The Wandering Wallihans: John Muir Trail: Day 1

This summer I hiked the John Muir Trail from Mount Whitney to Yosemite Valley. I spent 22 days on the trail and covered almost 270 miles. It was the hike of a lifetime and an experience I will never forget.

My daily progress and major trail milestones can be seen at https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD, or on Google Earth using https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cy12lzxnuvatsa/2017.07.30_JMT_Actuals.kml?dl=0. The caltopo website is the best place to look to find the place name I use.

The John Muir Trail plus my trail to Mount Whitney

My journey started at Cottonwood Lakes, south of Mount Whitney. I spent 5 days exploring this area before I arrived at the 14,505 ft summit of Whitney. This is the official start (or end) of the John Muir Trail. Over the next 9 days I crossed 5 mountain passes, Forrester, Glenn, Pinchot, Mather and Muir, forded dozens of streams and creeks, and spent many hours watching and listening to birds, marmots, chipmunks, deer, three bighorn sheep, a bobcat, waterfalls, sunsets, stars, sunrises, the alpenglow on the sides of mountains, flowers, trees and clouds. At Muir Trail Ranch I picked up another 11 days of food for the second half of the trip. The second half was a completely different trip. It had more meadows and flowers, I went through several burn areas from forest fires, one from 1992, saw Devils Postpile and Tuolumne Meadows. The pace was easier, I was fitter and I was able to just enjoy the scenery even more than in the southern half. It was an incredible jouney that I have struggled to present adequately here in works and images

Before I could start walking I had to get to the trailhead. Since I was going to finish a couple hundred miles away on the other side of the range, I couldn't very well park my car at the trailhead. My friend Khoa solved this problem by generously offering to drive me to the start. That was 10 hours on the road for him. Thank you very much Khoa.

Khoa and I picking up my permit in Lone Pine. Mount Whitney is just below my left hand.

I spent that night at the trailhead camp at Horseshoe Meadows. Typical trailhead camp, crowded, loud, uninspiring. I avoided all other developed campsites for the rest of my trip.

Camp 0, Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead Camp

Day 1 took me through Cottonwood Lakes, over New Army Pass, partway up Mount Langley and finally down to Soldier Lake. It covered 14 miles and had 3300 ft of elevation gain.

Day 1 elevation profile in yellow

Day 1 route in blue

The first part of the day was easy. I arrived at Long Lake, my intended campground, at about 10:00. Having set around camp all afternoon the day before, I couldn't stand the thought of doing it again so I decided to go over New Army Pass and keep going.

New Army Pass crosses the ridge to the left of the cliff looking part in the middle.
It rises from 11,500 ft to 12,300 ft in just 1 mile.

I had intended to do a bunch of side trips during my hike, thinking that 10 miles a day was going to leave me a lot of extra time and energy. That didn't end up being the case, but I have a long list of places to go on return trips.

My first side trip was to be up Mount Langley, one of only 14 peaks in California over 14,000 feet. This was going to be another 2,000 feet of elevation gain by the time I dropped down from the crest of New Army Pass to the trail.

As it turned out I made it up to about 12,800 feet before I ran out of gas and turned around. It was just as well because it was well after noon and there were thunderstorms moving it. On top of Langley was not the best place to be with lightning.

Looking north at Mount Langley from the top of New Army Pass.

Looking back at High Lake, Long Lake, and South Fork Lakes from New Army Pass

After my aborted trip up Langley I bee lined it for camp. It was getting late and I was tired and sore. By the time I made it to Soldier Lake I had covered 14 miles.

The trail down to Soldier Lake

To make things difficult, Soldier Lake is not marked on any map, but if you follow the track for day 1 you can see where it is, https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD.