JMT List: End of July-early August

Hi Steven,

Some things you might want to add are a rain jacket or poncho, sleeping pad and a bear canister sized according to number of days between resupply. If you use light trail runners you could omit the sandals.

Although I tented the JMT, I have many nights in hammocks. Hanging the JMT has been discussed at Hammockforums.net quite a bit. Each night I looked up from my tent and thought “I could have hung here too” except at Guitar Lake and Wanda Lake. I will likely hang in a hammock next time I do the JMT but I will bring a shorty pad so I can go to the ground if convenient.

Extreme weather is possible any month along the JMT. I experienced swirling gusty winds from every direction on two nights. I’d recommend a tarp with doors like a Superfly for just a couple more ounces.

I think at 40° TQ/UQ is not enough insulation unless you are an absolutely hot sleeper.

You need rain gear.

I find Prana Zions to be extremely warm for hiking above the mid-70° range.

190 weight T-shirt is too hot for my taste. I’d rather at 150 weight.

Prophet is an MLD pack not GG… That said, I can’t imagine carrying a bear can in frameless pack unless you are carrying a small capacity can and doing really long mileage days (less food).

Raingear would be a good thing.

I carried a Sawyer Mini. I feel like I lost a fair amount of time over my three weeks filtering slowly. I’m tempted to take a UV filter so I can just zap it and keep moving. 10 minutes several times a day would add up to a lot of time over several weeks and would allow me to take breaks more where I wanted to rather than feeling like I should take my break next to some creek that didn’t have a great view.

Thanks guys, forgot to add a poncho to the list, thanks. Packs supposed to be the pilgrim not the prophet, I’ll change that. Looks like we’re just doing half of it this summer now and half the next. We’ll be starting in Yosemite and go south. Talked to a buddy today who has done it and he said that hammocking that half of it should work well. said the southern half would be harder.

Getting the zip off Pranas so I can go in short mode when it gets warm.

Yah, need to figure out bear storage. Is it required on the whole jmt? I know it is in Yosemite…

ive taken my sleep system down to around 35, you think I’ll need warmer than that during the summer?

thanks!

Join the Yahoo JMT group. They have tons of helpful pdos in their files/links section categorized by topic including information on bear cans and weather. To answer your question the short way:

Bear cans are required everywhere except a section going south from MTR for a day or two’s worth of miles. Some people hang a little bit of extra food that doesn’t fit in their can in that section but you get to can territory pretty quickly. The short answer is basically yes you need a can for the whole thing.

The short answer on weather is that you can get below freezing any month out of the year. My son and I hiked SOBO 6/15-7/6 and we never got below freezing but there was a healthy dump of snow several days after we came off the trail.

We did experience two really heavy storms while camped at night. One just below Rae Lakes and the other above Guitar Lake with violent whipping winds, lightning and heavy rain.  I would have hated to be hanging with my hex tarp for either of those.

Another thought… Your sleep system is good at 35°. Was that 35° with heavy rain and 35mph gusts camped at 12,000′ several days away from a trailhead?

My recommendations: Omit the pack cover, use a trash bag liner or Nylofume Bag.  Bring storm proof matches as a back up to the Mini Bic, much easier than the Bic in windy conditions and in the event the Bic fails.  I’d get rid of the mini spork and replace with a long handled spoon, much easier to use. Bring two sets of sock and underwear, one to wear and the other to be washed and left out to dry while hiking.  Delete sandals.  Drop Smart Wool pants.  Bring rain mittens to cover the gloves when it rains.  +1 on the rain jacket.  Are you prone to blisters?  If so, bring blister supplies.  Camera, phone? Trowel, you’ll need this in some locations due to the hard soil. Pillow or something to stuff the jacket into. Something to back flush the mini Sawyer.  If you bring along a Smart Water bottle with a sports cap this will work.

K