small crumbles. I picked up a pack of jerky from the Reds Meadow hiker box too.

I prepared orzo, and rice, as dinner carbohydrates, adding in instant potatoes at the end of the trip to stretch the dinners farther.

Additional dinner ingredients were lentils, beans, veggies, chicken stock, tomato sauce, and some spices.

My spice rack was reduced to three options this trip. I had a Tomato-Garlic-Onion-Salt&Pepper mixture used to season most everything. I also brought some chilli powder and generically indian spice blend. A few days before the end, I traded some curry powder for some cayenne pepper.

Snacks were largely made up of fritos and cheetos, crushed together in a large bag. I used 3 pounds of this over 21 days. Additional snacks were my chocolate oats and chip cookies, strawberry rollups with electrolytes, crushed dried blueberries, licorice pastels, m&ms, wheat crackers, gold fish crackers, and candy coated sunflower seeds.

Extra special "Tasty Treats" were given to me by Mike McDole. I carried a dozen on the trip, using them as needed to calm my stomach. I carried these the entire length of the trail, and they held up extremely well. A fantastic gift indeed.

Breakfast was Nut and Honey cookies with freeze dried and powdered fruits blended with malto-dextrin, fructose, and glucose. I also had Mike Clelland's Spud Bomb for breakfast twice. I recommend it highly. Buy his ultralight backpacking tips book, it is fantastic.

Lunch was consistently a goo of nut butters, blended with nut oils, agave nectar, and honey. I ate this from the tube, and on tortillas, depending on the tortilla supply. One lunch I ate seasoned olive oil on wheat crackers. That was good too, but not as satisfying as the nut butter goo.

Using a trickle of simple sugars and carbs I was able to effectively fight hunger, and burn my body fat effectively. I lost 18 pounds on the trip, but was also stretching my food to stay out almost a little bit longer than anticipated, and had gotten sick early in the trip. Again, never hungry, but consistently taking in fewer calories than I was needing. I supplemented my planned food with two granola bars, a lipton rice package, and a package of instant potatoes to get me through the last few days of the trip.

I ate the last of my food at the outpost camp, and finished the hike out to the portal.

I was disappointed with the meals I purchased at Tuolumne, Reds, and the portal. VVR had some good biscuits and gravy that I rather enjoyed, as well as a decent fish and chips.

Thanks for reading, photos coming soon, just not of the food. I seem to have trashed my iPhoto library, and lost the food preparation photos. Lame.

JMT Food preparation

Food preparation for the JMT has begun.
So far I've got buffalo, pastas, and stocks drying out.
Hopefully I get a camera soon, and can get back to blogging.

Not sure what all I will be making and eating,

but I know what I won't be taking on the trail.

New Pack

With the aggressive PT I've been getting, I wasn't up to carrying a tight pack on my shoulders. So I decided to try something different. I bought a LuxuryLite StackPack. I walked more upright than I have in years, had almost zero weight on my shoulders the entire hike, and could get a nice breeze across my back. I look forward to using it in the near future, and testing the claims of "light, tough, and waterproof. You can float this pack across a lake and nothing gets wet."

Tuolumne River

I took a pinholga out to the wilderness with mixed results.
Before the tripod mounting nut broke off, the results were encouraging.
After, they were blurry, and not pleasing to the eye.

Oh well. Next time I'll use better epoxy.


Tuolumne River


campsite in pate valley


stream


view near tuolumne peak pass


taking a quick break


glen aulin falls

NBC OLYMPICS 2010 VANCOUVER

Choosing to show the USA vs Canada hockey game on MSNBC instead of NBC is the worse programming decision in the history of bad programming decisions. I can't even think of a previous decision that would rival this in magnitude, only hypothetical situations.

Oh, I know. How about reshowing the 1980 lake placid hockey game in its entirety while the 2010 USA vs Canada game is being played live. Yes, that would rival this decision in magnitude. But they won't do that, NBC will find a way to do even worse.

I for one have decided to make a note of who sponsors this, and will not be giving them my business.

NBC has a guy answering phones @ 212-664-4444
It won't help, but you can let them know what you think.

Advertisers list
--------------------------------------------------------
NBC
Acura
Fry's Electronics
Paper Mate Pens
LEXUS
NBC Universal
GE
Nissan
Xfinity
Aria Casino in Las Vegas

And we are back...

I changed nothing, but apparently TopTrailChef.com was experiencing difficulties over the holidays. I don't know what happened, but it might have been related to renewal, or something. Not sure, lots of people posting similar errors with blogger sites hosted on custom domains. Oh well, we are back now.


Hmm, the weather wasn't schedule to arrive for 36 hours


And yet, it appears like snow is sticking to the ground


Cuben Fiber in moonlight and snow flurries. 14F.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Happy Holidays and thanks for reading my blog.

Whitney pt2

In no particular order, some analog photos from the Mt Whitney trip. Enjoy.

Here we go !


Linda taking photo.


In the clouds.


My shelter for this trip was a Mountain Laurel Designs "DuoMid".


hole in the rock


Trail Crest


Trail Camp


More clouds.


Summit

Looking down into the clouds.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Mt Whitney

Tony, Linda, and I took a short trip to summit Mt Whitney.
I have lots of photos to process for several trips, but here is a little video I shot from the summit.

Enjoy,

Green Beans

I took some green beans on my recent TRT thru hike.
To minimize rehydration problems, I prepared them french style.


Apparently, there are "frenchers" on the market that slice beans. I don't have one, I have a knife, and it works well. I chop off the stem end, and then split with the knife.


All sliced up and ready for cooking. I'm using red fresno chili peppers, garlic, and a little soy for my seasoning.


I just puree the chilis and some soy in a blender.


The chili sauce.


Quickly cook some garlic on high heat.


Add the beans and sauce, stir, cover, 30 seconds of cooking, remove from heat.


Prepared beans ready for drying.


Dried beans, packaged and ready to go.