JMT Planning 3 – PERMIT!!!

25 days applying at the Yosemite Wilderness Permit to go Southbound – Unsuccessful
Mt. Whitney lottery with 15 option days to go northbound – Unsuccessful

Applying to go Northbound from Horseshoe Meadows – Cottonwood Pass to Yosemite visiting Mt. Whitney – SUCCESS!!!!!

I had an idea that the permit process might take some time but I had no idea that it was going to be this bad. Once I have received multiple denied requests for permits and was trying not to get to discouraged, I decided to apply for the Mt. Whitney permit lottery.   This would start at the south end of the JMT and head north. It is not my ideal plan because I would like time to acclimatize, end at the top of Mt. Whitney, and resupplying would be easier but I feel like it may be my only option. The lottery permit for Whitney was pretty easy to fill out and I could put down 15 different options in 1 application so I felt pretty good about it.  From the time the lottery closes until you find out if you get it is 9 long days… to make sure the next plan will work!  I woke up and immediately checked the recreation.org page to see if I had gotten my Mt. Whitney permit.  As soon as I unsuccessful I pulled out my laptop and found an available date for Cottonwood pass. Filled out everything I needed, paid, and done!  It was that easy to get this permit.  If you want to save yourself some stress and time… just plan to go northbound from here! 

So what’s next…

Start walking/backpacking more
Do a rough plan of my miles/camps for each day
Figure out food plan/resupply


I knew this would be happening this year and super excited I have a plan!

JMT Planning 2 - My Great Gear debate

This is likely the HARDEST decision I am making for this trip! I have the excel chart with everything that I think I need/want to take and likely some things I will want to drop off. Everything has its weight in ounces. There are very few things that I am extremely confident on.

Of course I have color coded my chart! J The main things I am pretty set on include: Sleeping bag, sleeping pad, down jacket, water purifier (with backup drops), my purple spork, shit shovel, umbrella, and headlamp. I am planning a more weekend backpacking trips which should help me with my gear list and becoming more confident in what I have and the weight. I have a 3 day weekend every other weekend so I can get some decent trips! If you have any suggestions for where to go please let me know! I am always open to new places (especially if the permit is VERY easy to get or if one is not needed).

JMT Planning 1 - The idea, the plan, and the permit proccess

JMT has been in my head for a while. After backpacking in Yosemite last year, reading more books, blogs, and learning more, the JMT has become a mission and one of my bucket list items. I have decided I really want to do it solo. Mostly because it will be a major accomplishment and I enjoy being alone but also to be honest… I am not sure I could be on the trail with someone for that many days. There are so many factors… how fast will I want to go one day, what time will I want to start, what if I just want to sit or take a dip in the lake, or if I am feeling good and want to do extra miles that day. I want to make all of those decisions by myself.
There have been SO many questions on my protection and the crazy looks I get when I say I am going solo. I often get asked if I am worried about the bears, the people, or the what ifs.
The only things that keep me up at night thinking are my feet and the weather. If you have ever hiked with me or seen my feet almost any day of the week then you know why. I get blisters and hot spots SO easily! I have tried different shoes, different socks, glide, moleskin, tape, and blister Band-Aids. The only thing that I have found to help is a combination of them all. Injini socks, the kind that go between your toes that I use to find SO annoying, prevent blisters between my toes – so they are a win. However, I still get blisters on the bottom of my big toes and heals on the inside and outside. So I typically do moleskin until it comes off due to sweat and then glide. I recently heard rubbing alcohol helps make the skin tougher… so yes I will be trying that. Any other suggestions are welcomed!
Then the weather! You can't control it, I am terrible at predicting it, and I am not a fan of thunder/lightning storms. So hoping there are not too many of these.


Planning this trip has become a little obsessive. Most of my free time and even some of the time that I should be working is spent:
Looking on blogs about what others did
Watching YouTube channels on people, girls, and anyone who has done it
Reading multiple of reviews on the “best gear”
Debating my pack situation
Debating my gear situation
Planning hikes I can do now
Calculating my “base weight”


Before any of this can really happen though I had to create a rough plan. I know I want to hike Southbound, meaning from Yosemite (ideally Happy Isles) to Whitney. So, how many days? To take or not to take zero (days with no hiking) or nero (days with close to zero miles) days? So this is about what I have decided. 18-20 days. Depending on how I feel will depend on the zero/nero days. Now that I know I want to do 20 days or less I need a plan A, B, and C.  And the calculating begins. How many hours will I really need off work. Will I really want to get off the trail and being alone that long and come back to work at 100%? Last time after 5 days, the noise level in the office drove me nuts. I have decided if I can afford the time that I will plan a couple half days. Days to ease back into it. I would also love to be able to work with my Friday off work schedule. My schedule is awesome, but also doesn’t really do much good when you are taking off about 3 weeks. Plus, I will need the additional travel time to Lone Pine and to Yosemite. Then maybe a night in Lone Pine when I finish and then back to my house! I figure I need about 133 hours of vacation time. On the day I am currently writing this – I only have 44 hours. I do the math for each week to figure out the EARLIEST I can do this trip is starting August 12th – but then I do not get an extra day off with Labor day holiday… so that pushes my start day would be August 18th. However, my ideal date would be for my permit on August 21st. I am really worried about getting a permit and starting too late in the season. In order to have the largest window of time to apply multiple days - I will be applying for my permit to start on August 15th. My ideal permit would be starting at Happy Isles with pass through. However, I am listing multiple trailheads are listed on my permit. I also need an exit of Donahue… which only 45 people get per day (which may sound like a lot but there are a LOT of people who do not get permits and all the exit permits are by reservations). From the Happy Isles group only 20 people per day get them. Because I am applying for only 1 spot I do have higher chances. I can also apply for the half dome permit with this… which I am not sure. I have done half dome 2 times already and it was awesome but at the same time I think I would rather try clouds rest (no extra permit required). For now – I sit and wait. I will have all my permits filled out and ready to go for about 5 days and get ready to start the process!

Strawberry Junction Gear Shakedown

Feb 27-28
Gear Check!

I recently got into a couple facebook groups for hikers/backpackers because I wanted to gain more experience and love reading from other people! My parents were in town but planning on going to Arizona so I had a last minute free weekend come up. Someone posted about doing a Saturday/Sunday trip and I jumped in on it. We started a little late because I had to get gear ready and take my parents to get a rental car. I met her at her house and we went to Idyllwild/ San Jacinto area. We stopped by the Ranger Station and picked up a permit for $5 each.

She said that we may be the only ones staying at Strawberry Junction. We didn’t start hiking until later afternoon. We made it up to Strawberry Junction a couple hours before sunset. We got set up. Enjoyed the sunset from the top of a boulder and made dinner. It was still pretty cold so we ended up going to our tents pretty quickly after dark. I read a little on my phone and ended up falling asleep pretty quickly. I hadn’t been feeling well so it was nice to go to sleep! I woke up in the middle of the night to what seemed like something smelling my tent. I am not really sure what it was but the ranger did report a mountain lion was spotted around the area recently. In the morning we debated heading up to the peak or not but we both were not feeling great. We made breakfast, packed up, and headed back down. It was a perfect quick trip to make sure I was happy with all my gear in the colder weather and everything worked out great! It was great to meet someone else who loves the outdoors and backpacking and hopefully we will be able to do another trip!

Trans Catalina Trail

My 32nd birthday wish was to hike the Trans Catalina Trail (most of it!)

 

We took the ferry across from San Pedro to Avalon. We checked into our hotel, got our permits, paid for the 3rd person at our campsite, got water to fill our packs, and got ice cream! It was a beautiful hot day and would have been a perfect for sitting on the beach and playing in the water all weekend. Instead I had a genius plan to hike about 50 miles in 4 days! 


We found a cute Italian place to have an early carb load dinner at and went back to the room pretty early. We made sure our bags were all packed with everything we needed and all of our phones charged. 

Saturday morning we got up, loaded everything in our bags, and headed for breakfast. Leaving a little later than planned we were off. After reading a lot of reviews many said that the first 5 miles on the exact trail were not really worth it so to shorten the first day a bit we went from Avalon to Black Jack via Hermit Gulch. It was still a long first day with a lot of uphill. We made it to camp with a couple hours before sunset. We set up camp. Rinsed off in the outdoor shower, which was so cold but still awesome! Black Jack had very few people besides a squatter who came to visit us with his beverage. We cooked dinner, watched the sunset, and headed to our tents for an early night.  

The next morning all of us were feeling the day before but knew we had a long day. We made breakfast and started to pack up. We only had a couple miles to get to the airport and it was already HOT! The airport was really cool. We got drinks and ICE for our water and AMAZING! We got snacks and cookies! One of the girls got a Bison Burger to go. This was genius and the bites I had at little harbor were heavenly. I enjoyed little harbor the most. We went in the ocean and had our lunch here. This is where I also realized my feet were worse than I thought they were. I had blisters between my toes and on both heels about the size of quarters. It was painful and I wasn’t sure I could walk much more.






After more moleskin, new socks, and pain from cleaning them we were off with the pain of every step up the next part which I felt was the steepest part! This day was incredibly hot. I used my umbrella a lot this day and the rest of the trip. It was a must have item for me and I am so glad I had it!




We made it to two harbors and I think we were a little crazy at this point. There was another buffalo on the trail and he didn’t look happy to see us. We went around and through a fence and would be happy if we were done seeing them. We went straight to the restaurant/bar! We found a table outside and dropped our packs, got drinks, chips and salsa, and charged all of our phones. After we figured out where the camp site was the sheriff offered us a ride to the campsite once we were done! Sweet we would take it! It was my first time in a cop car! We stopped at the top of the hill to watch the eclipse. It was really beautiful out there.  

Once to camp we realized we either didn’t get our firewood or someone snagged it before we got there. It would have been nice to have a fire but we also were ready to shower and get to sleep. We set up our tents, cooked a little food, cleaned up and went to bed. The next morning was incredible. We were one of the closet sites to the water looking over the main harbor. We wanted to pack up and leave but everything was damp. They had washer and dryers so we decided we could throw all of our damp stuff in to dry and it shouldn’t take too long. We got bottled water and a large bag of ice to fill up our camelbacks. Everything took much longer than planned but we finally got everything packed up and were off. The ice water was perfect.


I went the whole day with my umbrella and even applying sunblock often we were all getting some crazy tan lines. The day was pretty long getting to Parson’s Landing but wasn’t as bad as the day before. We got there a few hours before sunset and met a couple girls who came up on their kayak. The other two girls borrowed their kayak for a little bit to go play while they set up camp. We made a fire, dinner, and watched the sunset. Crawled into our tents early and planned to wake up early to finish the end of the trail to starlight beach.

Our alarms went off pretty early and we had a quick snack and headed towards starlight beach. It was a hilly up and down all the way to Starlight “beach”. I was honestly expecting this beautiful untouched beach. It was more of a cliff that you could climb down into this small rocky cove. I was not really impressed. We stayed for long enough to collect some sand and a couple rocks and headed back to pack up camp. We were planning on walking most of the road back because it was mostly flat but still had to put in a few miles. Most of the coves where beautiful and the water was very clear and blue. After a few miles in we saw our friendly sheriff again who offered to give us a ride back to Two Harbors! We took it! Our feet were aching and it would be good to get a drink and a real shower. We stayed at the Banning House and it was perfect. There was a buffalo just up from the house and it was like he was saying buy to us. We all got showers and headed to dinner down the hill. It was great and I even got dessert for my birthday! Even the server played in on it and gave me a little gift. I absolutely loved my trip there and would go back and hike again. It is a beautiful challenging Island and I am happy to say I have seen almost all of it!



The next morning, we took our time getting up and getting to the ferry. It was a nice ride back and I fell asleep. The drive home was pretty quick and we all went back to our life. It was a little odd trying to get back to our life at work and surrounded by more people when it was just the three of us for about 5 days. There were days when we talked very little or just put in our headphones to help making up the steep climbs a little more enjoyable. It was a change going back to day to day life and I realized on most of my trips I may want to get back into real life a little slower.

This birthday definitely goes down into one of the best!!

Money 
Ferry ticket                  $75
Hotel in Avalon           $250
Camping                      $66
Hotel in Two Harbors $270
Food/drinks                 $80
Experience                   PRICELESS!

Backpacking trip to Yosemite!

This was my FIRST backpacking trip and I am so glad that it finally happened.  After much time researching, looking up gear, shopping, and preparing it was finally here.   And I had planned all of this for the first choice dates I requested on the permit... NOT the actual dates that we got!  AHHH!  I couldn't believe the permit that I had wasn’t going to work!  I was really worried that my trip was going to be ruined.   I called the Yosemite Wilderness office and they said I would have to come in the day before and wait in line to get the permit.  There wasn’t much we could do.  On Friday we started our drive towards Yosemite stopping in  Bishop for lunch at Erick Schat’s Bakery (highly recommend) and then staying at Lake View Lodge in Lee Vining for the night.  There is very little in this town.  If you need anything make sure you stop in Bishop first!

Saturday morning we drove into Yosemite and down to the Yosemite Valley Village.  We found the wilderness office and got in line about 10am.  They start issuing permits at 11am.   There were only about 7 people ahead of us so I felt pretty good.  We were pretty open to the trailheads we were willing to start at so I was pretty sure we would get a pass one way or another but we really wanted to get Half Dome permits again.  Finally it was our turn to get a pass.  I said what our ideal trail heads and route would be and we got it with Half Dome permits too!  The wilderness pass was free and Half dome passes were only $8/person.  We had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted and to make sure we had everything ready.  With the wilderness permit we could have stayed the day before and after our trip in the backpackers camp for $6/person would could have made our trip a lot cheaper.  I already had reservations for Curry Village so we headed there to check in for our canvas tent.  We got our keys put our stuff in the room as it was raining and got back in the car to head up to glacier point.  There are amazing views from here!

 

 

 

 

 

It was pretty cold and raining and we sat in the car a bit to study our map and figure out where we were planning on going the next day! Back to Curry Village to have dinner from the pizza place which was pretty good! We made sure all of our stuff was ready and got ready for bed.  Slept in a bit the next morning – put our food back in our pack from the assigned bear locker and our extra scented items we were not taking in a public bear locker.  Had a quick breakfast, checked out, and started our trip to Little Yosemite valley about 8:30am. 

It was about a 6 mile trip to little Yosemite Valley from Curry Village via the Mist trail.  We took our time, took a lot of pictures and breaks – and I am slow! We made it to the village a little after noon.  We found our spot and set up our tent, filtered water, and had lunch. 

We were done with everything by 2 and I decided we should go up to half dome that evening.  It was not my brightest ideas.  We were tired and it had already been a long day.  We started just before 3 and headed up.  At the JMT /  Half dome trail junction we saw a coyote which was pretty cool.  He didn’t seem to care about us at all.  Saw a few deer along the way as well.  Once we were on sub dome there was a father/daughter duo coming down.  They said that no one was up there and we had the mountain to our self.  That was pretty cool. 

We took a long time to get to the top up the cables taking a lot of breaks.  Once to the top the views were amazing and we took the diving board pictures.  It would have been nice to have someone to take a picture of both of us – but was really cool to be the only ones up there.  We had a snack and face timed with my family from up there!  I had full service and 4G.  We wanted to make it back before dark so started down.  I preferred going down facing the mountain.  It was not as scary to me.  We made it back to camp about 7pm adding a little over 7 miles to our day.  We filtered water again, had dinner, sponged off, and went to bed.  We didn’t sleep very well but it was good to be laying down. 

The next day I originally planned to do clouds rest but the day before kicked my ass.  We decided to take a trail following the Merced River.  About 4 miles of our hike was the area that was burned in the Meadow fire last year so there was very little shade.  We sat by the falls for a bit, stuck our feet in which was so cold and then continued up the river.  We found a cool Lunch spot by Bunnell Point and enjoyed the afternoon before heading back to camp.  

For 9 miles we saw 6 people and 2 snakes – one rattlesnake.  It was a relaxing day!  This evening the park ranger came to check our permits and informed us about a Momma bear with her 2 cubs have been in the area.  I really wanted to see a bear so was a little excited.  We headed to bed without a hearing or seeing any bears. 

The next day there was rain in the forecast and our trip had been perfect for weather so we got up and started packing up to be able to make it back to Curry village before it started.  We started about 9am and took the John Muir trail down.  There were very few people until we got to Navada Falls and then a LOT more people by Vernal Falls.  I already missed the wilderness.  Back at Curry village by about 11am we got our items from the Bear locker and thankfully everything was still there and tried to check into our room.  It wasn’t ready yet but we were still able to shower and get lunch before the rain.  

It was a great trip and good learning experience.  As far as gear, we wish we would have brought flipflops or some type of sandals with us.  I am not in love with my pack – the Kelty PK50 – because it is a pain to get something or put something back in it quickly like gloves, jacket, or anything you do not really want in the side pockets.  I do like that I can take off the front part and use it as a day pack for our little hikes even if it is too big for that.  I will likely try to find something lighter.  My Sleeping bag, Feathered Friends Egret UL 20 – was AMAZING!  Super comfortable and SO warm – maybe a little too warm for this trip but I loved it. 

For trip planning - I worried way too much about a permit.  It was much easier than what I thought it was going to be.  I think starting our backpacking on Sunday helped along with no holidays.  If I did it again I would start in one spot – Sunrise, Tenaya Lake, or Cathedral Lakes and finish at Happy Isels to be able to see more.  I am thinking Yosemite will be a yearly trip!  I am excited to plan my next backpacking trip!

Date Jar

I saw this on Pinterest and decided I had to do it!  It is from the Life in the Green house Blog.  If you did not have the paint it would still be less than $5 to make!  The sticks can be found in the children’s craft section at walmart, along with paint and if you do not have a jar could grab one from the dollar store!

 

 My “Jar” is a recycled container that had gummy bears in it!  I love gummy bears! 

I have about 30 dates and they are broken up into 3 different types of dates. 

Red: planning is required and/or $$$ 

• Bed and Breakfast
• Dinner at a fancy restaurant
• Hotel stay for the night
• Padre Game
• Go camping
• Coupes Massage
• Go to a wine tasting
• Go to K1 Speed (does not require much planning but can get pricy!) 

Pink: Little to no planning is needed and $$ to free!

• Volunteer at the local shelter (homeless or animal)
• Dessert only date
• Bowling
• Try a new restaurant
• Miniature golf
• Dinner and a movie (His choice)
• Dinner and a movie (Her choice)
• Go get yogurt
• Bowling
• Go Play pool or shuffleboard
• Go to Cabrillo National Monument
• Take couple pictures
• Go to the driving range
• Shooting range

Blue: Can do at the house and free or $

• Plan our 5 year anniversary vacation
• Build a bucket list – as a couple & individuals
• Make a fire out back and enjoy
• Watch the sunset at the beach
• Make a time capsule
• Takeout and board games
• Pizza and Puzzle
• Popcorn and Movie
• Homemade pizzas and a movie
• Cook a new meal together

For more date ideas go to 52 date nights or Nifty Date Ideas

I used scrapbook paper and a few stickers I had to decorate my container.  On the back is a little key!

Red = $$$ + Planning

Pink = $$ + out

Blue = stay at home