My wife and I will be doing the JMT Southbound starting on 28 July. We will be starting at Glacier point instead of Happy Isles due to permitting issues but other than that it is a standard JMT Hike.

If you see a couple wearing twin Mariposa's as you fly by on the trail slow down and say Hi!

Here's a link to our planned itinerary. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,
Matt

This morning I got confirmation for an August 23 entry at Tuolumne Meadows.

It's an amazing trip and I love that you are spending extra days on the trail. Here's a few suggestions on your itinerary but the main one is to stay flexible. Absolutely no reason you can't decide to change things up on any given day.

If you want to leave from Happy Isles, you can arrive the day before and likely switch your permit and stay overnight in the backpackers' camp. That's what I did.

The trail between Thousand Islands and Purple lake is pretty easy. I skipped Red's Meadow (except for the BLT from the diner) and camped at Deer Creek. Alternatively, if I had wanted a shower and a stay in civilization I would have skipped Deer Creek and camped at Purple Lake.

You're spending a number of days between MTR and Evolution Lake, then making a big jump to Deer Meadow, and then skipping Palisade Lake. The hike to Evolution is fairly mild, but it's a tough single day to Deer Meadow, which is not a particularly interesting area having burned several years ago. I was so amazed by Palisade Lake on the other hand that I stayed 2 nights. There's some nice camp sites at Big and Little Pete. Then's it's a good day's hike to Palisades.

After that your itinerary looks much like what I did. Have a great trip.

here's what we are up to - on our way north we could meet. Look for a two 11 year olds with a tired adult in tow.




29-Jun Day 7 13.7 Happy Isles - Sunrise Camp
30-Jun Day 8 10.2 Sunrise Camp - Tuolumne
1-Jul Day 9 12.5 Mono pass trailhead - Alger Lake
2-Jul Day 10 13.0 Alger Lake - Reds Meadows
3-Jul Day 11 0.0 Rest Day Reds / spare weather day
4-Jul Day 12 17.0 Fish Valley up to Grassy Lake area
5-Jul Day 13 12.0 Grassy Lake - Goddale Pass, Graveyard Meadow
6-Jul Day 14 14.0 Vermillion resupply, Bear Ridge, Marie Lakes
7-Jul Day 15 3.0 Hang at lake half a day, Salley Keyes Lakes
8-Jul Day 16 12.0 MTR supply, Goodard Canyon
9-Jul Day 17 15.1 Evo Valley to Wanda or Helen Lake
10-Jul Day 18 15.0 Helen Lake - Gold Staircase area
11-Jul Day 19 15.5 Golden Staircase - Lake Marjorie
12-Jul Day 20 14.7 Lake Marjorie - Rae Lakes
13-Jul Day 21 19.0 Rae Lakes - Bighorn Plateau
14-Jul Day 22 0.0 extra day / weather day
15-Jul Day 23 17.0 Bighorn Plateau - Mt Whitney
16-Jul Day 24 11.3 Mt. Whitney - Portal
17-Jul Day 25 11.3 Portal - Mt Whitney Summit
18-Jul Day 26 15.0 Whitney Summit - Junction Pass north Side
19-Jul Day 27 17.5 Junction Pass - Woods Creek
20-Jul Day 28 0.0 extra day / weather day
21-Jul Day 29 15.0 Woods Creek, Pinchot - Upper Basin
22-Jul Day 30 13.0 Mather Pass, Dusy Basin via Cirque Potluck Knapsack
23-Jul Day 31 13.0 Wanda or Helen Lake
24-Jul Day 32 19.0 Helen Lake - Blaney Meadows area
25-Jul Day 33 12.0 Blaney Meadows - Selden Pass, Marie Lakes
26-Jul Day 34 19.0 Marie Lakes, Bear Ridge, Silver Lake
27-Jul Day 35 16.9 Silver Pass - Duck Creek
28-Jul Day 36 6.0 Duck Creek - Reds Meadows
29-Jul Day 37 14.0 Reds - JMT to 1000 Island Lake area
30-Jul Day 38 20.0 1000 Island - Tuolumne Meadows
31-Jul Day 39 0.0 extra day / weather day
1-Aug Day 40 15.0 Tuolumne - Clouds Rest
2-Aug Day 41 11.0 Clouds Rest - Yos. Valley



Edited by Fishmonger on 03/13/2009 20:02:26 MDT.

Hi Matt,

There are four of us BPLers that will probably bump into you here and there as we are set for 7/29-8/12

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=18511

Peter,

I think you mentioned they kids have done this trip before. Wow, several 15 + mile days for a couple of 11 year olds. I am impressed!