JMT // Day 1

Yosemite Visitor Center → Little Yosemite Valley Campground

6 miles

What a mess of traveling it was to get to Yosemite. We got to the airport nice and early for our flight to San Francisco (6 hours early to be exact) and the check-in lady was nice enough to place us on an earlier flight since there were delays scheduled for the rest of the day due to weather. We checked-in our packs and headed to the gate. To make a long story short, our flight got delayed twice, then cancelled. I got placed on a flight with a different connection that was leaving shortly, and Marc got placed on a different flight from me that would get him to San Fran the next day, meaning he would miss the train to Yosemite and the time slot to pick up the JMT permit. So he went back to the check-in lady to figure things out. He ended up having to leave LGA and go to EWN to catch a direct flight that would land an hour before mine, keeping us on schedule. We got to San Fran around 1:30, took an Uber to Emeryville train station, and had some time to kill before our 5:45 train to Yosemite.

The station was locked so we rolled out our sleeping bags and took a nap on the benches outside. Around 5am, the station opened and the teller told us there is no 5:45am train, but there is a 7:30am train, so then we had more time to kill.

We found a diner that opened at 6 and treated ourselves to breakfast at the Black Bear Diner. Hot coffee and hashbrowns for me. We finally got to Yosemite around 2pm. Walking into the visitor center, we met 2 other people who were also planning to hike the JMT, but their start dates and locations were different from ours.

We got lucky and won the permit lottery for Happy Isles. The ranger gave us the low-down about the trail, where we’re allowed to camp (40 ft from the trail and water), how to store our food (in a bear box, 20 ft away from us), how to dispose of our waste (dig a hole 6 in deep and pack out the tissue, unless it’s the Whitney area and we’ll have to pack out our waste in a wag bag), and other important information. The ranger gave us our permits and we were on our way. We started heading in the direction of the trail and along the way, we saw our first bear. There was a crowd forming nearby, held back by a couple rangers that formed a perimeter around it.

We started on the trail, snapping a pic with the sign that reads ‘Mt. Whitney 211 miles” and the various waterfalls and mountains views we got along the way.

Marc hikes particularly fast, like he is in a rush to get get somewhere and it is hard to keep up with him, especially on the climbs. He also doesn’t like to break for more than a minute at a time, but I am hopeful that will change as we get further along the trail and away from all the tourists.

We found out later on that a tourist had gotten swept by the current and died over Nevada Falls a few days after we had left Yosemite. The current can be unexpectedly swift in the shallow water above the falls, so people think they can swim and ignore the many signs that warn against it.

We could only hike 6 miles to the Little Yosemite Valley Campground where we were required to spend our first night. It was about 5pm when we got to the campground. We had originally planned to do Half Dome this day too, but with all the travel delays we didn’t end up having enough time.

We got to know some of the people around our campsite, chatting with two girls around my age who were just exploring the valley for a week or so. We got to talking and about our plans and I came into my first bit of trail magic. I had mentioned that I didn’t have a day pack for the side trails: up Half Dome and eventually Mt. Whitney, where we don’t have to carry our packs. A little while later, she comes over to me with a day-pack in her hand that she offers for me to keep. I don’t want to accept it but she insists since she is trying to downsize and the pack is wearing out anyway. Marc also experienced some trail magic from a family nearby who was finishing up their hike and had some leftover Mountain House meals that they offered him. Good stuff.

For dinner I cooked up some minute brown rice, with veggies and spices. It was good although it tasted like plastic from sitting in my bear box for so long (I had been training with the first 4 days of food in my bear box for over a month…oops!).