Family on JMT – 6 days, 55 miles?!

[Paul Koenig]

Hello friends, I’m in a bit of a predicament, and wondered if you could make suggestions that might ease the daily walking distance we are about to undertake. Next week, my wife, 11 yr old daughter, and 9 yr old son are taking off on a hike along the JMT. Our permit is from Duck Lake Pass TH (starts off near Lake Mary Marina in Mammoth Lakes Basin) … and finishing at Agnew Meadows TH, likely via the High Trail. Alternate finish is Rush Creek TH if Agnew Meadows Road doesn’t open.

Day 1:  9 miles Duck Lake TH to Purple Lake
Day 2: 9 miles to Iva Bell Hot Springs
Day 3:  13 miles to Red’s Meadow for Burgers/Shakes
Day 4: 8 miles to Rosalie Lake
Day 5: 8 miles to Thousand Island Lake
Day 6: 8 miles to Agnew Meadow TH

Visiting a hot spring is important for the wife and kids, and I’m super pumped about getting to Garnet/Thousand Island Lakes.  It just seems like I can’t shorten the distance between those two “attractions”, or the shorten the approaches to them from the TH.  I am open to other TH’s, and will entertain all suggestions.

Kids are mildly tough, and did a 12 mile day in the Tetons last summer (mild elevation gain).  Quite a few training hikes this spring and summer under our belt already. We are fairly ultralight, but I don’t think we have any dyneema composite fabrics. :-)

Basically I recognize that this could turn into a cattle drive, and I don’t want them to be exhausted hiking zombies, and not enjoy the experience.  I’m fully prepared to skip Garnet/Thousand if it doesn’t seem like its going well.  Them having a good vacation is more important than me getting to those two lakes.  I know that we can adjust and maintain a positive moral, I just wanted to see if the community had any ideas, or knowledge that I might not be considering.  Or maybe you think the plan above is perfectly acceptable, and my fears are unfounded. :-)

Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

Profile from CalTopo:

 

Last Training hike:

 

 

[Cameron M]

Sounds like a great trip, not a cattle drive. That last day is an easy, mostly downhill trip. Is the Devil’s Postpile shuttle running now, better check. Milk shakes wait at the bottom of the hill.

[Paul Koenig]

Thanks Cameron!I appreciate your sentiments.  This will certainly be a different year down there. The shuttle is not running, but if we get lucky, and the road is open we should have a car waiting for us there at the end of it all, and there is talk of letting cars driving around down there this year since there is no shuttle.   TBD.

 

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

When I was 16 I did a 55 mile hike from Agnew Meadows to Yosemite Valley. My best friend and I felt like we were total badasses. It was us girls vs a bunch of teenage boys. When we got to the Valley some guy on the bus asked us if we get high. We said yeah, 11,056 feet! Your kids are a lot younger, but they will be bigger badasses than we were.

[David Thomas]

In general, my formula was “the kid’s age in miles”.  When they were 6, we wouldn’t do over 6 miles in a day on a backpacking trip.  Etc.  And that was with mom and dad carrying most of the gear (UL REALLY helps!).

But at 12, my son did Rim to River to Rim in the Grand Canyon (16 mile RT, 4,500 feet down and 4,500  feet up (but no pack).  My daughter did it at age 9.  And ran the last 2 miles up to the Rim (without me!).

Several years earlier, they’d done Half Dome (16 miles RT 4800 vertical feet each way).

But we were ready to turn around at any time.  Our over-arching philosophy has been “keep it fun”.  Don’t promise a destination to others or get attached to it in your own mind and continually assess where everyone is at, physically, emotionally, energy level, foot health, etc.

[jscott]

I have seen kids–and entire boy scout troops–slogging and suffering on the trail. You don’t want that. Maybe after the first day, depending on how they all respond to actually having to carry loads uphill for miles, your family would decide to forgo the hot springs in order to make two easier 6 mile days to get to Reds. Just a thought. Maybe scout out a possible campsite for that, if one exists.

[Bruce Tolley]

What David said. Keep it fun.

You know your kids best. Talk to them about the whole plan, what they want to do, what will be fun. With my kids, I had to include peaks to summit and lakes to swim in. With my wife, the key two words are “layover day.”

[AK Granola]

So given the original schedule, this trip is over now. I wonder how it went? Maybe Paul will give us a trip report.

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