Happy Isles or Bust, The John Muir Trail in 2023
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- Опубликовано: 16 ноя 2023
- The 2023 snow season deposited an extraordinary amount of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This created some extra problems for those of us who were attempting to hike the John Muir Trail in 2023. How would we handle the snow and ice that lasted well into Summer? Would the rivers and creeks be too swollen to cross? And, the big question of the year was how to deal with the badly damaged bridge over the South Fork of the San Joaquin River.
This movie documents what we found on our Northbound John Muir Trail hike, starting on August 30, 2023. We hiked from Cottonwood Pass to Happy Isles, with a Mt. Whitney summit and three food resupplies along the way. It was quite an adventure.
Great video💜 adventure and scenery
Thank you very much!
Thanks! Am doing the JMT 2024. Am 60, so 2023 snowmageddon was scrapped. Very well done.
You're going to love it out there! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Well done! Very helpful as I’ll be NoBo in 2024.
I envy you! It’s beautiful out there. Have a great time!
nobo only way to go. you won't regret your choice.
Well done. Lovely video showing the spectacular scenery, with amazing dkies qnd changes of light.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video - it really captures what the trail is like. Thanks for sharing. Quite a difference a couple years make... my wife and I hiked SOBO in Aug 2020 and never touched snow and only got our feet wet once (Evolution Creek). One tip: it's good practice to undo your waist belt when doing water crossings in case you fall.
Wow! Only got your feet wet once?! I think our feet got wet almost every day. Congratulations on your hike! I would have preferred SOBO too, but those Happy Isles permits are so tough to get. You must have been one of the lucky ones! And yes, we tried a couple water crossings early on with our packs unbuckled, but we felt like it was more dangerous that way, because balancing and jumping from rock to rock became more difficult with the pack shifting so much. So we decided to keep them buckled for most crossings.
Such a beautiful video! I'm glad i got to travel the trail between Mammoth and YV when I was young.
That stretch from Mammoth to YV is spectacular! Bet you have lots of great memories from that hike. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
What I remember most was the very first time I reached the outlet of T.I. Lake....I was dumbfounded at the scene laid out before me. I was mesmerized.@@gregbarry2741
This video is amazing. I hope you guys have more adventures together.
Thank you! It was a fun adventure.
What a beautiful video. It brought back memories from our hike in sept. '22. Boy what a difference a year makes in the water levels! Glad you made all the crossings successfully. Thanks for sharing your journey!
So glad you enjoyed it! And congratulations on your JMT hike! I'm sure it was beautiful last year as well. What were the toughest water crossings on your trip?
Looks like a great trip, thanks for sharing.
It definitely was!
Awesome trip! And very well put together. Even it's a long video it never felt boring. The vistas are just out of this world.
Looking forward to my short trip from Mammoth to Tuolumne meadows this August.
Happy hiking
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. That section from Mammoth to Tuolumne is one of my favorites...Garnet Lake, Thousand Island Lake, Donahue Pass, Mt. Lyell. You'll have a blast!
It's nice to get the whole JMT experience into one video. Looks like you guys kept a good pace throughout your trek. Some of the weather looked a little ominous, but seems to have not been too bad. I spent a week at Cottonwood Lakes in early September and had rain and hail for several days and I kept thinking of the PCTers that had been to the northern terminus and were now coming down to complete the Sierra section, only to see the cold season starting all over again. Thanks for a great video.
It was definitely extra tough for those PCTers this year. Like you said, most of them seemed to be coming through the Sierras SOBO right about when we did, when the conditions weren't too bad. One of the best parts of our hikes was getting to talk with many of them and get their stories. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Nice enjoyed your video. 👍👍.
Thank you very much! Glad you liked it!
@@gregbarry2741 oh yes I have watched many JMT videos and really enjoyed yours, fond memories. I section hiked the JMT SOBO in 1974, thru hiked again NOBO in 2018 & 2022.
@@Mountian-Zen Wow. That's impressive. I can understand why you did it again after all those years. I've only done the whole thing once, but would love to do it again. Did you notice any big changes in the trail between 1974 and 2022?
@@gregbarry2741 For sure fewer fellow hikers on trail. Was a walk up self permit process. I have a picture taken on the same log crossing 74, 18 & 22 at the outlet of Garnet lake👍 Thanks again for sharing your video.
The whole permit process is an unfortunate casualty of the growing numbers of people sharing the trails. I remember the good old days when you could climb Half Dome without one. Must be fun to look back on those pictures from each of your hikes. Congratulations for making it though the JMT 3 times! Happy trails
My compliments to the cinematographer. The editor did a good job too! I liked how you divided the video into sections and showed the map.
What an abundance of beautiful and rugged and sometimes challenging mountainous terrain. Congratulations on pushing through despite the foot blisters and probably a nagging desire for a bit more food and a warm comfy bed. I assume you were hungry since you lost 10 lbs?
We definitely got fed more (and better) on our Grand Canyon rafting trip.
I bet your batteries weighed a lot!
One more question - did you use a stunt double for the dangerous river crossings?
LOL. No, we didn't need a stunt double, because it was all CGI. Pretty realistic huh? And that cinematographer and editor were a couple primadonnas. I had to get rid of them.
Seriously though, thanks for the nice comments. I was hungry at times, but it actually didn't bother me much, since I fast periodically anyway. Hard to beat that food on the Grand Canyon trip! We didn't have anything close to a nice juicy steak, but the burger and beer at Red's Meadow wasn't bad. Close to 2 lbs of batteries plus a solar panel, and I still had to ration my gopro and phone usage at times. GoPro ran out of juice right before the big river crossing, which was pretty annoying.
Let me know when you're ready to try the JMT! I'll do it again if you need someone to go with.
@@gregbarry2741 - thanks for lugging those 2 lbs of batteries around for 25 days so we could see all that beautiful scenery along the JMT. I would love to do it - if I still have enough energy and endurance when I retire (2025) it would be a great and challenging “little” walk in the mountains!
Awesome video. Hope to see more videos with the two of you.
Glad you liked it! Thank you so much for the kind words.
Nice vid. I’m heading out from Happy isles to Mammoth in early Sept. I’m trying to do the JMT in three segments’.
So great that you got a Happy Isles permit! I’ve struck out every time. That’s why I ended up going south to north. That section from Happy Isles to Mammoth is spectacular: Cathedral Peak, Lyell Canyon, Donahue Pass, lots of beautiful lakes. You’re going to love it. Have fun out there.
@@gregbarry2741 Yeah. I feel lucky to get that permit. I’ve struck out for a few years trying to get that permit until I was successful a few weeks ago. Thanks for putting that video together and sharing. 👍
No problem. I’m glad you liked it. Hope it helps you on your adventure.
Awesome trip Greg ! Good job on the video. I've done the part of the JMT coming in from Lake Sabrina down to Whitney back in the middle 80's. I don't remember nearly so much water ! How did you set up the re-supply locations? Did you still have food when you hit the re-supply? Thanks for making this video. It really brought back the memories 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it! Sabrina to Whitney is beautiful. Yeah, the water levels were extra high this year from all the snowmelt. We had to mail our resupplies beforehand to Red's Meadow and Muir Trail Ranch. They have a service where they'll hold it for you until you get there. For Onion Valley, we had a friend meet us at the campground to bring our resupply. We had some food left, but not much. We tried not to carry too much extra.
@@gregbarry2741 I follow your adventures on Facebook too, with Ron Roady and Scott. That was a hard slug through the storms and wind, nothing like my short trip. My hat's off to you. Good job 🙂
Did you specifically bring water shoes and change at each water crossing?
Yes. Most of the time. When we knew there would be lots of water crossings, we just kept our water shoes on, sometimes for most of the day.
It looks like you were pretty far under on calories. I tried to pack a 7 day food supply at 3500 calories/day ration and struggled to fit it all in the bv500 even after field stripping the packaging.
Yeah, I was definitely under on calories. I usually don’t finish all my food on backpacking trips, so I tried to cut it closer to help save on weight. Probably a mistake in retrospect. 7 days at 3500 sounds tough. I ran into people on the trail who were trying to go 10 days with the bv500. Not sure how they did it.