JMT 2020 Day 1

Goal for the day: Get beyond Half Dome Trail Junction

Since when I do long treks I usually end up going to sleep shortly after sunset and waking up 30-60 minutes before sunrise, I made a point of going to sleep early for the past few days to help adjust to the new sleep cycle. So, on day 1 I woke up around 5am (thanks to my iPhone alarm).

Since the restaurants in El Portal and Yosemite don’t open till 7am at the earliest, I was going to get a simple microwave breakfast bowl or just have milk and cereal. But when I realized the hotel room I was going to stay in had a little kitchenette, I realized I could make something better for my ‘last real meal’.

So I brought the makings for French Toast and scrambled eggs (using the left over batter) with me and had a nice hearty breakfast. Since I’d be eating mostly re-hydrated food for the next 21+ days, it was nice to get one final full breakfast. Maybe it was my full stomach, but I was a little slow to get ready and drive into Yosemite after breakfast. I did have a last Diet Coke on the drive in to get a little caffeine into my body before arriving at the Happy Isles Trailhead parking lot.

Parking my Jeep, I stowed my scented items in a bear box, checked my gear to make sure nothing fell out and was all secured on my backpack. Taking a ‘before’ picture of my Jeep to compare to what my Jeep would look like in 21+ days of being parked there, I strapped on my 42 pound backpack and headed to the Happy Isles Trailhead. Instead of 6am as I hoped, my lax attitude that morning got me started at 6:30am. Shouldn’t be a big deal, but I did want to beat the heat by getting up off the Valley floor as soon as possible.

I made a point to take a picture of myself at the start of the John Muir Trail where it it listed Mt Whitney as being 211 miles away. What was I thinking when I planned this trip?

I tried to put aside my worry that I was never going to be able to do this long trek, having only done 8 days and around 60 miles in one trek before. After all, ten years earlier I had only done short day hikes and never backpacked before. I had worked up to this point and would at least try. Yoda would be pissed if it didn’t at least try.

I’d climbed this trail many times before during day hikes and backpacking trips, so it wasn’t new to me. I walked across the Vernal Falls Bridge, taking in a view of the falls. As I made my way up the switchbacks that led to Clark Point, I tried to forget that this was the first set of switchbacks of MANY that I’d have to negotiate during the next 211+ miles.

I took a short break at Clark Point, took some pictures, and then headed upward towards the top of Nevada Falls. There I took another short break and enjoyed the rushing water spilling over the narrow edge the water dropped over. Took a lot of movies of the falls for some reason (over eager to document everything at that point in the trek, maybe). From there is was a mostly horizontal hike over to Little Yosemite Valley. Then it was a somewhat strenuous climb to the Half Dome Trail junction.

As I took a short break (notice a pattern with these breaks?) I ate one of my pepperoni sticks that I use for trail snacks, but spat it out quickly. Looking at it, it looked yellow. Checking my other sticks, they looked okay, Must have got a bad one or the wrapper broke and caused it to go bad. I’d have to keep an eye out for other bad ones during the rest of the trek. This was the first ‘problem’ of the trek. Not a big one, but I knew there were going to be problems that I’d have to overcome. Comes with the territory.

At this point, the permit I had (Happy Isles Pass Through) allowed me to camp around the Half Dome Trail junction if I wanted to. There were many good spots around this area due to all the people who come to climb up Half Dome. Having camped here in early July when I climbed Clouds Rest and Half Dome (partly to avoid being tempted to climb them during THIS JMT trek) I decided to continue further up the JMT to avoid the crowds.

When backpacking unless I have a particular destination in mind I usually start looking for campsites between 3pm and 5pm, but being the first day I didn’t want to push myself too much. So I ended up about a mile past the Half Dome Trail junction a little after 2pm. Using some JMT campsite info found online, I found a nice area with a view of Half Dome and Mt Starr King.

I setup my tent, rolled out my sleeping bag (I usually do this first thing after putting the tent up to allow it to ‘fluff’ up after being compressed into my backpack all day), and relaxed before having dinner.

Around 5pm, there was a loud cracking sound that I heard from around Moraine Dome (although in the mountains, echos could mean it may have came from anywhere). I didn’t see any debris cloud, so I wasn’t sure where and what it was.

Then I was treated to my first sunset light show. Although I was surrounded by trees, I had a decent view of Half Dome, Mt Starr King, and the surrounding cliffs as the sun set behind Half Dome and cast it’s last light around me. I even had a chance to see the moon rise to the east as I went to sleep.