John Muir Trail: Epilogue

After 22 days in the wilderness I had no desire to stay the night in crowded, smoky Yosemite Valley.

I caught the first bus out of the valley and arrived in Merced after 9:00 pm on Day 22.  I stayed the night in a motel, had a hot shower and slept on a mattress.  Because I got there so late I had to cook a backpacking meal in my room for dinner.  The following morning I stopped at Starbucks on my way to the train.  It was perhaps the best cup of coffee I have ever had.

Bus stop in Half Dome Village

Motel in Merced

Coffee never tasted so good

The next day was August 21st, the day of the solar eclipse.  I watched the eclipse by way of the shadows of leaves on concrete and the shadow cast on paper through a pinhole while I was waiting for my train.

Merced Amtrak station

Crescent shadow during the solar eclipse

The train took me south to Bakersfield, where the tracks end.  From there I took a bus the rest of the way to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.  In Los Angeles I transferred to a Metrolink train to Buena Park.  In Buena Park I caught an OCTA bus which dropped me off 2 miles from my door.  I walked the last two miles home.  Jacob rode his bike out to meet me and walked the last mile with me.  It was the perfect way to end my trip.

Hiking home from the bus stop

There are a lot of ways to look at this hike.  I am a numbers guy, so here are a few numbers.  I hiked 270 miles and climbed up 53,400 ft and down 59,300 ft.  I spent two days in the Owens River drainage, 5 days in the Kern River drainage, 5 days in the Kings River drainage, 8 days in the San Joaquin River drainage, and 1 day each in the Tuolumne River and Merced River drainages.  My pack weighed 42 lbs when I started with 1 liter of water, 25 fl oz of denatured alcohol for fuel, and 14 days of food.  It weighted 17 lbs without water, fuel or food.  I ate 1.4 lbs per day, about 2,600 calories.  I burned roughly 5000 calories a day, when I got home I had lost 17 lbs.

The most memorable part of the trip was the scenery.  The jagged mountain peaks are mesmerizing.  The streams, creeks and rivers sang me to sleep many nights and during many breaks.  The wildflowers offered a contrast to the rugged peaks.  The forests were dynamic and showed off all phases of the life of a forest.  Together they almost overwhelm the senses.

I had been planning this trip for almost two years.  I had intended to go the summer of 2016 but ended up pushing it back a year so we could go take a family trip.  I reserved my Cottonwood Lakes trail head permit on January 30, 2017.  I started faxing in applications for the Happy Isles trail head on January 10, 2017.  I was in the lottery for 64 consecutive days and never got a spot.

I tried different foods and different equipment as part of my preparation.  I changed my cooking fuel from isobutane to denatured alcohol and changed my stove with it.  I stopped using a mummy bag and started using a quilt.  I changed my tent and my water filter system, revamped my first aid kit, agonized over what camera to bring and ended up bringing two.  I changed my clothing system, including my socks and shoes. I tried out as much of it as I could as often as I could.  I bought enough food in March to pack a smaller bear vault (I own three sizes now) so I could have a good idea of how many days would fit in the big one.  I went on close to 2 dozen hikes leading up to this trip to prepare physically and test gear.  Jessica was also preparing for a big hike on Catalina so she hiked some with me.  Jacob hiked with me for fun and for his hiking merit badge.  I left no stone unturned, but if I keep looking, I am sure I will find more stones.

After I was home I found that I had trouble talking about the trip.  I could relay one or two stories, but I didn't think that it conveyed the real feeling of the trip.  Hopefully these descriptions of my JMT experience have done that.

Thank you to all who followed me during my journey using SPOT, and to all of you who have read about it here.  Sharing my experience in that way kept me from feeling like I had just disappeared off the face of the Earth while I was out of touch.

A special thank you to my wife Rebecca.  I spent our 18 year anniversary camped on a ledge overlooking the South Fork of the Kings River.  It was a full moon that night.  Without her support and understanding I would not have been able to pull this off.