JMT thru-hike, cell phone charger, what is best ?

[M B]

You not allowed to zero in indepence.

Your wilderness permit allows to exit for up to 24 hrs to resupply  provided you reenter the trailhead you left.

 

You can zero at MTR or VVR, because they are in the wilderness, under special permits.

[Murali C]

Hmmm….you may be right. But, I did take a zero at Independence. And so did others. The rangers typically give all the rules – but, do not remember them mentioning the 24 hr rule – I did the JMT in 2018. So, maybe I got lucky! Thanks for bringing this rule up!

I guess there is a new update in 2020 which removes the 24 hour rule according to this link – which kinda sucks as now you cannot even do the 24 hour exit…..??? Best to call the permit office and check as the wording is confusing.

https://ingasadventures.com/resupply-on-the-john-muir-trail/
<h3>Kearsarge Pass Exit</h3>
2020 Update: Inyo National Forest made a change to remove the allowance for exiting the trail for 24 hours to resupply. Here is the new wording from the permit reservation page on Recreation.gov:

A permit is valid for continuous wilderness travel, including across the boundary of adjacent wilderness areas in our neighboring parks or forests. However, leaving the trail to enter at a different location requires a new permit.

This is the wording from the Wilderness Permits& Reservations page on the Inyo NF website:

If you have a break in continuous travel, a new permit would be required from the agency where the next section of your trip begins.

This means that if you leave the trail and the wilderness area to go to a town, e.g. Independence, you would need a new permit to re-enter. This rule applies to JMT hikers and is slightly different for PCTA thru-hikers. Read the fine print in the link

[M B]

I hate to call names, but with ballooning popularity, comes problems.  A certain percentage of hikers are really totally oblivious to rules, and think they can do whatever they want once have a permit. Especially on pct.  The rules are there  for all that take time to read them.   Facebook and social media has encouraged many beginner hikers to do these trips, without ability to make long resupplies.

 

I met pct hikets un yosemite in 2014….clearly outside the 15 mile limit for offtrail resupply.  As are quite a few towns.

[Murali C]

Just curious – what is the reason for the 24 hour rule or the 15 mile limit for off-trail resupply rule?

[M B]

Well, without limits , someone could use 1 wilderness permit forever……go home for 3 weeks, come back.

Sierra wilderness permits have always been 24 hrs for resupply, reenter at same trailhead. Which is sensible.  Places like mt. Williamson motel  pick up in morning, hold resupply, and get you back under 24 hrs, within rules.

 

PCT has been abusing this, mostly out of ignorance , and also desire to skip snow and come back . So rules were “clarified” for them this year . Partly pctas fault.  PCT hikers still need to abide by general sierra wilderness permit rules ….was never made clear to them.   What it means…..is a lot ot early starters will just hike to Kennedy Meadows.  Summer trailhead permits  for pct/jmt arent happening later with the donahue quota.

[Miner]

What hasn’t been stated is how long is it going to take you to hike the JMT; and more specially where are your resupplies and how long between them.  And how much you actually will be using the phone (especially with the screen on). That will tell you how much juice you need.

I last did the JMT fall of 2017 in 15.5 days (I was 47, a bit overweight, had a light pack, and trained 4 out of 6 weekends prior in my local mountains at the highest elevations available which fortunately is over 10,000 ft which people back east can’t do). Longest resupply interval was between VVR and town of Independence over Kearsarge Pass (which is a off trail resupply) which took 5 days. Only recharged my phone in VVR and Independence where I stayed overnight.  Didn’t carry a battery pack as I don’t use my phone as my primary camera (usually want a better one for low lighting) and without the passes burried in spring snow, the trail is well marked (if you have a map so you know what lake or landmark the sign references is on the JMT) so didn’t need it as a GPS.  So phone was only used for music and weather reports in the few places you get a signal.

For someone using it more often, they will need more juice than I did.  When you backpack for 2-3 day trips (I assume you must have done a few of these to know what you are getting into before doing a JMT hike), how long does your phone battery usually last with your typical use?  As the JMT is probably more scenic, since you can count on using it more often if its your primary camera.  Cell signals are rare in the backcountry so you won’t be using it much for anything requiring a signal.  From your prior backpacking history, you should have an idea of how often you’ll need to charge it over a few day period.  This combined with your resupply choices and likely hiking speed, should give you an idea of how large a battery pack you’ll need.  Another source of JMT info is this JMT specific forum where numerous people have hiked it multiple times (use to be the Yahoo JMT Group before they migrated elsewhere): https://groups.io/g/JMT/topics

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