JMT 2005 Hike
Our first backpacking trip since 2004 was pretty ambitious: ?? miles in 5 days.
Robert would come with us, so we knew we'd do a car shuttle of some sort.
We knew we'd enter the John Muir Wilderness at the North Lake TH near Bishop,
on the eastern side of the Sierra, and pass through Evolution Basin.
From there, our early trip planning had diverged in many different directions.
The first plan called for a long cross-country foray down Goddard Creek,
to the Middle Fork Kings River, then a long climb up and over the Monarch Divide
at Granite Pass, with a similarly long drop into Cedar Grove.
We also looked at going over Muir Pass, through Le Conte Canyon, then cross-country
to Ampitheater Lake and through the trailless Lake Basin, and out via Granite Pass.
However, after the first day of "cross-country" over Lamarck Col, we decided to
stick to trail travel, with nary a whimper from the purists of the group!
The hours we spent threading over countless boulders in the Darwin Lakes area
didn't add up to much mileage, but it really took the energy out of us.
So we decided we'd follow the John Muir Trail (JMT) through Evolution Basin,
Le Conte Canyon, over Mather and Pinchot Passes, and then exit to Cedar Grove
via Paradise Valley.
While the JMT route would be "easy" from an ease-of-travel standpoint, it would
be difficult by conventional statistics such as distance and elevation gain:
68.9 miles and well over 10,000 feet, respectively. In addition to Lamarck Col
(12,800'), the JMT surmounts three 12,000-foot passes: Muir, Mather, and Pinchot.
We even thought of extending the route by going through Rae Lakes, but decided
against it on day 4, with our sore bodies and low food stocks.
- Day 1: North Lake TH to Evolution Lake via Lamarck Col
- Day 2: Evolution Lake to Little Pete Meadow via
Muir Pass and LeConte Meadow
- Day 3: Little Pete Meadow to Upper Basin via
Palisade Creek and Mather Pass
- Day 4: Upper Basin to Woods Creek via Pinchot Pass
- Day 5: Woods Creek to Roads End via Paradise Valley
© 2006
, Stanford Exploration Project
Modified: 10/15/06, 06:16:26 PDT
, by morgan
Page Maintainer: webmaster `AT' sep.stanford.edu
