thru hiking the john muir trail

**samoset** · 12-07-2010, 00:15

All this usefull information and ive just ben worried about what flys to put in my fly box when i finally get a chance to attempt thruing the JMT. Hope you have a great safe trip cant wait for a trip report

**shelly** · 12-08-2010, 20:55

If you have any flexibility on your trip dates you might consider waiting till May to finalize the dates for your trip. You could get another permit for later in June in case the snow load is too much, or too dangerous.
I agree that if you go early while there is still a lot of snow and hope to do the kind of miles you are planning for, you won't have much flexibility in where you stop for the night.
I would guess that MTR would be the closest resupply spot to the middle of the trip but if we have a heavy snow winter, they might not even be open yet, depending on when you get there. Another plus for having an alternate start date.
Are you planning to start in YV and hike south?
No matter what, you will be amazed at the stark beauty of the High Sierras. Good luck with your adventure!
Shelly

**mountain_man_mike** · 12-08-2010, 21:47

Good luck on your trek. The JMT is an wonderful trail through some of the most breath taking yet rugged country you will ever come across. The time of year you are going will bring about new challenges and many words of wisdom have been passed along to help counter them. I was able to hang all but one campsite along the norther 2/3 of the trail. The southern part has some really high passes and will require additional skills to hang on rocks, etc. and the snow will be present on most of the passes but with good planning and preparation you'll have a great time. I hope you have a fantastic trek and never have a need for SAR...

Happy Trails

**Caribou Bentspoke** · 12-26-2010, 23:22

The Sierra is not my turf, but I do know they got 18 ft of snow last week, and an earlier storm was 7 ft. So the Sierra may be bad in June this year unless the late winter and spring is dry. Even last year I saw some trail journals of people floating across streams on neo air pads.

**Hangman** · 02-14-2011, 20:17

How did you make out on your trip with the hammock?

**clean** · 01-21-2015, 20:52

Bump!

I'm planning to hike the JMT this summer. I was sure I had to use a T-word. I'd much rather hang it. How'd it go?

**lori** · 01-21-2015, 21:04

I'm sure it went fine. People often use hammocks on the JMT. You just camp below treeline - easy to do, if you break the trip into segments that land you between passes each night. In the last part (Vidette to Whitney) I could have hung the hammock above 10,000 feet due to the incredible numbers of foxtail pines present. Nice long tree straps help when you have the bigger pine trees to hang from.

You'll also note that the OP posted all the way back in 2010 - that was a good snow year. The drought is making us miserable here, not enough snow for a good snow pack.

By July the waterfalls will be pitiful and some of the smaller creeks dried up. Poor fish and wildflowers.

**clean** · 01-21-2015, 21:24

I've got a HI. LYV permit reservation for a SOBO JMT leaving on 6/15.

I know CA is suffering from a drought but it looks like this will be a good year for me to do a June start. My work forces me to be back home by ~ July 10 each year.

I'm not sold on hanging this trip. I will be with my 12 year old son and it might be better for us to have the security/flexibility of a tent so that we don't have to push to the next hanging spot. I'm concerned about bugs in June and the whole hammock on the ground in a bugnet under a tarp thing sounds complicated. It might be easier to just give in and do the tent thing.

I'll spend some time tonight looking at the maps. We are pretty much planning on doing the climb high / sleep low thing so we might be under the tree line most of the time anyways.

hmmmmmmm.