July 9, 2019
Distance: 9 miles
Start: Tuolomne Meadows
Camp: Lyell Fork, Mile 33
We woke up at the Yosemite Valley Backpackers Campground this morning late and in no rush. Starting from Lyell Canyon trailhead, we knew we only had to make 8 or 9 miles that day to get close to the approach of Donohue, and it was more or less completely flat, so we had time.
We packed up, and with permits in hand headed towards Tuolomne Meadows. The scenery along that road is amazing and the 2 hour drive flew by. Before we knew it we were pulling into the wilderness center parking lot, ready to lock up the truck for the next couple weeks.
We had prepped our bags in the valley, but here we made some last minute adjustments. 1 pocket knife for both of us instead of one each, 2 pairs of socks instead of 3, things like that. Our packs felt pretty heavy so we tried to lighten the load where we could. Camp comfort vs. pack comfort is always a bit of a battle, but overall I think we struck a good balance. It also helped that we were sharing a bunch of the heavy stuff. I've spent a lot of time solo backpacking so that almost feels like cheating, but hey, you play the hand you're dealt.
After double and triple checks, we stowed all the food and smelly stuff we had in the truck in the bear lockers (later to be stolen; maybe the bears are learning) and set off.
It was pretty surreal to actually be setting foot on the John Muir Trail. I had seen the film Mile... Mile & A Half several years before and immediately made it a goal to hike the JMT. I applied for permits for years by myself and was continuously denied, but it just happened that Alyssa and I got a 2-person permit only a couple days into our rolling lottery application. We figured July 9th would be a perfect start date (of course having no idea that storms in April would ultimately make 2019 a record breaker for Sierra Nevada snowpack). We planned and trained and shook-down and now we were finally taking our first steps on the famous JMT.
Right off the bat we were in some of the most beautiful country I'd ever seen. The massive granite slabs with swirling blue-green water were something I'd never seen before, and the high alpine meadow running through the center of the canyon was picturesque.
It was pretty quickly apparent though that it was only fairly recently that the snow had melted here. The grass was clearly still greening up and in the distance we could see that the current snowline wasn't all that much higher than we were in the canyon. We had no idea what we were in for.
The terrain in Lyell Canyon is nice and flat and sits at around 9000 feet. That made it a great acclimation opportunity and kind of allowed us to ease in to it. We made quick time while we walked but took our time to enjoy the scenery and wildlife. There were quite a few completely unafraid deer (unusual for us, since we come from a pretty hunter heavy area).
We also had our first interaction with a marmot. These little (and sometimes unsettlingly not-so little) rodents grew to become one of our favorite forms of trail entertainment. Watching them scuttling around is now on my short list of favorite ways to spend a trail break. We also found it hilarious that they like to chirp/scream loudly at passers-by at oddly specific intervals. What isn't as hilarious is that they must get human food often, because one gutsy marmot attempted to snatch some food we set down to cook just a couple feet away. He eventually moved away a little but stuck around near camp until we went to bed that night.
We stopped for camp around JMT mile 33. It was a beautiful little campsite, but a critter which became another theme of the trip showed up there too: the mosquitoes. We definitely should have figured they'd show up since we were in a meadow, but we hadn't seen any others the whole day so it took us a little by surprise. We threw on bug-spray, long sleeves, and head nets and that did the trick (at that campsite).
Again we took some time to relax and appreciate the fact that we were really there, and that we would make the JMT home for the next 16 days. We stretched, cooked up some mountain house, and journaled. Then we turned in for the night, hoping the snow wouldn't prove to be too bad in the morning.
