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Welcome, Vas!
Here’s some basic info on getting to the JMT. I’m assuming you’ll start in Yosemite (most do).
Reno, Nevada is one of the easiest airports to access the JMT from. The Eastern Sierra Transit bus stops at the airport and will bring you to Lee Vinning, Mammoth Lakes or Lone Pine, CA. From Lee Vinning or Mammoth Lakes, you can transfer to YARTS for your connection to the northern terminus of the JMT.
San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno and Las Vegas all provide reasonable access to the John Muir Trail as well. From California, you will take a taxi to Amtrak to YARTS (in Merced) or a taxi to Greyhound or Amtrak and then on to connect with Eastern Sierra Transit (in Reno).
Source: PCTA.org
I don’t know that trail personally, but looking at Google satellite view, it looks at least partially like a fire break that connects with the end of Double View Drive (going North/uphill).
In the other direction (the downhill side) it appears to head down to the South Fork of the San Jacinto River. Beyond that, I can’t tell.
Neither shows up on any of my topo maps, so it doesn’t appear to be an official trail.
Mike, I haven’t been up there lately. There has been some snow, but it’s also been quite warm. I would call the ranger station for the latest on conditions (but be aware that they tend to paint a more bleak picture to scare off the newbies).
You can check the Long Valley webcam for snow conditions, although it will be different as you near the summit: http://www.pstramway.com/long-valley-cam.html
The Mountain Station weather shows the forecast low hovering a few days above freezing, but again, this could change very quickly. http://www.pstramway.com/weather.html
Jeff!
Have you gone yet? If not I would really love to tag along. My plans to Baja fell through and I am craving some backpacking. I am available to go immediately and am up for 17-22 mile days.
Sincerely,
NathanNathan, I looked into this and there is unfortunately no way to do a true thru-hike (yet) — because there is no camping allowed along the trail! There are plans to change this when the trail is “officially” completed, but for now, you have to day hike the BBT.
I considered booking campgrounds nearby, and having a support crew (my wife plus whoever) to shuttle us to the trail and pick us up each evening, but it seemed wrought with logistical challenges.
My new approach is going to be to break it into sections and do them as day hikes over a period of a couple months. This will require shuttling and will take a fair amount of time. Might couple those long day hikes with campout the night before, just to help with getting an early start on the trail.
I’ll look more closely at my schedule and post an update after the holidays.
I love seeing what parks everyone has visited and what’s on their to-visit list. We are lucky to have so much to explore.
Hi everyone! I’m Oshie. Former resident of east Hollywood area now holed up in San Gabriel Valley. I’m a classic weekend warrior, holding a regular M-F job – weekends are cherished. I hike, camp, backpack as much as I could.. extreme preference to backpacking. Learned to ride my bike late in life (just 2 years ago! I’m in my mid-30′s) but glad I still did it.
Sam Merrill trail to Inspiration Point in Altadena has been my go-to trail. I like it up there, having lunch staring down at big L.A. county.
Hey Oshie! Thanks for introducing yourself and welcome to the SoCal Hiker community!
I was just up on the Sam Merrill trail yesterday. Went all the way to Muir Peak. Love that trail. It’s got some great views, especially at sunset.
The boyfriend and I headed over to Joshua Tree National Park this weekend. It was truly spectacular and is really like no place I’ve ever seen (we kept comparing it to being on another planet, with all the Joshua Trees). However, we ended up only doing one night as opposed to two, because of very high winds that were predicted to worsen Monday night. Definitely worth the trip regardless, and am looking forward go returning!
That sounds like a great weekend, Lindsey (even if it did end up being only one night). My wife has been to Joshua Tree numerous times, but I still haven’t been. Really need to rectify that.
Jeff,
Let me know if you don’t have any takers and would like some company. I love that area and would love to something like that. I have a plan for doing something similar across the Santa Ynez Mountains.
I might be able to do the 14-16 or 17, but not the 13-15.
D.
Awesome! We need to put down some firm dates. I’ll email Byron and Brian and we’ll hammer out the details. I’m thinking four days of hiking for 68 miles. Your thoughts?
Welcome, Traci! Thanks for introducing yourself. I still hike down there on occasion.
You’re very fortunate. South OC is a great place to enjoy the outdoors.
Hey Lindsey,
I’m going to answer this here, too. Just because.
The weather in the local mountains is unpredictable, especially this time of year. But don’t think that snow = “no go.” It just requires extra care and flexibility.
That rain we had last Wednesday? It generated snow in the mountains. SoCal Hiker Martha tried to hike up Cucamonga Peak on Friday and didn’t make the summit because of the snow. But she had a wonderful hike and saw some awesome scenery. If that’s good enough, go for it!
The caveat is that traveling in snow makes navigation tricky. You really need to have a map and compass and the know-how to use them.
As for Mt. Wilson, if you check our Mt. Wilson page there’s a link to the observatory webcam — that’ll give you a great idea of conditions at the top. It’s below 6,000 feet, so while it can (and does occasionally) get snow, it’s less likely. So that is generally a pretty safe bet.
Baldy is much higher, but if you check with the ski lift, they can probably tell you what the conditions are like.
The trails are definitely open. The trailhead parking — if it’s behind a gate that can be closed — will most likely be closed and locked. If you can park down the road and hike a little further to get the trailhead, you’ll be fine.
I’ll throw in a second for Capilene 3. I used this for a base layer on my JMT thru-hike. For the most part, it was my sleep clothes with a couple of exceptions — cold nights and hiking up Mt. Whitney (we started up around midnight).
Most of the time for hiking, I wore shorts and a tech-tee. I’d add a wind shirt, then when it got chilly, a fleece.
The Capilene 3 worked really well for sleeping.
In the end, these decisions are highly individual. The best advice I can give you is to make your best educated purchase, but to field test before your thru-hike.
I’m planning a tentative JMT thru-hike for this upcoming summer, and am curious if your 6-pack list order is in this particular order because of difficulty?
That’s exactly right. Each is a little more difficult, although after a certain point it really comes down to what kind of night you had beforehand. Baldy is fine right now, although that could change anytime. I have some friends who love to do Baldy in the winter, but they gear up (crampons, ice axe) and go straight up the Bowl. They’ve even spent the night on top, snow camping. Overnight snow camping on top of Baldy is a little extreme for my tastes, but I’d love to summit Baldy in the snow sometime.
When I was training for my last JMT, we started this time of year with “lowland” hikes. We’d do one or two pretty easy weeknight hikes and a longer hike on the weekend. You could easily do a run or something instead, if that’s your thing. When daylight savings time started in March is when we kicked it up a notch. We did a 6.5 miler every Monday night, then a 5 miler Wednesday night, and a longer hike on Saturdays… AND started carrying weighted backpacks on those weekend hikes.
For weight, we used old 1-gallon water jugs. We’d fill up 3 or 4 and put them in our backpacks. When we got to the high point of the trail, we could (if we chose) dump the water. Going downhill the extra weight just wears out the joints and doesn’t help so much.
The beginning of April we did the Trans-Catalina Trail. The weather was AMAZING, the scenery fantastic and we got a chance to dial-in our backpack gear. Good training.
One of the challenges we encountered with the Six-Pack of Peaks was snow. I had to check with the ranger station regularly to confirm conditions near the peak and make sure the trail was open. Cucamonga, San Bernardino, San Jacinto and San Gorgonio all had some patches of snow we had to cross. Trekking poles were handy. Some of our fellow hikers also had micro-spikes, but the patches were irregular enough that this was usually more of a pain than it was worth.
We started the Six Pack at the end of May and hit one each Saturday.
Joan and I were discussing this just the other night, and the one thing she would’ve done even more of is carrying a weighted backpack. There is no substitute.
Hope this helps!
Here’s my list…
Visited
- Yosemite
- Sequoia
- Kings Canyon
- Great Smokey Mountains
- Arches
- Zion
- Grand Canyon
- Mesa Verde
To-Visit
- Joshua Tree
- Channel Islands
- Death Valley
- Pinnacles
- Bryce
- Glacier
- Yellowstone
- Rocky Mountain
And all the rest, too.
We’re looking for a 3-4 day backpacking trip in early May. Do you have any suggestions?
Drew, the best place in SoCal for a 3-4 day backpacking trip in early May? Easy! It’s the Trans-Catalina Trail. It’s an hour away from LA via ferry, and May is the best time to hike it IMO.
