JMT -3 days: Training

So many months have gone into our preparation for our John Muir hike.  At first it was just talk about the scenery, and how fantastic it will be.  Then it progressed into gear and what kind, how light, how many, what to share, etc. etc.  As I was a little late to the game, I ended up with all my own gear ie. tent, stove, while Misty & Jo are sharing such items but that's cool.  Everything will be shared at some point or another.  The next step was to test the gear... 

Well, our first trial was back in October when I was still a firm "No Way, Jose".  At this point, Jo had agreed to go with Misty on the trek but had never even slept outside before(!) so it was decided it was high time this oversight was corrected!  I went along for moral support, and again, I hate to miss out on things :-)  So we did a car-assisted overnight camp out in Joshua Tree National Park.  Misty and Jo were true hard-core campers and actually slept in a tent (I chose the warmth and safety of the SUV), and we actually cooked our meal over an open fire!  It was a fabulous night, but perhaps a little 'softer' camping than what the JMT will be like.

Next was another overnight in Mecca after a club hike.  Our good friend Mary joined us, and took my position in the trunk, while I toughed it out in my brand new Tarptent.  Misty & Jo trialed their new tent too and although all worked fabulously, it still wasn't quite roughing it....

And so Jo and Misty went for the gusto.  In late April they took all their gear up the tram to camp at 9000' on Mt. San Jacinto.  They did a little hike, found a beautiful campsite, set up camp and even felt strong enough to hike 4 more miles round-trip to the tram for a cocktail.  The sun was setting as they returned, and as they described it to me, the temperature dropped just as precipitously.  They scarfed down their camp stove dinner and leapt into their sleeping bags as the early evening descended into the 40's.  It was a very cold and very long night for them both.

A few days later they went out and did it again!  This time they chose to camp at Whitewater the same night a gale blew in, complete with swirling dust devils, howling winds, rain & sleet!  By the time dawn arrived they threw everything into the car and headed to the nearest IHOP for a breakfast worthy of champions.  The fact that Misty & Jo endured such extreme conditions on both occasions with smiles on their faces and funny stories to tell and still wanting to tackle the JMT, made me feel that we perhaps really could do this after all.  The only thing left was to train.

Misty & Jo started to carry heavier backpacks in December, incrementally adding a few pounds as the weeks went on, hiking at least 3 days per week, carefully tracking their mileage to make sure they were hitting their target goals. I was training for both a 10K and Half-Marathon and so actually scaled down my hiking while I concentrated on the running, thinking I would pick it back up at the end of February.  Which I did, but then ignominiously tore a calf muscle on a very weak jump shot in Pickleball in early March.  That put an end to everything.  I couldn't hardly walk for 2 weeks, and limped for 4.  Finally at the beginning of May I started hiking again in earnest, and promptly got tendonitis in the other leg(!), which laid me up for another week.  So I really had to start my training from scratch.  Luckily, all's gone well since and after several weeks of just carrying water, I've added enough pounds of gear to my pack per week to get me to my trail weight of 31 lbs.  Ouch.  It kinda hurts.  I've hiked it twice so far, for 6.5 & 8.5 miles and so far so good.  The shining light of hope is that with every day of eating on the trail, my pack will get lighter!  Nosh on!

Carole & Phyllis slowed down for a few seconds to take a photo with us

 

No Mum, you can't come too

Legs don't fail me now!

Huge thanks to our summer hiking buddies who willing go out on the trails with us slow-poke turtles!

JMT - 5 days and counting...

The next adventure is about to begin!  All winter Misty, Jo & I have been planning, preparing, training and obsessing about hiking the John Muir Trail and here it is, just 5 days away!!!  None of us can believe it.  That's not to say we haven't been packed and ready to go for more than a month, it's just that we're not quite packed and ready to go  :-)

All our hiking friends here in the desert have heard from our on trail chatter far more than they probably ever wanted to know about the JMT - apologies now to all you patient souls, but here's the bare bones for the unintiated :  The JMT is a 211 mile wilderness trail that extends from Yosemite National Park south to the very tippy top of Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the Continental USA.  It's a veritable roller coaster of high mountain passes that we'll summit, then descend 1000's of feet, only to go back up again, dozens and dozens of times.  And, they cleverly end the trail at the top of Whitney.  At 14,505' elevation. We do have to get back down to civilization, you know.  So add another 11 miles, 6195', and 97 knee-numbing switchbacks to the very last day of our hike.

How it All Started:  Last September Misty came across a documentary called Mile...Mile and a Half  which portrayed the incredible scenery and intense physical challenges that the filmmakers experienced during their 2011 trek of the John Muir Trail, and she decided that this was something that she wanted to do.  Something we could do.  Well, that was the "royal we".  Jo signed on immediately while it took me about 2 months to decide I wanted to do it too (what? camping? lugging all that gear? eating dehydrated food? no showers? cold weather? No way).  But I eventually came around: the only way to experience the brilliance of the hike is to endure the good and the bad.  I also didn't want to be left behind....

Here's an image from a book I bought that shows the route

After committing to do the hike the next task was to assemble the gear.  I had a choice of 2 backpacks from my previous Caminos, but everything else was bought new or used online.  The poor UPS man became an almost daily fixture at our front door!  Camp stove, sleeping bag, water filters, titanium mugs, clothes, sleeping pad, clothes, tent, clothes, etc.  I must admit, it was rather fun.

Here's the 'almost ready" gear

Then there was the food.  We decided a manageable itinerary would take us 19 days + 1 rest day to complete the hike, and we had to have all that food pre-prepared for each and every meal & snack long before we'd ever hit the trail as we had to ship 3/4's of it ahead to our 'resupply' points.  Luckily we are able to break our hike into four 3-6 day sections, and we can pick up the food we've mailed to ourselves at the end of each section so we don't have to carry it all at once.  This is a very good thing as we average about 1.5 pounds of food per day and that really adds up when it's hanging off your back!  All 3 of us dehydrated a lot of our own meals instead of relying on preservative-laden commercial stuff, and relied on a lot of great fattening carb-laden snacks to get us thru the day.  Unfortunately I never took any photos of the assembly line that our kitchen became this past winter with the dehydrator running almost constantly (hamburger, spinach, pasta, veggies, chili, spaghetti, etc.) but here's a pic of Misty's early food pile:

and each section's food & toiletries has to fit in this Bear Can

Then all was left was to practice the hiking...