Every time we walk out the door on a backcountry trip, we make choices: Where to go? How many days? How many miles? What gear and food to bring? How challenging will the trip be?
We explore how planning and choices can help you create a very personal trip, one that can be far more rewarding than blindly sticking to the trail and following generic "cook book" directions from a guide book. The greatest rewards come when you choose to get off the beaten path and build a personalized hike that mixes challenge and fun at whatever level works for you.
We address these questions:
- How did we plan our ideal trip?
- How did we choose a route that balanced challenge and fun?
- Once we had a route, what about gear, food, clothing, etc.?
- Finally, and most important, how well did we execute our trip plan in the field?
- Introduction
- Trip Planning
- Route Selection
- Detailed Route Planning
- Route Planning Resources:
- Trip Execution
- Push to Summit Mount Sill - The First Four Days
- Ionian Basin to Humphreys Basin - The Next Six Days
- Over Wanda Pass and Out
- Epilogue
- A Few Gear and Food Challenges
- Gear and Food Summary
- Food and Bear Canisters
- Food
- Favorite Foods
- Other Food Examples
- Gear and Clothing for Cold Weather
- Cooking and Fuel
- Electronics
- Other Electronics
- Photographic/Video
ARTICLE OUTLINE
# WORDS: 4670
# PHOTOS: 20
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Discussion
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Fantastic report!- The videos were helpful, as I am planning a JMT hike this Aug and this helps me familiarize with weather and conditions. Like others, I would like to see a more detailed gear list if possible. Thanks for the work you put into this.
Dana
That is some beautiful countryside. I love the Humphreys Basin (because you don't need to carry a bear canister), and am looking forward to branching out to more of the general area. Great mix of stills, text and video. Enjoyed the discussion of the some of the thought processes and the list of references.
Dana,
If you send me a note (alan@backpackinglight.com), I'll be happy to send you my detailed gear list. The simple version of the list is posted in the article.
Hi Don – Loved the article – It appears you both self catered? How much fuel did you carry for the trip?
Robin,
I took 8 fluid oz (volume), and Don took around 12. That would be around 240 ml volume for my fuel.
"Alan’s Trail Designs Caldera KEG-H system was more efficient than Don’s simpler BPL 900ml titanium pot + tuna can stove + titanium windscreen system – cooking more quickly and with less fuel than Don’s system (8 oz to Don's 12 oz), especially in high winds. But Don is a fan of simplicity and will continue to cook on his can/windscreen system."
We supplemented this with a few small cooking fires when in a fire legal area. This where Don's titanium pot was a boon.
-Alan
Nicely done Alan and Don. Great article. Did you use a local shuttle service for the TH drop-off? If so, which one? I'll be in the Sierra's, this coming August, for about 10 days and might need a shuttle.
Thank you,
Paul
Me too !!
The ones that I've used in the past are now out of business :(
The Mt. Whitney Shuttle Service
Shuttle Service for the Eastern Sierra
P.O. Drawer A, Lone Pine, CA 93545
Tel: 760-876-1915 best time to call: evenings (Pacific)
e-Mail: info@mountwhitneyshuttle.com
They were very reliable. They met us at the Bishop Ranger Station, drove us to a public lot where we left our rental car (btw you can register your car with the Bishop Police and they will keep an eye on it). And then they drove us to the Onion Valley Trail Head.
-Alan
Thank you !!!
Alan,
Thank you so much:)
That's great info… thanks!
Had great luck getting from Fresno to Roads end in Kings Canyon, 80mi for only $100 (plus $20 tip) I had multiple offers and set it up about a week ahead of time. Also, I hitched from Whitney Portal back to Yosemite at the end of my JMT hike. Maybe another option that's even less expensive.
Hi Alan,
How did you like the Garmin 550t. pros and cons. Also, Where did you pick up your Iridium 9555, and what provider did you use.
Thank you,
Paul
If you buy the Iridium phone you get Iridium as a provider. They are realistically the only sat phone provider for the Continental US until GlobalStar gets more working birds in the sky.
Go ahead and read BPL's review of the Garmin Oregon 550t here:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/garmin_oregon550t_review.html
“Our only major gripe is that the display could be a bit brighter and more easily read in bright daylight. This is not unique to Garmin, and is also true of new high-resolution touchscreen displays of competitors GPS units as well. At this point we’ve learned to live with the state of technology in exchange for the much larger map area displayed.”
One other thing we griped about, “No 100% national coverage of 1:24K maps,” is no longer an issue. Garmin now has a large set of reasonably priced 1:24K Topo maps for the US. We used Garmin’s “TOPO U.S. 24K West DVD” which covers California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington states. It retails for under $100.
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=35407&pvID=36718#overviewTab
-Alan
Good stuff!
We await OLED touchscreens with equal parts anticipation and impatience. Samsung is cranking up production but the cellphone and camera makers will undoubtedly be in line ahead of the GPS folks. Hopefully they'll begin trickling in within the next year.
Rick
Hi Alan,
Thank you for your reply. I forgot about the BPL Garmin review. That's a good read and very informative.
Paul
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