The summer of 2020 I hiked a portion of the John Muir Trail for the first time. It was life-changing. I had been in the Sierra Nevada several times since moving to LA in 2017, but it was a very different experience being immersed in the valleys and peaks of some of the biggest mountains in the US coupled with being so far removed from civilization. For that first trip we packed in all of our meals and supplies for 7 days without a resupply. We started in Mammoth near the horseshoe lakes area and traveled north through some of the most spectacular spots within the JMT route with a detour through the Minarets to trout fish. It was challenging and very rewarding. Everyone on the trail has a shared sense of respect, camaraderie, joy, and awe of the vast and immeasurable pristine beauty of the Sierra.
For this segment of the JMT, it would be my longest backpacking trip to date. 13 days, 174 miles, one resupply, and a comically large ziplock bag full of several pounds of fruit snacks. Our route began in the Yosemite Valley up through Isberg Pass to later connect back to the John Muir Trail on our 6th day via Reds Meadow in Mammoth. This trip going south and out over Bishop Pass. Our original plan was over Donohue pass like we had done previously, but we were unable to obtain permits for that route. After talking to a ranger we were offered an alternate route over Isberg pass. He said that it was a gorgeous and very isolated route…. what he had failed to recognize/remember was the fact that this route had been burned by the Creek Fire in 2020 and the Lions Fire in 2018 and the trail didn’t exist anymore… or rather wasn’t maintained outside of the confines of Yosemite… which led us to bushwhack and traverse though unmaintained/unmarked wetland and burn areas for 16 miles on one particular day. I saw more bear and puma scat that I had ever seen on any of my trips. At about mile 11 of the 16 on this day we ran onto a very friendly and kind group of researchers for UC Berkley/Santa Barbara and they gave us moral support in the form of a bag of peanuts M&M’s. We were informed of the burn history and lack of visitors. We made it to a plateau just beyond granite stairway and camped before a small seven mile hike to Reds Meadow the next morning where we indulged in a shower, a giant burger, a hammock nap and a resupply before departing and going three more miles to Red Cone, a camp spot that we slept on our last JMT trip. For the remainder of the trip we were on the JMT proper- lots of steep passes, other JMT and PCT hikers, snow, marmots, dear, grouse mamas and babies, and beautiful views. My highlights of the second half of the trip were the segments traversing the steep canyon along the roaring cerulean San Joaquin River in Kings Canyon NPS, meeting a group of age 60+ ladies that call themselves the ‘Turtles’ up on Muir Pass, post holing down the mountain with cool-aid blue lakes and vivid orange and black shale all around me, to Evolution Lake and Meadows where we were surrounded by grazing deer and a blazing alpine glow. I wish could truly communicate the beauty and breadth of an experience this was but words aren’t my specialty... below are most of my film photos from the trip.
A trip ain’t compete without some tears, mental anguish, hunger, physical exhaustion and asking yourself why did I choose to do this…I wouldn’t have it any other way.
All images below captured on 35mm film with my rebel x with my 50mm or my Canon z135 point and shoot 🌿
