Getting there…

All the planning was done, the resupply packages sent out, and the day before I would start hiking was near. Nothing left to do except worry that I wouldn’t be able to start my JMT trek, I’d get injured, my willpower would give out, I’d give up at some point, I’d abort the trek at some point, I’d die a horrible death, or any number of things that could go wrong.

And of course, this year I have to worry about catching COVID-19. I even took the precaution to get tested for COVID-19 a few days before I left. Unfortunately, they told me it would take 2 weeks for the results to get to me. Which considering the incubation period of COVID-19 is about a week, followed by 2 weeks of symptoms and recovery (typical) meant the test was somewhat pointless at this point. By the time I got the results, I’d probably already know I had it by any symptoms that came up.

One last happy surprise was that the new prescription lenses I ordered in early July for my Oakley frames that I use for hiking came in the day before I was going to leave for Yosemite. I had been told they would probably come in the week of August 3rd, so would be too late. I had arranged to have them sent overnight to my first resupply point (Reds Meadow) once they arrived. While my old lenses would be okay for seeing the scenic wonders all around me, they did have some scratches and weren’t progressive so would require me to flip the glasses up to check my iPhone on the trail. So, getting them before I left was a very welcome surprise.

I had gone into the office to make sure everything was in order before I left, but there were still a bunch of issues to take care of on the morning I left the SF Bay Area and even during the drive to Yosemite I had to make some calls. While my boss had my Inreach contact info, I hoped I wouldn’t have to deal with any work issues while on the trail.

When I was driving to Yosemite on Hwy 120 one of the highway message boards said Hwy 120 was closed after Oakdale and to take an alternate route. Not a good way to start the drive. Checking Google Maps confirmed there was some kind of accident/slowdown down past Knights Ferry. I decided to to head down to Hwy 132 and go through Coulterville. I’d never actually taken that route before, but it ended up not taking too much longer and was an interesting route to take with some different scenery. It was a nice change of pace since I had probably taken Hwy 120 to Yosemite over a hundred times already.

Got to Yosemite and headed to Tuolumne Meadows. While I was staying in El Portal that night and going up to TM was quite a long detour, I had to drop off a resupply package at the Wilderness Center up there. To save carrying 4 extra days of food from the floor of Yosemite Valley, I decided to drop off a small resupply package. Food, a cooking gas canister, another pair of liner socks, hiking socks, underwear, and some other items to lessen my load would help me climb the 5,000+ feet I’d have to climb on the first 3 days. And since the store at Tuolumne Meadows was closed this year, this was the only way to resupply there this year.

I had also intended to do a short 3-5 mile acclimatization hike in Tuolumne Meadows after dropping off the resupply package, but after the longer drive I just didn’t feel like it. Hopefully, the Diamox I had been taking for the past 3 days help would me enough to prevent problems in the early part of my trek.

After driving back along the Tioga Road and then to El Portal, I checked into my hotel and did a last check of my gear to make sure I had everything. I made a point to get to sleep as early as possible so I could get up around 5am. This would allow me to have breakfast and get an early start to my trek. Since Yosemite Valley gets VERY hot in August, the earlier I got started the faster I’d leave that heat behind.

No pictures for day 0 (except of the bear boxes so I could remember which one I put my resupply package into).