This year my wife and I took our two youngest daughters, Hannah and Natalie, on the John Muir Trail – after having gone the previous two years first with their two oldest brothers and then with their older sister and Hannah.
Last year was very different than 2010 due to enormous amounts of snow that made crossing the passes “interesting”. This year on the other hand had no snow at all – but it rained and hailed an unusual amount of days and an unusual amount of hours during these days. So we got every year a totally different experience out of the JMT.
The second year in a row the permit lottery at Yosemite assigned us Lyell Canyon as a starting point (the first year we got Sunrise Lakes). So we had again no luck in getting Happy Isles, but we were not really sad about avoiding the crowds from the valley.
During our first day the girls enjoyed wading and swimming in Lyell Canyon
On the second day the girls crossed Donohue Pass
and met there an unfriendly group of hikers who felt little girls should not be in the wilderness where only real men belong – one had to make that famous sign while saying “F… yourself and your mother”.
Hhmm, what can you say as a responsible parent to such people while your daughters are listening and watching? So we just kept going our way on to Island Pass where we stayed for the night with a beautiful view of Banner Peak.
The third day we picked up our re-supply at Red’s Meadow. We found time to fish and swim in Shadow Lake
and still make the 18 miles to Red’s Meadow before 7 pm to get a cheeseburger and milk shake.
On day 4 we detoured to our favorite hot spring.
The next day we wanted to re-join the JMT at Silver Pass, but stopped below the pass at the Lake of the Lone Indian due to a thunder storm.
After the thunder storm cleared we saw a huge fire cloud in the distance
On day 6 we went over Silver Pass and all the way up Bear Ridge to Bear Creek
The next day we went over Selden Pass
to Blaney Meadows where we enjoyed swimming in Warm Lake and sitting in the hot spring
On Day 8 we picked up our re-supply at Muir Trail Ranch, which took us until lunch time because Hannah and Natalie played with the dogs and kittens. When we could finally break loose, we hiked to McClure Meadow.
The next morning we fished some more
and made our way past Evolution Lake up to Muir Pass where we stayed in the hut due to a huge storm that delayed us for several hours
From Muir Pass we made it the next day past the kid-eating rock monster
and Big Pete Meadow
to Deer Meadow.
The next morning we made it up the Golden Stair Case to Lower Palisade Lake for a swim
before we continued over Mather Pass where it hailed on us
On day 12 we went over Pinchot Pass
and crossed the hanging bridge at Wood’s Creek
before staying at Baxter Creek where we prepared our usual trout for dinner on a grill we found there
The next day we passed by the beautiful Rae Lakes
and went over Glen Pass to Bench Lake Ranger Station.
On day 14 we continued over Forester Pass
and by Tyndell Creek
to Crab Tree Meadow which made for a 19 mile day.
On our last day we went over Trail Crest to Whitney Portal. When we reached the trail intersection it hailed and the top of Mt. Whitney was not visible in the clouds.
After some discussion with Natalie who was the only one who never stood on top of Mt. Whitney we decided to leave the summit for another day.
So we continued down to Whitney Portal
and the girls had finally the burger they were dreaming about for the last three days …
This was a memorable trip. The photos don’t show how much rain we had – simply because we barely took our cameras out in the rain. Nevertheless the kids had a great trip. Doing 218 miles in 15 days and having a lot of fun along the way was only possible because the girls went UL. When we weighed their packs at Whitney Portal both girls’ packs showed less than 10 lbs with some food left. Right now the girls are already scheming about the next trip. Let’s see where they drag me around next time …
