working on my JMT gear list

I gotta get my act together… I will be on the JMT from 8/3 to 8/25 and my performance on prep work as been deplorable!

Oh… on edit my reason for posting! I also was thinking of taking my Bushbuddy but of course there will be places where you can't have fires… I was going to take Esbit for these places or an alcohol stove I have. I am curious as to if you have thought of this and what you plan to do.

Hi Carey, I believe we conference on this in another thread. As you know I am planning the hike for late August, South to North. How many re-supplies are you doing and from where?

James: per someone else's post here about a conversation w/ a ranger about the rules and the bushbuddy, i plan to COLLECT my wood when in permissable zones

i will probably bring a couple esbit or the tiny alcohol stove i have from Tinny – but I think the only area above the no fire zone consistently is after Muir Trail Ranch (i'm going N to S)

John: I'm starting in Tuolumne Meadows, going light & doing a resupply at Red's Meadow (friend will meet me). Next & last resupply is Muir Trail Ranch. I have only 2 weeks to play with, so this should work out – first couple days after MTR will be kinda heavy though.

I'm not sure there are many places along the JMT where you'd need–or be able to use–a trowel for digging cat holes. Existing rocks, sticks, tent stakes, or your trekking poles will work as well as anything for those places in the High Sierra where there is actual soil. On the other hand, you'll need a few zip-lock baggies for packing out the used TP, at least for Yosemite and Kings Canyon/Sequoia. (In the same vein, I don't see any hand sanitizer on the list…)

Keep in mind that while the Ursack Hybrid should prevent bears from getting your food, they may still pulverize it to a point where you'd prefer not to eat it. I'd still use the Ursack, but would use existing bear lockers in places where the bears are known to be problematic (Little Yosemite, Sunrise, Rae Lakes).

hand sanitizer is in there in the "misc" stuff :)

the trowel is definitely on the "to be reviewed" list

i'm starting in T-meadows, so Little Yosem Valley won't be an issue. Where is sunrise again? I was planning/hoping to blaze past Rae Lakes :) after a couple quick photos and maybe quick fishing, depending on how good or not it's already been

if there is space in it and one nearby i'll definitely stick the ursack in a bear box

We are planning on Muir Ranch as well, mainly because it is closest to the trail, although the $40 fee to pick up the box has caused me to consider Vermillion Ranch. Regarding the Bushbuddy, I have used it on two trips now and it is just a neat little stove and lots of fun, but due to the time to collect the fuel and to tend to it while boiling two cups of water it will remain behind. I want to be able to get moving rapidly in the mornings with as little fuss as possible. Also there is more likely to be rain from southern Gulf of Mexico storms moving up the end of August/early September and I have no experience in building fires with soggy wood.

You will need a California Campfire Permit for your BushBuddy.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/passespermits/campfire_permit/campfire-index.html

Answer the four questions and then download your permit in PDF format and print it out, it is already signed (digitally) by the Forest Service so all you need is to fill in the pertinent information and sign it yourself.

I passed the campfire test!!!! I didn't even have to use cheat mode!

In addition to written fire regulations, which are occasionally vague as to their meaning and interpretation, there is also extended to the district rangers and to the park chiefs, authority to fashion ad hoc measures on a daily basis to protect lands in their jurisdiction from reasonably apparent risks. Late in the season here in California, especially in dry years, it is not uncommon to meet with a total prohibition on fires including the striking of a mere match. In ordinary years fires are prohibited above a certain elevation, I think 10,000 or 10,500 in those parks and wilderness areas through which the JMT runs. (I am sure other Cal hikers can contribute here on the specific elevation).

As a practical matter, I have been hiking when fires were not precluded in the area where I was camped and I would not risk a fire because of wind or dry conditions or both which in my own judgment made a fire too risky or down right careless. These conditions already exist in many areas in the Sierras, in my opinion, and it is not even June yet. I have been up there twice in the last month and startled as to the conditions. I have never seen it this dry this early in my 30 years of hiking in the Sierras.

The grass should be green, the meadows muddy and marshy and every depression filled or flowing with run-off. In April on a hike from Kennedy Meadows to Monache Meadows, there was no water between the Kern and Monache. Furthermore Craig Creek, an intermittent running usually in the spring was bone dry, except for about 50 yards, and Clover Meadow was hardpan and the grass dry burnt yellow as it was in Monache. Last weekend I found Southfork Meadows below Cottonwood Basin to be the same. Southfork Creek was running low and relatively warm. The dry grass in the meadow made excellent fire tinder for my Bushbuddy. In fact the use of the BB was risky in my opinion due to the conditions. Some of the streamlets that allow for good camps in perimeter areas below the basin were just not there.

The point is that it is already so dry in the Sierras that the condition for forest fires exist now. We have already had significant fires here in Southern California. I can't imagine what it will be like up there in August and September. It is possible to have sufficient rain in the summer to assuage these conditions, but this type of regular precip in the summer is the exception rather than the rule. I am just hoping that by August when I hike the JMT that I will be able to see the blue sky through all the smoke. Unless we see unseasonable rain fall this summer, I believe that conditions will be so dry that not only wood burning stoves such as the BB will be prohibited, but there is a possibility that any kind of open flame will be precluded along the JMT.

Hopefully I am wrong about all of this and I suffering from the latent affects of the early manifestations of alarmism. Possibly other California hikers have a different view. If so, please comfort me with your observations to the contrary. Maybe, just maybe, the Good Lord will bless us with an abundance of rainfall, out of season, this summer.

i was wonder if your gear list worked for you? was there anything that you wish you had or didn't bring? how about the pack were you comfortable with straight stays?