Hey everyone,
Wanted to just put in a quick note as my son and I just finished a south bound JMT hike. We summitted Whitney on Tues morn, and are back in Idaho today, Thus.
Some quick info as I'll be putting in a more detailed trip report in the near future. The route is dry dry dry! Most water sources are low, and the intermittent ones are already dried up. Water temps in lakes, creeks, rivers etc seemed to be very mild, never cold. Algae and moss build up in lakes and creeks was visible. Filtering was necessary everywhere. The mid day heat was a big issue. We changed our hiking style to skip a few hours each afternoon, and did a lot of hiking in the last three hours of the day, and made great miles each time we incorporated this. Low hiker numbers, great wildflowers, and almost NO mosquitoes were added bonuses.
We were amazed at the number of heavy hikers, and we had lots of conversations with hikers about our little packs. We were sub 20# almost all the time, with our biggest loads after MTR of my son at 23#, and me at 28#. All good weather except for the last two days with wicked storms at night.
If you are almost reaady to leave, and want any other info, shoot me a pm and I'll try to help!
