JMT/Permit: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:02, 16 February 2015

Plan A

(unless Plan B becomes Plan A because this part of Yosemite is touristy):

Start in Yosemite, follow Official JMT over Donohue Pass
new permit system has made these permits harder to come by
map of Yosemite trailheads

Plan B

source for most of this info: Adam White in this discussion

Start in Yosemite, and exit over Fernandez or Isberg Passes

These permits will not be affected by the Donohue Pass quota
there may be some bushwhacking, trail finding, or challenging crossings
easier to get a ride this way

Start North or East of Yosemite, enter Yosemite and join the JMT and follow it over Donohue Pass

permits will come from Inyo or Humboldt Toiyabe National Forests
You will still have impact on Lyell Canyon (where the quota is attempting to minimize impact), so this option might not sit well

Start at the Robinson Creek trailhead in the Hoover Wilderness
Here's the route; You'll start from the Robinson Creek trailhead at Twin Lakes, and ascend Mule and Burro Passes, then follow Matterhorn Canyon to Virginia Canyon, then descend Cold Canyon to Glen Aulin, and follow the Tuolumne River to Tuolumne Meadows (and the JMT). The total distance is about 40 miles from the trailhead to Tuolumne Meadows (compared to about 22 for the JMT). From Tuolumne Meadows, follow the well-worn trail to Mt. Whitney.
- Permits are straightforward: obtain from Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest, here. Your trailhead is Robinson Creek, your first night could be Robinson Lakes (7.25 mi, 9,200 ft), Crown Lake (7.94 mi, 9,486 ft) or Matterhorn Canyon for permit purposes. You'll start outside of Inyo, so the Whitney exit quota won't apply to you. Feel free to exit at Whitney portal.

start at Green Creek trailhead or Virginia Lakes trailhead.
- Routes and profiles are here and here; same permit form as Robinson Creek, but use the appropriate trailhead. Distances to Tuolumne Meadows are 24-26 miles. I've not hiked either of these, but I'm sure many on here have. I imagine there's good camping in Virginia Canyon.

Start South of Yosemite, join the JMT South of Yosemite

skip Donohue Pass and Yosemite, but fear not, all of Yosemite on the JMT is eminently dayhike-able. Come back some other time and do it.
Permits will either be from Inyo National Forest (if you enter from the east, which is what I would recommend) or Sierra National Forest (if you enter from the west).

Start at the Rush Creek Trailhead, hike up Donohue from the South
- People have bad things to say about the Rush Creek trailhead. I get it. It's no South Lake trailhead. It's hot; there are dams, and cart tracks, and you have to climb. It could even be a little dusty. So what? You're climbing to Thousand Island Lake, a gem of the Sierra. Quit complaining.
- Route is here; my approach would be to hike out of Rush Creek, and drop your stuff at the JMT junction (aka Rush Creek crossing, 9.43 miles in). Either hike up and down Donohue that day (add another 8 miles) packless, or wake up and do it (packless) the next morning.
- Skip the ascent of Donohue if you want to save 8 miles, and don't care about getting visiting Donohue Pass. But this approach gives you an opportunity to visit Donohue Pass, while respecting the impact to Lyell Canyon (and getting you up your first major pass packless!).
- Permits are from Inyo National Forest at recreation.gov--look for the Rush Creek Trailhead wilderness permits (AA05). The Whitney Exit quota will apply, which might make getting this a little more difficult than the Hoover options above. Alternatively, don't exit at Whitney--do it at Cottonwood Lakes or Cottonwood Pass, just a bit south of Whitney, and don't worry about the quota.

Tips

on filling out the permit for alternate exit from yosemite "I put down "Nearest legal campground halfway South to Lower Merced Pass Lake" for my first night campsite. I show Whitney Portal as the Exit Trailhead (but written alongside it (leave Yose at Isberg Pass) -- and for the question "I plan to exit over Donahue Pass, I chosed "NO" and entered Isberg Pass beneath it."

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-*[http://trailtosummit.com/new-permit-system-jmt-thru-hikers/ new permit system details]
+== Plan A ==
-**Lyell Canyon trailhead:Permits for 25 people, with 60% (15) available by reservation and 40% (10) available on a first-come, first-served basis.
+(unless Plan B becomes Plan A because this part of Yosemite is touristy):
-**Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley, Happy Isles pass-through, Glacier Point to Little Yosemite Valley, and Sunrise Lakes trailheads: Permits for 20 people, all of which are available by reservation. Late cancellations will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, although we don’t expect any to be available most days.
+*Start in Yosemite, follow Official JMT over Donohue Pass
-**The permit request form is the same as before, but it has one extra section that states “I plan to exit over Donahue Pass”. Here you are stating where you will leave Yosemite National Park. If you plan to hike to Whitney, you will check the “yes” box. If you plan on camping outside of Yosemite, you must write in where.
+*[http://trailtosummit.com/new-permit-system-jmt-thru-hikers/ new permit system has made these permits harder to come by]
 *[http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/upload/wildernesstrailheads.pdf map of Yosemite trailheads]
-*[http://jmt.sierra-hikes.com/images/JMTCOV.jpg here's a nice map.]
-*"This is going to move a lot of people over to Inyo National Forest trailheads (like Rush Creek or Reds or Agnew Meadows, Mammoth Pass etc) or Sierra National Forest trailheads (e.g. Lakes Edison or Florence). So they will be taking shortened JMT hikes (skipping at least the first 41 miles Happy Isles to Rush Creek). One good side effect might be to encourage people who want to cover roughly 220 miles to include more sidetrips in their plans. I think that actually leads to a better hike and disperses people in the wilderness better."<ref name="yahoodiscussion">https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/johnmuirtrail/conversations/topics/48888</ref>
+== Plan B ==
-*"This definitely is going to force JMT hikers to go SSE to Merced Pass (multiple interesting routes/passes to go down that way) and then over to Devil's Postpile over the Mammoth Trail. And it's going to have more people doing the Mono Pass TH too. People can also start near Clover Meadow and do a northbound loop doing 4 passes and then migrating over to Devil's Postpile. A lot of these options are very interesting and more of a hike to do than the legacy JMT. I suspect Tom Harrison will sell many more of his Yosemite High Country and Ansel Adams Wilderness Maps."<ref name="yahoodiscussion" />
+*source for most of this info: Adam White in [https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/johnmuirtrail/conversations/topics/49341 this discussion]
-*"One can go from Happy Isles to Illouette Basin (or from LYV) to then go down Illouette Basin the next day, and then onto exiting the park either at Fernandez Pass or Isberg Pass and then go ENE hitting the Mammoth Trail to hit the JMT at Devil's Postpile, then down to Whitney from there."<ref name="facebook">https://www.facebook.com/groups/2240988980/permalink/10152711948013981/</ref>
-*get Yosemite High Country and Ansel Adams Wilderness area?
+===Start in Yosemite, and exit over Fernandez or Isberg Passes===
-*on filling out the permit for alternate exit from yosemite "I put down "Nearest legal campground halfway South to Lower Merced Pass Lake" for my first night campsite. I show Whitney Portal as the Exit Trailhead (but written alongside it (leave Yose at Isberg Pass) -- and for the question "I plan to exit over Donahue Pass, I chosed "NO" and entered Isberg Pass beneath it."<ref name="facebook" />
+*These permits will not be affected by the Donohue Pass quota
+*there may be some bushwhacking, trail finding, or challenging crossings
+*easier to get a ride this way
+===Start North or East of Yosemite, enter Yosemite and join the JMT and follow it over Donohue Pass===
+*permits will come from Inyo or Humboldt Toiyabe National Forests
+*You will still have impact on Lyell Canyon (where the quota is attempting to minimize impact), so this option might not sit well
+*Start at the Robinson Creek trailhead in the Hoover Wilderness
+*[https://awhite4777.pythonanywhere.com/SierraMapperAlpha/default/mapper/t001/n044 Here's] the route; You'll start from the Robinson Creek trailhead at Twin Lakes, and ascend Mule and Burro Passes, then follow Matterhorn Canyon to Virginia Canyon, then descend Cold Canyon to Glen Aulin, and follow the Tuolumne River to Tuolumne Meadows (and the JMT). The total distance is about 40 miles from the trailhead to Tuolumne Meadows (compared to about 22 for the JMT). From Tuolumne Meadows, follow the well-worn trail to Mt. Whitney.
+**Permits are straightforward: obtain from Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest, [http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5253870.pdf here]. Your trailhead is Robinson Creek, your first night could be Robinson Lakes (7.25 mi, 9,200 ft), Crown Lake (7.94 mi, 9,486 ft) or Matterhorn Canyon for permit purposes. You'll start outside of Inyo, so the Whitney exit quota won't apply to you. Feel free to exit at Whitney portal.
+*start at Green Creek trailhead or Virginia Lakes trailhead.
+**Routes and profiles are [https://awhite4777.pythonanywhere.com/SierraMapperAlpha/default/mapper/t032/n044 here] and [https://awhite4777.pythonanywhere.com/SierraMapperAlpha/default/mapper/t029/n044 here]; same permit form as Robinson Creek, but use the appropriate trailhead. Distances to Tuolumne Meadows are 24-26 miles. I've not hiked either of these, but I'm sure many on here have. I imagine there's good camping in Virginia Canyon.
+===Start South of Yosemite, join the JMT South of Yosemite===
+*skip Donohue Pass and Yosemite, but fear not, all of Yosemite on the JMT is eminently dayhike-able. Come back some other time and do it.
+*Permits will either be from Inyo National Forest (if you enter from the east, which is what I would recommend) or Sierra National Forest (if you enter from the west).
+*Start at the Rush Creek Trailhead, hike up Donohue from the South
+**People have bad things to say about the Rush Creek trailhead. I get it. It's no South Lake trailhead. It's hot; there are dams, and cart tracks, and you have to climb. It could even be a little dusty. So what? You're climbing to Thousand Island Lake, a gem of the Sierra. Quit complaining.
+**Route is [https://awhite4777.pythonanywhere.com/SierraMapperAlpha/default/mapper/m131/n067/m033/m045 here]; my approach would be to hike out of Rush Creek, and drop your stuff at the JMT junction (aka Rush Creek crossing, 9.43 miles in). Either hike up and down Donohue that day (add another 8 miles) packless, or wake up and do it (packless) the next morning.
+**Skip the ascent of Donohue if you want to save 8 miles, and don't care about getting visiting Donohue Pass. But this approach gives you an opportunity to visit Donohue Pass, while respecting the impact to Lyell Canyon (and getting you up your first major pass packless!).
+**Permits are from Inyo National Forest at recreation.gov--look for the Rush Creek Trailhead wilderness permits (AA05). The Whitney Exit quota will apply, which might make getting this a little more difficult than the Hoover options above. Alternatively, don't exit at Whitney--do it at Cottonwood Lakes or Cottonwood Pass, just a bit south of Whitney, and don't worry about the quota.
+Tips
+*on filling out the permit for alternate exit from yosemite "I put down "Nearest legal campground halfway South to Lower Merced Pass Lake" for my first night campsite. I show Whitney Portal as the Exit Trailhead (but written alongside it (leave Yose at Isberg Pass) -- and for the question "I plan to exit over Donahue Pass, I chosed "NO" and entered Isberg Pass beneath it."