JMT food and resupply

My friend and I took the switchbacks up out of VVR.
We ran into a couple who took the "alternate" route.

They were miserable…our schlep up the switchbacks was quite nice, actually. All those switchbacks are shaded, well-graded…honestly it was one of the easiest climbs of the trip.

The couple who took the other way left hours before we did (we were slow getting out of there. Shocker!) and yet they ended up behind us after the alternate. Talking to them made it seem like the alternate route is much more difficult hiking and it doesn't save you THAT much in elevation at all.

VVR is ~6 miles off the trail by the conventional route along the lake. Normal water years, you catch the ferry at the lake, only 1 mile off the trail.

The problem is, the ferry will only run at 945 am this yr , while it runs at all, due to low water in lake edison. And it will be a small boat that can only carry a couple of hikers. And you will have to hike 1+ miles additional on the drylake bed to get to the spot where the smaller boat will pick you up. So….If you are first in line, you save only 4 miles of hiking. If you arent, you will wait at least another hour+ in the hot sun with no shade while waiting for the boat to come back, which means 1.5-2 hrs total. You could hike the 4 miles in that time.

Feel lucky? Easier to plan to just hike the distance in, and hope for a boat ride out. But unless you like starting your day at 10am, hiking out in early morning as well may be a better option.

So, an extra 6-12 miles possibly of hiking to go there is likely this yr. But, good food for a day, and a night or two in a bed, may make it worthwhile. Ill be hiking in there with a pack with no food, so 6 miles will be 2.5 hrs extra time that day. Ive got a trailer for 2 nights and plan to lay around, read, and eat. Not necessarily in that order. I expect I will meet someone I dont mind being around that I can sub-rent a bed in the trailer to to lessen my cost.

Or if you don't missing some of the JMT you can take Goodale Pass trail just north of Silver Pass and this will cut some time and miles of walking along the Lake. Then to get back to the JMT the Bear Creek Trail was the way I went last time, nice hiking along bear creek with plenty of places to take a dip in the water, instead of dry Bear Ridge. This is the way I will be going this year, I will miss about 11 miles of the JMT.

Yes you can just hand a parcel over at Tuolumne PO. Address it to yourself and pay the postage at standard rate. At least you know it's got there! You can do the same at Yosemite Valley if you are going back there after and want to leave kit there.

I did the JMT last year, and it was my first >6 day hike.

So first, some general notes I had from a first-longer hike:

1. Calorie requirements went up after day 5 or so. I usually plan for 3500 calories per day, and it's always too much. But on the second half of the JMT, I think 3500-4000 would have been good. I think PCT'ers plan on 4000 per day. If I were doing it again, I'd plan on 3000 per day for the first half and 4000 for the second half.

…okay, I guess I only had one general note.

More specific:

It seems to me–if you're not resupplying past MTR (i.e., you're not hiking out to Onion Valley, or having a resupply brought in by packers), then MTR is a pretty darn good choice–minimize the (already obscene) amount of food you have to carry on the second half.

How fast are you planning on going? That also affects the TM, Red's Meadow, VVR and MTR resupply choice. Last year, we went through TM on day 2 (didn't resupply, but stuffed our faces at the grill), Red's on day 4 (resupplied and stuffed our faces), and MTR on day 6 (resupplied only, because it's complicated to eat at MTR). VVR would've been on day 5. Since the lake was empty, we'd hike those extra miles for hot food, but we'd just had hot food the day before, at Red's, and we'd be at Whitney Portal in under a week. Going six days without a cheeseburger is not such a hard thing in life.

I hear that VVR is fun, though. Real through-hikey–part of the JMT culture; not to be missed. I want to go explore the Mono Recesses one of these years. Hopefully I will, and hopefully I'll swing by VVR for a resupply–and yes, a cold beer–when I do.

My only other advice is regarding your diet–I think I'm echoing the sentiments of posters above when I say three Clif Bars a day will be three too many after around day 4. My backpacking diet consists mostly of Pringles, Perpetuem, jerky and chocolate. A Hammer Gel and a Payday for breakfast. Cheese where possible, but I'm from Wisconsin–that's just kind of a credo.

I think the Mountain House meals pack terribly, and all taste the same. But, you've backpacked multi-day trips before, so you'll have tried to cram them in a bear can, and you'll have eaten them day after day. You know what you're getting yourself (and your cathole trowel) into.

Oh, and Starbucks Via is not bad. I'm a coffee snob (and addict), but I drink Via when I'm on the trail. It's not terrible, and oh-so easy. In my quest to go UL, I've stopped carrying a mug–I just dump a little of the Via packet into my mouth, pour some water into my mouth, shake my head vigorously, and swallow. Clears out the cobwebs, and there's nothing to clean. This should probably go in the Multi-Use Gear forum, now that I think about it.

Jennifer-

"My friend and I took the switchbacks up out of VVR."

I realize I'm replying to a decently old post at this point, but by this do you mean that you returned to the JMT via Edison Lake and just continued along the normal route? It sounds like the other people took the Bear Creek or Bear Ridge Trail and didn't much care for it. Without the ferry, I'm getting a decent bit of mileage added to a few days, and your description of "one of the easiest climbs of the trip" is a pretty ringing endorsement.

I'm doing a stop at VVR when I do my JMT hike (starting a week from tomorrow), and I'm trying to get some opinions on the various routes for leaving on foot since I'm now hearing from a lot of people that the AM ferry from VVR is getting nixed.

Yes – i returned via the ferry last year (which was a small boat). They had MANY boats running, so you didn't have to wait much at all. Then we returned to the JMT where we got off the day before, and hiked up all the switchbacks.

They were so nicely graded, fully shaded the whole time – it wasn't bad AT ALL.

I did not take the Bear Creek or the other alternates, but talking to the couple who did they said their walk was difficult, specifically because of rocky trails (ours was soft and smooth the whole time) and steep climbs (ours was shaded and gradual).

I will be doing the same again – VVR is not to be missed!! I loved it there…it seems expensive, but only because you pay all at once when you check out and everything there is just so darned good.

^ Thanks for the info. Sounds like that will be what I do when I get there in two weeks. VVR gets pretty rave reviews, and I wouldn't mind having a brush with civilization/proper food before I make the final push. (I'm not really counting my MTR resupply stop.)

Usually, I'm not averse to taking on extra miles/difficulty, but if the rumors of the AM ferry's demise are to be believed (there's definitely no PM ferry), then I've got a good bit of extra walking in/out those days (my timetable is pretty reasonable, but doesn't give me a lot of wiggle room), so I'm trying to minimize the extra effort if I can.

"I did not take the Bear Creek or the other alternates, but talking to the couple who did they said their walk was difficult, specifically because of rocky trails (ours was soft and smooth the whole time) and steep climbs (ours was shaded and gradual)."

Jennifer, maybe your friends got the routes confused. There are two alternate routes out of VVR. Your friends probably took the ridge one, not bear creek. On the ridge route the guide books say it sucks doing downhill (NOBO) and not to even bother going the other way. Looks like that one has all the elevation gain without the benefits of a nicely graded trail.

I likes me some nicely graded switchbacks, but the bear creek route has a nice stream the whole way and meets back with the JMT after both the switchbacks going up and the ones coming back down the other side. I'm sure it will be rockier though, as trails following stream tend to be.

Still to each his own. Psychologically seems like not hiking 6 miles north (as may be required this year) just to turn south again might have benefits all its own.

By getting an early start, as opposed to waiting for them to drive you to the trail at 10am, one can knock out that 6 miles and then some in the nice cool morning air.

The only reason I would even hang around to take morning ferry, is to eat a good breakfast first. Normally I would be on trail at first light, and headed S on the JMT before they started the boat.

From Pathfinder's blog (http://pathfinderpct.wordpress.com/) — here's a photo of water in Lake Edison as of June 26th: