It’s day two on the John Muir Trail. We woke up feeling creaky but confident. Hiking up Half Dome on day one tested our mettle. Today, we planned to hike 10.4 miles to the Sunrise High Sierra Camp. We ate our super-charged oatmeal breakfast and broke camp. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw a bear wandering near the western edge of the camp.
Black bears are common along the JMT, especially in the more popular areas such as Little Yosemite Valley. That’s one of the reasons they have bear lockers for your food in some places, and require an approved bear-proof canister for food storage everywhere else.
This bear was getting ready to wander into the campground to snag some unsuspecting camper’s breakfast or an open bear box — both reasons to be vigilant with your food in the mountains. Black bears won’t chase you down unless they or their young are threatened. We chose to keep a safe distance and admire the bear from afar.
Cumulative Distance: 18.4 miles
Total Ascent: 3,971 ft
Cumulative Ascent: 8,971 ft
Harrison Map Sheet 13
GPX file (official JMT)
GPX file (Clouds Rest)
There is also a junction here with a trail to Clouds Rest.
Hari and Jeffrey — armed with the energy of youth — were well ahead of us. Joan and I hiked at our normal slow-and-steady pace. Joan suspected we were too far from Sunrise Creek, and questioned my navigation skills. I reassured her that we were on the correct trail, and we kept hiking onward (and upward).
The climb was suspiciously relentless. We weren’t supposed to be gaining this much elevation, were we? Soon, I was second-guessing myself. We consulted with some hikers coming down the trail toward us. “Hi! Where ya’ coming from?” is the typical refrain when passing other hikers on the trail. “Sunrise” they replied. I took this to confirm that we were in fact headed in the right direction, since we were headed towards Sunrise High Sierra Camp.
We continued on, hiking even higher.
There’s a peculiar truth about the psychology of climbing thousands of feet of elevation gain. You don’t want that climbing to be for nothing. You sincerely want to be right, so you haven’t “wasted” that effort, only to have to retrace your steps and hike even further than you had planned. That’s where I was at, and the higher we hiked, the more committed I had become.
Another group of hikers came down the trail toward us. “Where ya hiking from?” “Oh, we’re coming down from Clouds Rest.”
Ugh. Not what I had wanted to hear.
I ate humble pie and we revisited our map to come up with Plan B. It turns out, we were well on our way to Clouds Rest and miles up the wrong trail. We decided to continue on and past Sunrise Lakes (obviously the “Sunrise” the earlier hikers had referred to). From there a trail looped down to Sunrise High Sierra Camp. We wouldn’t make it today, but we wouldn’t be too far off, either.
The John Muir Trail is very well marked, but you still need to know how to navigate… and listen to your girlfriend! Although Joan will be the first to admit she is generally “directionally challenged,” she was 100% right on this one. I chose the wrong trail, then stubbornly insisted on following it. There’s a lesson in there…Always Look at the Bright Side of Life
The benefit of our “alternative” route is that we got to summit not only Half Dome, yesterday, but Clouds Rest today. Clouds Rest has magnificent views of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, and 360 degrees of pure wilderness beauty. And although Jeffrey slack-packed up here yesterday afternoon, we could boast that we summited with our full backpacks. Hah!
Impromptu off-trail camp
I discovered that I once again had cell reception on Clouds Rest (thank you AT&T) and left a message for Jeffrey and Hari explaining that we would meet them at Tuolumne Meadows tomorrow.
After Clouds Rest, we continued until on past an tiny unnamed creek and setup an impromptu and unauthorized camp for the night off trail. This is strictly against the rules in Yosemite, but we weren’t prepared to hike through the darkness. We were very careful to choose a spot where we would leave no trace. We setup camp for the night in a little place I like to call The Middle of Somewhere, because we knew where we were, but weren’t where we planned to be.
Little Yosemite Valley to Clouds Rest and the Middle of Somewhere
This map details our journey from Little Yosemite Valley to Cloud’s Rest and on to our impromptu off-trail camp.
Jeffrey and Hari managed to stay on the JMT, but decided to power on past Sunrise (too many mosquitos) and camped at the Cathedral Lakes (also too many mosquitos, but not enough energy or time to continue further). Jeffrey captured some great shots of the lake at the golden hour.
This also set them up for an easy 5 mile hike downhill hike to Tuolumne Meadows the next day.
Little Yosemite Valley to Cathedral Lakes
This is the “correct” route along the JMT which Jeffrey and Hari followed.
JMT Day 2 Photo Gallery
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Tomorrow, we head to Tuolumne Meadows for our first resupply.
Originally hiked on July 28, 2010.
Luisa says
July 28, 2013 at 9:19 pmOoh, a Sooty Grouse! [Blue Grouse, we called them back in the day.] Here’s a link to some Flickr photos of Sooty Grouse + Yosemite: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Sooty+Grouse+yosemite
I am loving this series SO MUCH.
Jeff Hester says
July 29, 2013 at 10:14 pmThank you, Luisa! When we saw this bird, I had no idea what it was. It looked a bit like a pheasant, only larger. I’ve only seen a grouse a couple of times. Are they rare?
Minerva says
July 29, 2013 at 1:04 pmGorgeous pictures and that’s always a worry of mine when I’m out on a trail (on the rare occasion I do get out to hike somewhere) that I’m too stubborn to realize I’m going the wrong way. Sounds like you still got some neat experiences despite the misdirection!
Jeff Hester says
July 29, 2013 at 10:16 pmThanks, Minerva! The trouble with shooting photos on a trip like this is deciding which ones to share — the scenery was so beautiful, it’s difficult to choose!
andrew goop says
July 30, 2013 at 1:27 amIts been on my To do list a long time. Hopefully be for I retire
Michael Byrd says
July 30, 2013 at 8:08 amThis is the perfect example of being adaptable on the trail and making the best of the situation. It also helps being in such a beautiful place. Love the photos! If I were prepared, I’d love getting lost on the JMT.
Jeff Hester says
July 30, 2013 at 12:14 pmSo true, Michael. You need to be flexible and enjoy the journey.
And to be honest, at the time, I was a little uptight about not being on “THE” JMT for a few miles. I knew that I wanted to write-up a day-by-day guide to the trail, and now I wasn’t actually ON the trail.
The reality is, it’s not the trail, but the journey. It’s not the route, but the intent.
The actual route of the JMT has been realigned in different places over the years. So what is “THE” JMT?
As far as I’m concerned, we did hike the JMT — and then some. You have to hike your own hike.
Tammy McDermott says
September 16, 2015 at 7:20 pmhey are you both from san clemente? my hometown…love your page looking to do the jmt by myself in 2016 and your page is awesome..sounds like it is tough getting a permit these days..i live in steamboat springs now but am visiting san clemente on sunday and would love to chat..if possible…thanks for all your info
Jeff Hester says
September 16, 2015 at 7:27 pmHi Tammy! We used to live in San Clemente but moved to Los Angeles three years ago. I’m happy to answer any questions I can about the JMT though. Feel free to post in our discussion forum.
Carol says
October 6, 2015 at 9:22 pmGreat posts!
I’ve heard varying degrees of reports on the difficulty of the Cloud’s Rest route you took. It does seem like the best route to do if you want the most experiences. How does it compare to the Mist Trail or the JMT up from the valley?
Agnus says
October 24, 2015 at 2:26 pmHow did you track the GPS info? Thought of using my running watch but the amount of recharging seems to be a draw back.
Jeff Hester says
October 26, 2015 at 12:05 pmAgnus, on the JMT I tracked our route using a Garmin hand-held GPS. I carried spare batteries and included still more batteries in my resupplies. Sadly, when I got to the end I found I had only a few days recorded. It could only store a certain number of points, and then the “oldest” points got pushed off the stack. Bummer.
So I had to carefully go back and retrace my route to create these tracks (other than for the last few days).
This year I’ve been hiking the Theodore Solomons Trail — even longer than the JMT — and using my iPhone and GaiaGPS for all tracking. A much better solution all around. I download the maps I need for offline use, and put my phone into Airplane mode (GPS tracking still works). I use my phone for all my photos as well as navigation checks, and generally have plenty of charge left at the end of the day. At night, I plug it into an external battery and recharge it to 100% for the next day.
I’m carrying a higher capacity battery that allows up to six full recharges. That’s been working well for the Solomons Trail since I’ve been section hiking it, but if I had a longer segment (>5 days) I would bring a solar charger to refresh the battery.
If you have more questions, be sure to ask in the forums: http://socalhiker.net/community/
Cindy says
November 8, 2015 at 7:13 amPlanning and Hoping??? to get a permit for the JMT next summer 2016, late August. How many hours did it take you to hike Half Dome from Little Yosemite camping area? Did it take you the 10-12 hours the park website says?
Steve says
November 22, 2015 at 5:38 pmWhere would choose to camp the day you did half dome? So to not re-hike 2.3 miles.What would you do with the packs?. Thanks. Great reference.
Jeff Hester says
November 22, 2015 at 7:50 pm@Steve – there is a campground at Sunrise Creek, just past the junction with the trail to Cloud’s Rest. We setup our tents and stowed our packs. Be sure to remove all food and smelly stuff and put it in your bear canister.
Bryan says
November 23, 2015 at 10:48 amHey Jeff, along the lines of what Steve was asking, can you explain a little bit further why you weren’t able to camp at the spot you wanted? You mentioned that your permit was only for a certain section, are all permits like this, where you can only go to a certain point each day? I’d like to do half dome but not if we have to backtrack almost 3 miles.
Jeff Hester says
November 23, 2015 at 5:52 pmSure Bryan. When you get your permit, your not only specify your trailhead, but also your first night’s camp. In our case, we got the trailhead we wanted (Happy Isles) but not the campsite we wanted (we got Little Yosemite Valley).
Sometimes you have to be happy with what you get, especially when it comes to JMT permits! 🙂
Marc says
July 30, 2016 at 2:23 amI am fairly certain that with a Yosemite backcountry permit you can camp anywhere in the wilderness after the first night, excluding Little Yosemite and maybe a couple of other places, so your 2nd campsite between Cloud’s Rest and Sunrise TH was okay.