Experience with JMT Northbound thru hike?

bus transportation from Yosemite Valley to Lone Pine is available.
it may take 2 days to link the following 2 bus routes together.
the bus cost is pretty cheap.
you can spend the night in Mammoth at the National Forest campground right across the street from the McDonalds where you catch the bus.

you may be able to combine hitch hiking with Eastern Sierra Transit to speed up the travel time to 1 day rather than 2. hitch down from Tuolumne to Lee Vining to catch EST there.

Yosemite Valley to Mammoth – take YARTS

YARTS

Mammoth to Lone Pine – take Eastern Sierra Transit

Eastern Sierra Transit

then hitch hike a ride the last 13 miles up to Whitney Portal.
or you could leave your car in Lone Pine for the start and hitch hike up to the start.

One main reason most people go SOBO is to have time to acclimate on the trail.
Going NOBO you will hit higher altitude sooner and may want to acclimate a bit more before hand. Advantages of going NOBO are getting the harder parts of the route out of the way early when you are fresh, and it is net downhill 4,000 ft from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles.

Thank you for the info on transportation. Those are great resources! I looked it all over to get a feel for it and understand what you meant. It makes sense.
Yes, I do plan on going a few days early to (attempt) acclimate!

last 3 weekends in the Blue Ridge Mountains and loving it

From that, I’m guessing you’re flying out and taking a bus to Lone Pine to hike Whitney?

If you want, maybe post your rough travel plans for getting to Whitney and how you planned to head home, so people here can look it over and make sure there isn’t any glaring geographical issue. Like it may make more sense to fly out of a different airport, or puddle hop from LAX to Mammoth (depending on your finances).

Water: You fortunately will likely be going downhill through most the “dry” areas. These aren’t usually so dry that 2 liters or water won’t last you through it. You’re also going against the wave of south bound people, so you can just ask them what water is like from the direction they just came from. Take a look at this for some info on potential dry stretches:
http://jmtbook.com/predicted-dry-stretches-on-the-john-muir-trail/

I don’t know much about getting JMT permit when you already have a reservation for Whitney, it may be as easy as telling them this is what you want to do when picking up your actual permit. I’d give them a call: Wilderness Permit Office at (760) 873-2483.

Food drops: MTR (Muir Trail Ranch) is more or less the “halfway point” where a lot of south bound people mail a 5 gallon bucket of food, but it’s expensive to do. Depending of course on how many days of food you can carry and your daily mileage, although you’ll have the advantage of being in the first half of your trip and more likely be able to push a resupply to VVR (Vermillion Valley Resort). If from there you want to travel real light, there is Reds Meadow, then Tuolumne Meadows. Some limited food for purchase at the last three places, MTR doesn’t sell food, but it does sell batteries, fuel and first aid stuff. If you are taking more time, your options between Whitney and MTR aren’t so great for resupply, as you have to hike out to like Independence. Any projections on how far you will hike in a day and how many days of food you can stuff in your canister?

All great suggestions and questions! I'll work on some answers!

Yes to flying out, was thinking of renting a car, but that does seem rather foolish considering I would leave it sit for a few weeks and have to find my way back to it anyway. I will be going there early, so with a car I could drive around to my resupply points to drop the food. Would they accept that do you think instead of mailing it? (Guessing there would still be a charge for them to hold it.)

I'm estimating I could do 10 miles a day. If I go from trail camp to Mt Whitney and then continue on the John Muir trail, how far is it to the first place to camp?

I called the number you suggested. The Whitney permit includes all of the John Muir Trail and is good for 1-30 nights. I would just have to change my itinerary when I picked it up. There are a few other logistics, like there are other people on the permit and I may not be listed as a leader, but it can be split and reissued.

I don't have a map or any books on it yet to be able to look at the potential places to camp and resupply. Can anybody recommend the best map to buy and the best book. I do have the one by Elizabeth Wenk on order but that is a north to south description. Still useful, but will have to figure it out in reverse.

That water resource looks great, thank you!

The latest print edition of Wenk’s book (5th) edition contains only the southbound description, but there are separate electronic editions (Kindle and Nook) describing the northbound route. Earlier print editions contained both northbound and southbound sections.

Map options include Tom Harrison (also available as an app), National Geographic, and Erik the Black’s Pocket Atlas. I prefer the Tom Harrison maps, but Erik the Black’s guide is convenient and also shows water sources, campsites, and resupply points.

You can try this guy for a ride.

LonePineKurt@aol.com

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/96388/index.html?skip_to_post=869088#869088

Going north-bound is the best way to go.
You get the hard stuff done and over with and keep the sun out of your eyes the whole way.

A few thoughts totally out of order. Unless the Wenk guide book has changed the info is provided for both north and south bound hikes. The newest data book info says it has info for both north and south bound trips but I don't have that book to confirm.
I highly agree with Stu's recommendation to consider flying into Mammoth and catching the bus from there to Lone Pine. I've run the numbers a couple of times and when all is said and done it's cheaper than flying into San Francisco or Reno with the associated travel expenses of getting to your east side location.
I wouldn't worry about campsites. They are everywhere. Walk 100ft off the trail just about anywhere and you'll find a place. Remember that campsites don't mean fire rings and tables–just a relative flat place big enough for your shelter or just your body if you cowboy camp. The closest site after the summit is a camp spot just below Trail Junction where the JMT meets the the Whitney Trail (2mi below the summit).
Dropping resupplies by car can be done at some places but…. I would layout your itinerary and then plan your resupplies based on the days between viable resupply points. For most people the section from Whitney to Muir Trail Ranch is the longest stretch between resupplies-about 110 miles. At an average of 10 miles a day that's 10 days+. Ten days of food is very heavy and very hard to get in a bear canister. If you have money to spare you could have a packer bring food to you over Kearsarge Pass or you could plan on hiking out (16mi round trip) and hitching to Independence (or there are services that will meet you with food at Onion Valley where the trail head is–cheaper than a packer).
From MTR on the resupply options are easier. Most people send a resupply to MTR or take a chance and resupply from the hiker buckets there. On my last JMT I resupplied at MTR and then bought food at Red's Meadow and Tuolumne. Another option is VVR that's about 135 miles in from Whitney Portal. You could resupply from the store there or mail a resupply.
I don't carry more than a liter of water on the JMT but your needs might be different than mine. A liter gets lasts me 5 miles at least and more like 10 unless it's really hot. There may be some sections of more than 5 miles without water on the JMT but I don't recall any.

Resupply is actually far easier than it seems – I was terribly intimidated the first time I did the JMT but it ended up being wasted anxiety.

Mail bucket to MTR (yes, 5 gallon bucket. It will cost you about $40 ish to ship, and then you have to pay MTR $55 to bring it to the ranch via mule train). But it's literally RIGHT ON the trail, so well worth it.

Consider an overnight at VVR. amazing food, good place to chill for a nero day (or a full zero), good store with decent products available.

Mail a box to Red's Meadow. Consider staying in the bunkhouse there – super cheap, and wow was it nice! The food was fantastic.

Mail a box to Tuolomne Meadows.

Finish at Happy Isles.

Get a general idea of how far you are going to walk each day – then you'll have a good idea of how many of which meals to put in each resupply box.

Also pay attention to how early you need to ship – MTR for example (and Red's too I think) need a fair bit of time between when the post office receives your package to when it can be available for pickup (since it has to be trekked in from the town).

Have a great trip!

Yes to flying out, was thinking of renting a car, but that does seem rather foolish considering I would leave it sit for a few weeks and have to find my way back to it anyway. I will be going there early, so with a car I could drive around to my resupply points to drop the food. Would they accept that do you think instead of mailing it? (Guessing there would still be a charge for them to hold it.)

Are you looking at a specific airport yet? As I think there are only puddle hoppers to Mammoth from LAX in the summer.

I don’t think renting a car and leaving it is the most practical idea, likely cheaper to hire a personal shuttle service if you can get to Mammoth. As even if you rent a car, you’ll still be using shuttles or hitchhiking to get back to the car.

Theoretically could drive around and leave your resupply with places, but there is an issue that for a huge stretch of the Sierra Nevada there are no roads going through… and MTR and VVR are only accessible by car on the western side of the mountain range, and these are both up very long winding roads. As well, MTR is not on a road, so you’d have to park, take a ferry over Florence Lake (if it even has water left in it) and then hike like 6 miles to get there. Even trying to drop off resupplies on just the eastern side, could take a lot longer than you might expect.

If MTR is where you want to send a resupply, get to Home Depot and buy a 5 gallon bucket and starting figuring out what you’re eating, as you’ll need to get that mailed to them 3 weeks ahead of time.

For resupply at Independence, look into booking with this hotel and using there resupply and shuttle services http://mtwilliamsonmotel.com/resupply/. If buying food, be prepared with some creative backpacking food ideas, as you can’t really depend on restocking a bunch of freeze dried meals from the little market in Independence. After that and MTR, I’d buy what I could from VVR to top off what I ate traveling from MTR, then resupply as needed from Reds Meadow and Tuolumne.

Some resupply options:
http://www.pcta.org/discover-the-trail/john-muir-trail/jmt-resupply/

Shuttle services:
http://climber.org/data/shuttles.html

I fly for free so I'm not worried about where I'm going into/out of, don't need to plan an advanced ticket/date. So, that can be very flexible for me.

Thank you for all the great tips! It seems this is another drought year. Will that affect all the availability of water and the approx every 5 mile locations?

I'm getting a lot better handle on the mystery of it all from reading myself and getting your personal tips!!!

Thank you!!

The next thing you want to do is, download the "HalfmilePCT" app for either your iPhone or Android. It's free and being the PCT and JMT share the same path for much of the Sierra's , it's one of those things that you really should have. The PCT/JMT meet at PCT mile 767 (Lower Crabtree Meadow) and part ways at PCT mile 942.50 (Toulumne Meadows). As a PCT thru-hiker last year, I found this app to be of great help to me and it certainly made my life far better while hiking the trail. And when you consider the cost, it's truly a no brainer.

If you got Google Earth installed, this KML overlay could be really helpful in figuring things out in a more visual way.

http://www.jmt-hiker.com/extras/John_Muir_Trail.kml

Consider joining the JMT Yahoo Group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/johnmuirtrail/info . There is a ton of useful info in the Files you may want to peruse. The signal to noise ratio is not too bad, a lot better than the FB JMT group IMO.

It seems this is another drought year. Will that affect all the availability of water and the approx every 5 mile locations?

Drought will have some impact on you. There are a handful of sections you're going to want to be aware of, so you know to refill before you go through them (posted a link earlier in this thread talking about water conditions).

Going north, the big one I think you want to remember, is right after Muir Trail Ranch, because there is a severe uphill stretch which has almost no tree cover and is bone dry. Almost everything else for you would be going downhill, which at least for me, tends to be a little more tolerable to run out of water on.

The section from Purple Lake or Duck Lake to Red's Meadow can dry up, and that's around 10 miles, but going North it's downhill.

A great source for mapping your hike: Sierra Mapper: http://awhite4777.pythonanywhere.com/SierraMapperAlpha/default/start

Good luck,
Bruce

Thank you!

You could enter the sierras at the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead and go up Trail Pass which is 2 miles to reach the PCT. Then it's a couple of days to get to the staging area for Whitney from the West side. You likely WILL get a permit to enter at Whitney Portal, but in the event that you can't, this is an option to keep in your back pocket. It's non-quota so there are no limits on how many people can go in this way.

Since you are going NOBO you are basically doing the PCT and might find that using PCT resources are helpful. I don't think you'll have any trouble with water. It is a dry year but it hasn't become desert out there just yet.

If you fly to Reno you can take the EST bus all the way from there to Lone Pine and all the way back to the airport at the end. I've done this and it's a pleasant ride. Usually the bus has a lot of other hikers starting and ending their trips so it's fun to talk with them.

I advise Muir and Tuolumne for resupply, possibly with Reds in the middle. A slow hiker may have a problem carrying enough food from from Whitney to Muir; you may have to consider a resupply at Bishop Pass or Onion Valley, which would mean making arrangements or going off trail. Skip VVR, it is redundant after Muir, off-trail, and some PCT friends this year thought they were nickel and dimed by the place even more than in the past. North is good; the only possible issue is that you pass more people on the trail as the majority are going south.