Major John Muir Trail changes

Not quite right. The new rules are as follows, applicable to permits with an issue date from 2/2/15.

Among all Yosemite trailheads, there is a total daily quota of 45 permits that allow you to exit Yosemite on the JMT via Donohue Pass.

The 45 "Donohue Exit" endorsed permits will be sub-allocated as follows:

20 in TOTAL among the following trailheads.
All 20 will be pre-bookable, so only cancellations will be available for walk-ups.
– Happy Isles > Lower Yosemite Valley
– Happy Isles > Sunrise/Merced pass-through
– Glacier Point > Lower Yosemite Valley
– Sunrise

25 for Tuolumne > Lyell Canyon.
Of these, 15 will be prebookable, 10 will be held back for last minute walk-ups.

No other trailheads (such as Illilouette, Mono Meadow) are now allowed for the JMT.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/jmtfaq.htm

Prior individual trailhead quotas still apply too. The quota of 45 "Donohue Exit" endorsed permits will be hit before all of the Yosemite Valley trailhead quotas are used up. The remainder of the trailhead quotas will be available (including walk-up) for Yosemite hikers who are not following the JMT via Donohue.
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/trailheads.htm

The Park authorities' main objective is to reduce overuse of the Sunrise and Lyell Canyon areas, principally attributable to the (literally) exponential increase in JMT hikers in recent years. See the graph on the NPS page above – the rise in applications for permits is astonishing.

Your explanation makes a lot more sense. It was unclear to me from the website that was the change.

It does seem that exiting Yosemite at Parker Pass down, camping outside of Yosemite in the national forest, and meeting up with the JMT near Thousand Islands Lake is still a viable permit since you don't pass over Donahue. I've hiked that area before, and it's beautiful and generally not frequently traveled.

the Whitney lottery and NOBO is sounding easier these days,
especially if its just a group of 1 or 2.

I'm glad I did it last year — it looks like these changes will make permits much more difficult to get, especially considering the enormous volume of people trying for them!

Honestly, last August, we felt that the crowds in the Yosemite area were just insane. We couldn't WAIT to get out of there (a horrible state of affairs when you're walking through one of the most famously beautiful wilderness areas in the world!). So, in that way, I agree that more restrictions on the volume of people are necessary. I fear, however, that this will just mean more people will hike the JMT without permits. (Yep, I'm a cynic!)

The whole JMT felt very crowded to us. The only exception was the area between the two VVR cut-offs, where we took the JMT and did not see another soul (because I guess everyone else went to VVR)!

With thru-hiking achieving mass popularity in books/movies (Wild, Mile Mile and a Half) it's no surprise that the JMT and PCT are suddenly almost as crowded as the mall before Christmas. ;^)

Maybe this is why all my reservation apps have been denied! Bummer-ooski. Well, sort of…I'm glad they're doing what they can to "preserve the quality of the JMT experience" and make it fair for other people hiking in Yosemite, but not on the JMT.

Whatchagonnado?

This doesn't start until 2/2, so that's not the reason that it has been difficult to get a permit. The reason for that is just the massive increase in the number of applications.

In fact, the new quota does not have a huge effect on your chances or success at the canonical start points:

With the prior rules, 26 prebookable slots were available for HI & GP starts, this has dropped to 20
(I'm ignoring Sunrise, which was not generally used for JMT starts)

For Lyell Canyon, it has dropped from 20 to 15.

"we felt that the crowds in the Yosemite area were just insane"

I could understand that. If you want to hike on one of the most heavily traveled trails within Yosemite, you will be hiking it with thousands of your closest friends. It becomes less of a wilderness experience and more of a social experiment.

On the other hand, I like to get off the beaten track, so to speak. I start from some unusual spot and go the opposite way from the masses. Especially, if you go off-trail and do some extra elevation gain, you will leave the masses behind very quickly. There are some standard trails, and then there are cross-country routes where you can connect, so you can end up with some decent wilderness miles.

–B.G.–

Ralph, you're right. I was half joking, half venting ;) It is definitely (mostly) the huge increase in applicants that reduces one's odds of getting a reservation.

There are less permits available for walk-ins, though. I wonder why they made a larger percentage of the permits reserve-able?

" I wonder why they made a larger percentage of the permits reserve-able? "

Because they funnel those through the reservation system, for which there is a fee.

So, this is just another government agency that is extracting an extra dollar from your pocket. Charge whatever the market will bear.

–B.G.–

Well, I wanted to do the "textbook" JMT (now crossed off my list) which "forced" me onto those overused trails.

If I go back to the area, I would do the Sierra High Route and leave (almost) all the crowds behind — not to mention getting to see high-alpine cirques and little-used lakes. Maybe 2016…

The Half Dome permits have been quite successful in reducing the cluster-*$%# on that trail, so I'm hopeful that this will have the same effect on the JMT corridor in the park. Doesn't affect me much, as you'd never catch me hiking Lyell Canyon or LYV in the summer. It's a huge park in a huge mountain range and getting a permit and not seeing anyone for days is easy with the smallest amount of creativity.

There was a large and quantifiable financial increase in the profits associated with fly fishing nation wide after the movie version of "A River Runs Through It". I assume the same thing will happen with long distance backpacking now, especially as associated with the PCT and AT. The good news, such as it is, is that the trend reverses itself after a "few" years. If the "River" effect is any indication, expect the new fad to die out on a half life of around 3-5 years. Fly fishing for example has apparently resumed the long slow generational slide in per capita numbers that have been going on for many decades.

For me way up there in "scenic features" are the lack of other backpackers so I guess I will have to strategize my routes and times in the sierra even more than usual for a while.