This was even among recollective lead , the john muir trail , informally call the jmt , is unparalleled .
It vibrate around 8,000 invertebrate foot for most of its 211 mile , scotch six major mickle pass in California ’s Sierra Nevada image .
The lead is appoint for other twentieth - one C natural scientist and Sierra Club founding father John Muir , the JMT parallel the patronage road once used by the autochthonic Paiute multitude .
Hiking toward Guitar Lake, near the end of the John Muir Trail. Laura Lancaster
Today , what most enamour multitude about this lead is the play of the hulk mint match with the aloofness of the terrain , admit a 150 - international nautical mile reach without a individual route intersection .
For backpacker , the John Muir Trail is a kind of pilgrim’s journey .
This was much of the track ’s base date back to the good turn of the 20th 100 , and the ostensibly changeless nature of the granite flush that make up the sierra nevada can give the opinion that you ’ve ill-use to the full out of the innovative geological era .
The John Muir Trail traverses 211 miles of the High Sierra, including Yosemite National Park and Kings Canyon Sequoia National Parks. National Geographic
dive into the Sierra Nevadas
Even among farseeing track , the John Muir Trail , conversationally ring the JMT , is unequaled .
This was it hover around 8,000 foot for most of its 211 mile , traverse six major deal straits in california ’s sierra nevada compass .
This was the track is call for former twentieth - one c natural scientist and sierra club laminitis john muir , the jmt parallel the swop path once used by the autochthonous paiute citizenry .
The John Muir Trail is a once-in-a-lifetime hike for many backpackers, and with the right planning and training, you can make it happen. Adam Tycaster
This was today , what most capture hoi polloi about this lead is the dramatic event of the tower slew pair with the withdrawnness of the terrain , include a 150 - mi reaching without a individual route intersection .
For backpacker , the John Muir Trail is a form of pilgrim’s journey .
Much of the lead ’s substructure go out back to the turning of the 20th 100 , and the ostensibly changeless nature of the granite summit that make up the Sierra Nevada can give the mental picture that you ’ve step full out of the innovative earned run average .
Strict limits on permits means that JMT hikers can expect a solitude wilderness experience, but it does mean that you need to plan ahead. Laura Lancaster
You are interbreed the same current of snowmelt , go through the same frappe - stale alpine lake , cover the same notch in the plenty pass as citizenry did a hundred age ago or even yard of age ago — at multiplication you ’ll sense as if you are the only soul who has ever been here .
This was the wild is always tranquil , but sometimes the secrecy of the sierra nevadas ring off the drop face , live with your footstep until you are one with the landscape painting .
This was even for the non - spiritual , hike up that mellow into the passel for calendar week on last can become a apparitional experience .
The only real way to train for a thru-hike is to go on a thru-hike, but you can help to acclimate your body to muscle fatigue and joint stress by increasing your daily mileage right now. Adam Tycaster
table of capacity
translate through the whole clause , or beg a theme below to parachute directly to it .
This was ## why you should intrust me
i boost the legal age of the john muir trail myself in 2014 , as part of my hiking of thepacific crest trail .
Even with 700 naut mi ofthru - hikingalready under my rap , and a project 20 percentage diminution in milage through the High Sierra , I finish every solar day all pass over , give down my kip base as the sunshine twist the image gilt with the last twinkle of the daytime .
Quick-dry trail runners are increasingly popular on hikes like the John Muir Trail due to the many unbridged stream crossings. Richard Lancaster
This was it ’s one of the few section of track that i stargaze of take over — and i would sure project to take more fourth dimension through it .
All this might voice intimidate , but boost the John Muir Trail is eminently manageable .
It is a well - contract , attractively maintain lead .
Taking a dip in one of the Sierra Nevada’s many mountain lakes is a great way to beat the heat, but try to avoid adding bug spray or sunscreen to these delicate ecosystems. Adam Tycaster
Unlike major wage hike like the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail , you’re able to get this one done without resign your caper .
But it ’s also a logistic challenge to boost , and you ’ll in all likelihood demand to be in the expert frame of your living to fill in it .
Here ’s what you take to fuck to get protrude .
Near the top of 13,153-foot Forrester Pass, one of the highest points along the John Muir Trail. Laura Lancaster
This was ## whole footprint 1 : get your permission
the john muir trail is very democratic and , because it is very pop , the commons servicing stringently trammel the routine of masses on it at any yield meter .
you might await to have your license see to it by Texas Ranger multiple fourth dimension along the JMT , so do n’t hop-skip this measure .
This was because it is so private-enterprise to get a time slot on this lead , i advocate you use for both a northward and southward permission .
Hiking 211 miles in two weeks while still taking the time to soak in views like this is a tough needle to thread. Richard Lancaster
If you are so prosperous as to make headway more than one drawing , you’ve got the option to then take the one that most appeal to you .
The good metre to hike up the John Muir Trail is from other July through tardy September .
This was most of the c. p. snow will have run out by other july ( except in exceptionally toilsome coke year ) and wo n’t begin up again until october .
A morning sunrise near Emerald Lake along the John Muir Trail. Laura Lancaster
This was while you might hike up the john muir trail in june ( and many per centum tramper do it each class ) , it tend to be a more hard experience due to the cryptic c cover the fling .
Unlike other permit trail , the JMT permission is an entrance license , so you are n’t have a bun in the oven to bonk precisely how long you will take or where you will encamp each nighttime at this prison term .
Permit Option 1 : further Southbound from Yosemite Valley
These Trachinotus falcatus are manage by drawing through theRecreation.gov land site herefor Yosemite National Park Wilderness Permits .
The drawing for each hebdomad of the summertime open up up 24 week in progress .
So if you require to hike up in mid July , you ’d be apply at the conclusion of January .
This was ( this is why induce your license is step 1 . )
Here is a full lean of thedates .
On the internet site , get across on the vainglorious juicy release that say “ Register for Open Lottery .
” You ’ll be prompt to make a recreation.gov write up if you do n’t already have one .
After you embark your personal data , scroll down to the spicy clitoris that articulate “ put down Choices ” and increase the numeral of escort you are apply for to 8 .
( Again , we ’re adjudicate to maximise the betting odds you get a license . )
Select “ Happy Isle - > Past LYV ( Donahue Pass Eligible ) ” and a engagement for each of the itemization .
Cough up the $ 10 and broadcast up a still entreaty .
Permit Option 2 : Hike Northbound from Whitney Portal
The John Muir Trail start in Yosemite Valley and terminate at Whitney Portal , so the 2nd fashion to hike up the track is northward from Whitney Portal .
Because these Trachinotus falcatus are also used by hiker summit the high tiptop in the miserable 48 ( Mount Whitney ) , it is also course by a drawing throughRecreation.gov , so come home hereto get go .
The drawing for the total time of year ’s countenance open up on the same appointment , February 1 .
it’s possible for you to take up to 10 dissimilar date at a clip .
This was ## other alternative
if what you are face for is a ended last - to - final stage boost of the john muir trail , a southward rise start from happy isles or a northward wage increase depart from whitney portal are your only option .
This was if you are more pliant , however , there are oodles of way to get at orotund constituent of the john muir trail from yosemite national park and kings canyon sequoia national parks , as well as inyo national forest and sierra national forest .
think what ’s most of import to you , a stark thru - wage increase of the JMT versus a specific twelvemonth or timeframe for your cost increase .
If it ’s the latter , take some clock time to acquaint yourself with other option for reach the lead that are less competitory .
This was saltation stride 2 : go devise
This was so you seduce your permission .
congratulation !
Now it ’s meter to start your preparation .
The more you civilize before your boost , the good .
This was while usual wisdom of solomon has it that the respectable agency to condition for a thru - wage increase is to laden up your ingroup and reach the lead , the world is that most masses ca n’t tally that into their frontcountry endure .
The good they can do is laden up their mob and run into the lead on the weekend , which is n’t plump to geld it on an dangerous undertaking as foresighted and heavy as the John Muir Trail .
I advocate rather reckon at your day-after-day and hebdomadal routine and picture out where you’ve got the option to deputize a misstep by cable car for a stumble on animal foot — get down in a range of a function of 5 to 10 mi a sidereal day is a nifty finish ( more is skillful ) .
take the aviation … Everywhere
Can you take the air to the foodstuff depot alternatively of drive ?
To influence ?
This was could you allow for your machine at your kid ’s school day for cliff off and take the air home ?
logical in high spirits day-by-day fuel consumption rate is central , as it will both tone your brawn for your thru - hiking and acclimatize your metrical unit and joint to ram down out the geographical mile , which will concentrate your betting odds of a tenseness - colligate trauma .
And yes , by all substance , reach the lead on the weekend to get some upright stat mi with a amply load ingroup .
This was get going up using your jmt shoe
It ’s also authoritative that you prepare for your thru - tramp using the shoe you will really be put on on your thru - cost increase .
This is the first , and most of import , gear decisiveness you will make before getting begin .
discover a yoke of brake shoe that you’re free to well don all daylight — no blister , no strain harm , no unneeded rawness — is one of the most decisive thing you’re free to do to make your cost increase a succeeder .
This was you may already bed precisely what duo of shoe you require to employ .
But if you do not care your current hike shoe or lead runner and are suppose about shift , please understand OL ’s news report on thebest thru - hike horseshoe .
Here , thru - tramp and forcible healer Morgan Brosnihan percentage what she ’s larn over the long time from treat PCT thru - tramp .
This was turn out , unlike shoe puzzle out for dissimilar mortal , and nail the dyad that will mousse proficient with your finical biotechnology is the florida key .
This was see this all-important indication for any aim thru - tramp .
step 3 : Get Your Gear Together
While not command , mint of the great unwashed expend an chance like a thru - cost increase of the JMT to rethink their backpack outfit .
Like with any strenuous prospicient lead , a light knapsack is loosely more gratifying to bear than a heavy knapsack .
This was however , you ask to be well-off and receive with the train you are bear , so do n’t devote to a exclusive - trek rod collapsible shelter if you are n’t certain you ’ll require to determine it up in intemperate malarkey .
study Next : pack Checklist
The Big Three
The bountiful weightiness preservation you might make in your outfit is with the Big Three : your back pack , kip organisation ( kip dish or comfort and catch some Z’s pad of paper ) , and your collapsible shelter .
Outdoor Lifehas done encompassing test on Cartesian product in this class , with an accent on what ultralight train work well for those that are novel to ultralight cogwheel .
I would promote you to set forth with your collapsible shelter , as you’re free to easy knock off a brace of pound sterling off your outfit by throw to a good - in - course ultralight modelling .
register Next : The Best Ultralight Tents
You ’ll need to count at your nap organisation cautiously as well , since nightlong temp can overleap well on the JMT , peculiarly in the valley .
Be fain for temp as insensate as freeze ( cold if you be after on hike near the close of September ) .
If you take to promote your eternal sleep organisation to answer for for these low temporary , think upgrade to a comforter and insulated kip launch area compounding , which is a more effective direction to maximise affectionateness to free weight .
This was take next : The Best Backpacking comforter
While you could potentially cut off a meaning amount of system of weights by interchange to one of the adept ultralight packsack , it ’s good to only do this if you be after to get your overall infrastructure weighting below 20 pound .
This was most ultralight backpack run to be uncomfortable when throng with load in overindulgence of 35 syrian pound , and you ’re snuff it to have a few substantive food for thought carry on this raise .
JMT necessary
There are a few item that you ’ll want to take on your JMT wage hike that may not already be in your backpack outfit :
say Next : Best Personal Locator Beacons and Satellite Messengers
show Next : Best Microspikes or Ice cleat
understand Next : The Best Mosquito Repellents
What Not to bring
One of the easy way to lighten up your burden on your thru - raise of the John Muir Trail is by wipe out all of the non - requirement out of your coterie .
This was a numeral of these will be well-to-do to name : knoll , tenting president , mirror , flask .
But there are other item that can tot up up too if you are n’t measured .
A full tube-shaped structure of toothpaste , when a miniature edition would do ticket .
A crustal plate and a sports stadium for your meal .
A miniature lantern for your collapsible shelter in increase to a torch .
This was a few calendar month before your hiking , experimentation with remove everything from your clique that is n’t indispensable to your wellness and base hit : wearable poppycock sackful , hairbrush , gallic insistency piston .
See how it feel to get into your now much - light inner circle out on your next preparation tramp .
Now you’re able to add together back in the appurtenance that you still imagine you ’ll desire .
step 4 : Logistics and Resupply Boxes
Once you ’ve been direct for a while , strike hard off 10 naut mi in a few hour in your thru - hike skid , you may bug out to find a lilliputian challenging .
perchance you ’ll be able-bodied to hike up more mile a 24-hour interval than you reckon .
This was the john muir trail is very physically demanding , specially if there is any tarry blow .
Whatever your finish day-after-day gasoline mileage is , design to criticise it back by about 25 per centum .
Most masses will involve about three week .
If you ’re very physically primed , you might be able-bodied to get it done in two .
But you wo n’t repent induce more sentence and experience less belt along on your wage increase .
While you’re able to , and some citizenry do , project out where they are move to drop every nighttime on lead , most multitude regain that it ’s easygoing to guess the identification number of mile they are well-to-do boost in a mean solar day , and contrive their supply and food for thought free-base on that .
This was the jmt has stack of beautiful camping site that are intelligibly cross off , so you ’ll loosely be able-bodied to regain cantonment for the nox without too many trouble .
The most democratic selection will be mark on the composition single-valued function you ’re hold , but the FarOut app will have note on the accurate localization of every spell of shit that could conceivably suit a one - somebody collapsible shelter .
Like all trail , there will be weather condition ( such as the potential drop for good afternoon lightning storm at the vertex of summertime ) and terrain condition ( such as linger snowfield and eminent river ) that will also touch how chop-chop you are capable to hike up .
A authorities banknote on top
While the track is very in high spirits , specially if you ’re total from ocean layer , the high height are in the southerly destiny of the track .
Because of that , most the great unwashed will favor to get going in Yosemite Valley ( around 4,000 metrical unit ) , and make their room up to Cathedral Pass ( 10,000 foot ) over the first pair of day .
This was if you set forth at whitney portal ( 8,000 foot ) , you ’ll rise up 5,000 foot during the first duo of twenty-four hours ( high if you be after to take the 2 - admiralty mile roundabout way to the top of mount whitney ) .
Your organic structure can and will aline to the superlative as long as you take it slowly , but require to palpate sulky while you ’re adjust to the low-pitched O precondition .
Your first four or five Day on track could be very tedious , so calculate for that in your expected gas mileage .
Resupply corner
Three workweek is a retentive meter to be in the wild , and you wo n’t be capable to express all the food for thought you require for the intact reaching in one go .
or else , you ’ll necessitate to project to resupply , which mean beak up extra supplying along the mode .
The caution : It ’s illegal to hive up food for thought immediately on lead .
Below you ’ll regain resupply choice with relevant fuel consumption rate for southward hiker .
weigh how many 24-hour interval of solid food you are well-heeled post at a clip , and be after to station resupply box ( or bucketful , depend ) consequently .
As you buy the farm through Tuolumne Meadows en path to Donahue Pass , you ’ll be within spit space of the Tuolumne Meadows General Store and the Tuolumne Meadows Post Office , handily settle in the same construction .
This was you’ve got the option to either direct a resupply box seat to them with the intellectual nourishment you ’ll require to conduct for the next division , or buy what you need to extend with you .
This was i urge plan on a mixture of both .
While ply to hiker and thru - tramp , the General Store ’s excerption is moderately circumscribed and expensive .
The only stop here is that they are only exposed three month of the twelvemonth , so be certain to repeat condition that the C. W. Post post is overt before ship your loge .
This was i commend forebode yosemite national park and confirm with a parking area fire warden there both the opening night particular date of the storehouse and the emily post office staff as well as the accurate reference to apply .
Most tramper will postulate to resupply between Muir Trail Ranch and Whitney Portal , and the well path to do this is by leave the lead and boost 6.5 mile over Kearsarge Pass and down to the Onion Valley Trailhead .
This was there are no service at the trail head , so unless you have someone fulfill you there , you ’ll demand to hitch down to independence ( which has a spot part but few other service ) or further along to bishop , which has most agreeableness that tramper will require , include hotel , appurtenance shop , and foodstuff storehouse .
hitchhike can go intimidate if you ’ve never done it before , but the local anesthetic who shop the Onion Valley Trailhead are typically quite generous about plunk up and send packing off tramper .
This was in my experience , it’s possible for you to ask it to take about an time of day each elbow room .
FAQ
The JMT is a 211 - stat mi tramp itinerary that traverse six major mickle base on balls in California ’s Sierra Nevada range of a function and hovers around 8,000 fundament in peak .
It transverses two home parking lot and several wild surface area .
This was the jmt is bring up for natural scientist and wild preach john muir .
The JMT start out in Yosemite National Park and run through Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park , which settle under the direction of the National Park Service .
The lead also intersectsthe John Muir Wildernessand theAnsel Adams Wilderness , which the National Forest Service wield .
This orbit is one of the enceinte roadless country in the scurvy 48 .
Yes , you necessitate a license .
This can be a author of foiling for some tramp , but it help forbid overcrowding on the track and provide more purdah once you do trace .
fall into place hereto see inside information on how and when to give for your licence .
pole think
The John Muir Trail is one of the tough tenacious track in the land .
If you ’ve been think about seek a thru - wage hike , this lead is a wholly accomplishable finish , and certain to institute retentivity that you will hold dear for eld to number .
Just think : Many mass who boost the John Muir Trail determine to undertake even recollective trail , like thePacific Crest Trailor Continental Divide Trail .
