JMT 2016 Journal — Day 13 of 25: Halfway Point with Horses and Hot Springs
Meeting new trail friends, resupplying at a horse ranch, and soaking in the Blayney Hot Springs.
On July 20, 2016, my friend Ovi and I started our 25 day thru-hike of the world famous John Muir Trail (JMT) in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. What follows is a day-by-day recounting of that epic adventure.
Previously: Day 12 of 25: So.Many.Mosquitos.
Monday, August 1, 2016
I woke up from an odd dream, in which I was home but every day when I woke up I felt compelled to move my bed to a different part of the house. Within the dream, I remember thinking “This isn’t right. I’m not hiking anymore, my sleeping location doesn’t need to change every time!” As I lay in my tent, groggily returning to consciousness, a sudden realization hit me…
Today is the halfway point of our hike!
It was a strange feeling, both comforting and melancholic. At the start of this hike, I had wrestled with anxiety over my ability to actually complete the trek. Yet here I was, nearly 2 weeks in and still going (mostly) strong. But the realization of how much time had passed paradoxically made me homesick and sad that the trip would be over soon. I lay on my sleeping pad, letting the conflicting thoughts and emotions roll bounce around in my head, until finally shaking it off and getting ready for the day’s hike.
Last night, with the coming of the mosquito armada, we had been unable to meet our campsite neighbors. But with the pesky bugs gone in the morning, we had a chance to meet Meighan and her young son Phineas. They had traveled from Boston to do the JMT, having trained for it in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I was impressed with Phineas’ attitude, exuding excitement and positivity, and also a confidence belying his young age. Both of them were strong and fast hikers, and soon hit the trail while we finished our breakfast. But since they were resupplying at Muir Trail Ranch (MTR), same as us, we figured we’d likely see them again later in the day.
A mile or so into our hike we passed by yet another stunning body of water, Marie Lake. Speaking of trail friends, we saw Zack and Kelbie again, still lazing about their campsite. We greeted them while taking a snack break, after which I proceeded to take entirely too many pictures of the beautiful lake than I needed to. But given its sheer loveliness, I couldn’t help myself.
From there it was a little over a mile up toward Selden Pass. As we worked our way up the switchbacks, we were greeted with an even more amazing view of the lake behind us.
Stopping to admire the view and take even more pictures, we saw a solo hiker working her way up the trail quickly. She would end up becoming a part of the loose-knit group of trail friends we would see more of the remainder of the hike, but for now introductions were made. Rachel was from San Fransisco, and had started her hike at Happy Isles trailhead in Yosemite National Park, the “official” start of the JMT. But severe foot pain had sidelined her for a few days, until she had found a new pair of hiking shoes that fit her better. Similar to us, she was also on her way to MTR for a resupply. However, unlike us, who were planning one more resupply after that, her goal was to pack 10 days worth of food and finish the JMT without any more stops. Very ambitious, but seeing how fast she had hiked up the trail, I had no doubt she’d make it.
Before resuming her hike, she offered to take our picture against the magnificent backdrop. Her plan was to stop for a swim at Sallie Keyes Lakes, about a mile on the back side of Selden Pass. We waved goodbye to her as she sped up the trail ahead of us, resuming our own hike at a slower pace.
Selden Pass, at 10,898 feet of elevation, was rather uneventful. We kept at a steady clip, and were soon on a nice descent on the other side of it.
Within a mile, yet another picturesque body of water greeted us, this one called Heart Lake, due to its shape.
Less than a mile after that we came upon Sallie Keyes Lakes, and Rachel again, who was preparing for a swim in the frigid waters. We wished her luck and continued on with our way. By now, we were roughly 5 miles away from MTR, making good progress.
And then, it happened. Our first sighting of the llama trio:
They were grazing at a campsite occupied by a middle aged man and a younger woman (who we later found out was his daughter). Now, funnily enough, there is a llama and alpaca farm a short drive from my home in Columbus, so I see these adorable camelids a few times a year in Ohio, of all places. But it was still a wholly unexpected sight on our hike, to say the least, and brought a great deal of joy to me. However, that sentiment would change slightly over the course of our next few encounters with their owner. But that’s a story for a future installment. For now, we left our llama friends behind and continued toward MTR, which we eventually found after a bit of confusion.
Journal Entry, 8/1/2016
Shitty signage for MTR. We missed the turnoff and hiked a quarter mile or so before I got the feeling that we were on the wrong trail. Backtracked, and eventually worked it out. On both of our maps the trail to MTR was labelled “Sallie Keys Cutoff,” but the sign on the trail just said “Florence Lake.” Anyway, after some cursing, and a steep, rock-strewn, nasty 3/4 mile descent, we finally made it to the ranch.
Muir Trail Ranch is a working horse ranch and small resort that also offers services to JMT and PCT hikers. This side business consists mainly of providing a location to mail your resupply packages to, but they also have a tiny “store” with a few basic supplies, and a laptop for Internet access ($10 for 15 minutes!) Since hikers are not their main clients, I found the general vibe of the place to be friendly-ish, but not exactly welcoming to backpackers. Multiple signs spelled out all the things we were prohibited from doing — no use of restrooms, no cooking, no camping inside the property, etc.
I understood why, given how limited and precious every resource was at this outpost in the middle of the mountains (even our packages had to be picked up from the nearest post office and delivered to the ranch via mule pack), but it did mean we felt pressured to do our resupply shuffle quickly and move on. But it was no easy task, given that we had to pack food for 7 days to get us to our next resupply location. I agonized over what to keep and what to leave behind. In the end, my pack weighed 40 lbs, and that was without any water.
Journal Entry, 8/1/2016
They have very well organized hiker boxes here, full of free supplies for the taking, left behind by other hikers. They were all helpfully labelled (toiletries, batteries, fuel, clothing, oatmeal, drinks, etc.) The oatmeal one was filled to the brim, as most hikers quickly get tired of eating the ubiquitous breakfast staple. I only took a few hydration powder packets, and left behind a fair amount of my snacks and protein bars which I didn’t need due to a combination of overpacking and loss of appetite.
(Side Note: apparently MTR no longer has hiker boxes as of 2022. They do collect unwanted food/snacks, but then donate them to local food banks in the county.)
To their credit, they also provided a place to dispose of your trash, which saved us from having to carry ours to the next resupply stop. I kept my garbage in a 1-gallon Ziplock bag, consisting mostly of snack wrappers and empty food packaging, but psychologically it felt great to “lighten” my load. In true environmentalist fashion, they even offered different receptacles for various recyclables, and other items that could go into a burn pit.
Sure enough, we also ran into the recent trail friends we had made: Zack, Kelbie, Rachel, Meighan, and Phinneas. They had all picked up their resupply boxes and were planning to camp just outside the ranch for the night, and we made tentative plans to meet up after getting through our resupply tasks.
Also, llama guy eventually showed up as well.
Moving on from the ranch, we struggled a bit to find the nearby dispersed camping (as well as the Blayney Hot Springs), once again due to poor signage. Ultimately, we resorted to Ovi’s GAIA GPS app, which indicated they were on the opposite bank of the San Joaquin river. So we forded the river, which was fairly wide and shallow in this spot, with the water only rising to mid-shin. I kept my boots on to give them a thorough washing, hoping they would dry overnight.
After setting up our tents, we had an early dinner. By now it was past 5 pm, so we decided to go find the hot springs while there was still daylight. We had spotted about a dozen or so people heading out to it earlier, but by the time we showed up we had the whole thing to ourselves.
Journal Entry, 8/1/2016
The hot spring is essentially a 10 foot diameter hole in the ground, just outside the MTR barb wire fence. The water has a fair amount of silt, but not enough to leave a dirty film on you. I’d estimate it at 4 feet deep, and you can feel the hot water rising from underneath the muddy bottom. Apparently just inside the fence (on MTR property) there is a smaller but much hotter and cleaner hot spring, but we didn’t trespass.
The more-warm-than-hot water was nevertheless very soothing as I stretched out my sore and achy muscles. As sunset approached, the green field surrounding the springs turned a wonderful hue of yellow-orange, adding to the serene nature of the experience. After our soak, we explored the area a bit and discovered a pond a couple hundred yards away. A small patch of water lilies had claimed its stake to one end of the pool, its budding yellow flowers dotting the water like floating jewels.
Returning to camp, we were both too tired and lazy to go looking for our friends who were also camping in the general area. So instead, we took it easy for the remainder of the evening, reading or journaling. Before retiring to bed, we discussed our plan to hike 14 miles the next day, which would be our longest yet. But that would put us in the position the day after to take our first true zero day, in which we planned to do no hiking.
It didn’t quite turn out the way we had planned, though. But that, too, is a tale for an upcoming installment. Stay tuned.
