SMT (Sanjay Malunjkar Trail) a.k.a. JMT (John Muir Trail)

Why

No, this is not a midlife crisis, nor a pandemic thing.  

I have been baking sourdough for a long time and doing outdoorsy stuff for the past 2+ decades. First time I heard about John Muir was back in 1999 when I first climbed Mt Shasta over the avalanche gulch route. A book on Mt Shasta mentioned how his party survived bad weather atop the summit in late 19th century. That sealed his badass-ness in my books. Fast forward nearly two decades of backpacking/trail running and noticing JMT signs all over the sierras, I was convinced that JMT has to be the stepping stone of me foraying into long distance thru hiking. JMT was an ideal candidate because of its unparalleled beauty, relatively easy access from San Francisco bay area and  not being as long as PCT/AT. I first trained for JMT in 2015-16 by running 70 miles per week. But I failed to start my planning in a timely manner and it was not to be that year.  By 2020 I was running reasonably long distances pretty consistently on local trails. I planned to hike 120 miles on the Tahoe Rim Trail as a training run for JMT. Once again, I had to call it off due to a wild fire. Not wanting to take any chances in 2021, I hiked 120 miles solo from Spooner Summit TH to Echo Lake TH in mid June over 4 days. In Sep 2021, I also soloed the legendary wonderland trail over 3 days and 6 hours. Both hikes I managed to average 30 miles per day.  Final encouragement came from a chance encounter with Kyle, Connor and Zachary at Whitney Portal when they were about to start their JMT journey. I was definitely motivated and ready to take on JMT in 2022.

What

The John Muir Trail runs from Yosemite Valley (4,035’ elevation) approximately 213.7 miles to the summit of Mt. Whitney (14,505’ elevation) with a total ascent of 46,000 feet and a descent of 38,000 feet traveling south bound.  It traverses Yosemite National Park, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, Inyo National Forest, Sierra National Forest, Devils Postpile National Monument, Ansel Adams Wilderness, John Muir Wilderness.

JMT goes over 11 high sierra passes.

How

After returning from a climbing trip to the Mexican volcanos (Malinche, Izta and Pico de Orizaba) in late January 2022, I started applying for JMT South Bound (SOBO) permits. I have never been lucky to win anything in my life, so I promptly gave up on JMT lotteries 4 weeks and $40 later. By then JMT permits were being issued for late August. I grabbed the less popular North Bound (NOBO) permits starting from Cottonwood TH. My high level plan was to complete JMT in 8 days.

3 food resupplies:

• Day 2 Somewhere between Forester Pass (mile 57) and kiersarge Pass Trail (mile 70)
• Day 5-6 at Muir Trail Ranch (mile 134)
• Day 7 Reds Meadow (mile 180)

I planned to hike with a light pack (skin out weight of 22.7 pounds including 3 days of food and 1 liter of water). 

• Consumables (3 days food, bear can, water) - 6.525 pounds
• Cooking system (stove, fuel, matches, lighter, utensils) - 3.4 pounds
• On person (clothing, shoes, poles, socks) - 3.5 pounds
• Sleeping (solo tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad/air mattress) - 2.97 pounds
• Clothing carried (puffy, rain gear, beanie, gloves, socks, underwear) - 2.47 pounds
• Electronics (in reach, mp3 player, headlamp, power bank, go pro etc) - 2.66 pounds
• Backpack - .9 pounds
• Miscellaneous (reading glasses, water bottles/filter, first aid, money/license, toiletries) - 1 pound

Training

Thanks to my training buddies Anil, Baban, Maya and Kaushik, I had a solid running base going into early summer. I was averaging 50 miles of running per week from January through June.  80% of my running was on local trails. In addition I threw in 2 bike rides, 2 swims and an occasional light upper body workout per week. I continued to hike 8 miles every Sunday PM with 24 pound pack until June. 

I switched to training exclusively for JMT beginning July right after Mt Williamson climb. Though my weekly average miles stayed the same, I was doing consistent back to back hikes with 24 pounds pack weight maxing out 2 weeks prior to JMT when I did 20, 20 and 30 miles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to advice from Anil, I added heat training last two weeks during the taper where I would spend 25, 15 and 15 minutes in a dry heat sauna at 160F. I would swim a few laps in between. All in all, I did everything I possibly could to be ready physically at least.

Logistics & Team

My permit started from Cottonwood Trailhead. Deepak and I decided that we will start the hike together but be independent in terms of gear allowing us to follow separate schedules and go our own pace if required. I planned my route so that I would summit Langley on day one. Ranga graciously agreed to drive us to the trailhead and hike Langley with me.

Original plan was for me to exit JMT on day 2/3 at Onion Valley TH to pick up supplies but Anil offered to bring in supplies for us at the end of day 2. He is a complete badass churning out 100K races on consecutive weekends like nobody's business and not to mention his multiple 200+ mile races. 

Kiran, who recently ran a BQ and a Tahoe 200, accompanied me from Reds to Tuolumne Meadows. He was going to leave his car in TM and take the bus from Yosemite to Reds. However the bus schedule changes every September so he ended up driving to Reds all the way and booked a campsite near the hot springs. He planned to hike to meet me on the trail the evening of and accompany me next day for a few miles before driving back home.

"Bring Sanjay back home team" consisted of Maya, Bharathi and Ekta; all of them heavy hitters and very accomplished ultra runners. They planned to drive to Yosemite Valley on the morning of my arrival into TM, leave their car at Curry Village, take the AM bus to TM and wait for me at TM to accompany me all the way to Happy Isles and drive me back home.

We setup a Whatsapp group for the support team. I promised to post my whereabouts and a few messages every day to my Garmin tracking website. Kiran, Anil and Maya carried inReach devices when coming to support me. What a perfect plan and a team! I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Reality

I ended up completing the JMT in 9 days. Here is my GPS track for the entire hike with each day in a different color.

Day 1 (8/30/2022) : Cottonwood TrailHead CG - Lower Crab Tree 

We reached the Camp Ground around 1 PM the day before. This gave us ample time to acclimatize at 10K. We woke up early, like 2 AM early to start hiking around 3.30 AM. Deepak decided to skip Mt Langley and went over Cottonwood Pass.  It was a pretty cold morning.  We got to Cottonwood lakes around 7 AM. We refilled water at the first lake. 

Army pass loomed in front of us. It looked impossible from afar.

After going over the old Army pass, there was no discernible trail going towards soldier lake. That worried me but I had no choice other than to press on towards the summit. We followed what looked like a trail (there were too many of them). We got lost just merely 600 ft below the summit. No wonder there were so many warnings on the internet to follow official kerns made by Army Engineering Corps. Finally we noticed a kern and continued on to summit at 11.30 AM.

I saw Ranga on my way down from the summit, he was planning to take the new army pass back to the TH after the summit. 

Apprehension due to the lack of trail dissipated the moment I saw a herd of big horn sheep. I felt very fortunate to come so close to these endangered animals. It is quite rare to see one let alone a herd.

Trail from soldier lake became difficult. I had to bushwhack most of the way until I met ranger Matt. He promptly checked my permit and ensured I was carrying a bear can.

It was slow going until Rock Creek Ranger Station. I got there around 4.30 PM. I had to really push my pace to make it to CrabTree, which I did at 7.30 PM. Deepak and I had a miscommunication, he was waiting at Upper CrabTree which is about 1.4 miles towards Mt Whitney. I wasn't thinking straight. It didn't occur to me that he was far away from me. I messaged him to come to me. Being such a nice hiking buddy, he came by thinking I will go back to his location. He went back promptly after realizing I had my camp already set up. Since I got in so late  and wanted to meet Anil at a reasonable time the next day, we dropped the plan to summit Mt Whitney the next morning (thereby shaving 15 miles and at least 5-6 hours). I agreed to hike out to Deepak's campsite next morning so we can hike together. It was the dumbest idea as his campsite was in the opposite direction.

Day 2 (8/31/2022) : Lower Crab Tree - Charlotte Lake

I hiked towards Upper CrabTree looking for Deepak. I must have woken up the entire camp as I kept walking back forth across the bridge but Deepak was nowhere to be found. I had expected him to be ready and waiting for me.  I used the GPS waypoint he had sent me to locate his tent only to find him asleep. I decided to press on while he got ready.

I quickly made it back to the JMT/PCT junction as the first light came out. I waited for breakfast until Tyndall Creek so I ran next few miles.

  

I stopped at Tyndall Creek to make breakfast, filter some H2O and make Indian chai.

It was awesome to see Mt Tyndall from the West having climbed it in 2012 and Mt Williamson on July 4th 2022 weekend.  

Big Big horn plateau had such expansive views. I was too hopeful to get a second sighting of Big horn sheep but instead was graced by humming bird flyovers. How do these tiny birds survive in such harsh conditions?

Miles went by quickly and I was at the base of Forester Pass around 11.30 AM. It was pretty hot by then, I took a dip in the lake at the bottom of the pass. Lake was just at the left of this rock pile. Can you guess where the pass is in this photo? Hint: looked pretty intimidating from here. Based on prior experience, I hoped that it will be easier. At this point, I was surprised to cross paths with a young couple and their toddler on the trail.

I was wrong about the pass. It wasn't easy and took me 35 minutes to get to the top. It was less than a 1000 feet of climb but I was having to stop every so often to catch my breath. Switchbacks were not as bad as what I had heard about. Views were spectacular. Photo on the left bottom is looking south (from where I came). Second picture on the right is looking northbound. The trail seemed to be going on forever; I was glad to be going NOBO. This was true for all passes; the approach to all passes from south is a lot easier and more gentle going north. I put on a good pace as I was excited to see Anil somewhere in the Vidette Meadow area. By then Anil had already sent me a GPS waypoint to the bear box where he had stashed our supplies. 

I was so focused on making good pace to see Anil that I almost walked past him. Fortunately he was paying attention to passerby's. I was very happy to see him. Anil had driven to Onion Valley TH the night before; hiked 10 miles in the wee hours to meet us. Deepak pulled in about 45 minutes later. In addition to 3 days supplies, Anil brought parathas, idlis and desserts which we promptly devoured; he fed us and made chai. We felt re-energized to keep going that day. The three of us hiked together until the Onion Valley TH junction. Anil hiked out 10 miles in the dark to the TH and drove back. 🙏🙏 Anil.

Our supplies would not fit in our bear cans hence we decided to take what appeared to be a small detour to Charlotte Lake. The distance to the lake was definitely longer than what was advertised. To make it worse we dropped quite a bit of elevation. We found an awesome campsite right next to the water and the only bear box. We quickly set up our tents and were fast asleep within a few minutes. 

Day 3 (9/1/2022) : Charlotte Lake - Upper Twin Lake

After eating a yummy breakfast of poha & chai, we started hiking around 6ish in the hopes of covering a lot of ground today. Initial climb of 700 ft from the lake felt like such a waste of time and energy.

As a consolation the views were outstanding with all the peaks catching alpenglow. It was slow work going up to Glen Pass. We were taking too many breaks. It was the third day fatigue of a multi day adventure hitting me. In hindsight we should have spent the night near the lake at the bottom of Glen Pass. This lake is well above tree line and we would have been fine without a bear locker for the extra food. 

Views from Glen Pass were simply breathtaking with so many sparkling lakes in both directions. We took another long break chatting with a lot of fellow hikers including a couple from Japan.

 It had gotten pretty hot by the time we left. We took a swimming break to cool ourselves at  Upper Rae Lake. 

Temperature was already 100+F by now, we were having to take a lot of water breaks to filter/drink/cool ourselves. However hard I tried to pick up the pace, my legs simply didn't follow instructions. Our next stop was the iconic suspension bridge.

I dunked myself for a long time to cool down. It helped only for a short while as it was still very hot and steep uphill. At that point I came to a realization that I won't be able to go over Pinchot Pass that night.  Next best plan was to sleep at Twin Lakes. We rolled into the camp as it was getting dark. Having only covered half the daily distance on 3rd day; I had all kinds of negative scenarios racing through my head. May be I just don't have it in me to complete JMT in 8 days. What if I can't continue to pace ~30 miles per day? I won't have enough food to make it to our next resupply point which was 57 miles away. I thought it is prudent to turn back, bail out from Onion Valley and request a pickup from my support crew. I texted Anil for advice. He told us to take stock of our food the next morning and see if we can make it last in case it takes us long to get to MTR. I finally slept around 10.30 PM. It took 15 minutes to send a message and receive a response back from Anil. I would sleep until I heard a beep on my inReach. Maya and Kiran were ready to bring us food should it become necessary. I went to sleep reassured knowing there was a backup plan.

Day 4 (9/2/2022) : Upper Twin Lake - Middle Fork Crossing

We woke up late. After taking stock of our food we figured out that we can ration supplies for 4 days if push comes to shove. It was a reassuring feeling and given that we had our backs by Kiran and Maya, we decided to press on and not make a u-turn. That would have really shattered my confidence. It was a few months later while listening to a podcast by Rebecca Rusch (the queen of pain) that I found out it is fairly common to have a 3rd day as very challenging on multi day expeditions. Who knew? 

Pinchot pass went by fairly quickly. 

 

There were signs of two missing persons at the Taboose Pass trail crossing. Doesn't look like they were ever found. One of the hikers went missing recently from the Split Mountain trail. The marine hiker has been missing since 2019. A sobering reminder that we were in the wilderness. We stopped at a creek crossing to soak our aching feet while we enjoyed lunch. To the east is Split Mountain, a California 14er which I have had the pleasure of summiting couple of times in the past.

Clouds started to gather by the time Mather pass was in the books. It had superb switchbacks going up.

We took a much needed pit stop at Palisades lakes to get a drink and some calories in. It was already 

4 PM.

We put on a decent pace and didn't stop much except to take in dramatic sunset vistas. Reached middle fork junction (our camp for the night) at 7:40 PM right around the time it got dark. It was a great location under big trees right next to water with a few downed trees that we used as dinner table/benches. 

It was a confidence boosting day as we covered 23.65 miles on day 4, a huge improvement from day 3.

Day 5 (9/3/2022) : Middle Fork Crossing/Golden Staircase - John Muir Rock/Foot Bridge

Started the day in high spirits with a target of making it to the bridge before Muir Trail Ranch. I even day dreamed of soaking in at the MTR hot springs that evening. I ended up running initial gentle uphill miles. There were quite a few pretty campsites out in the open meadows. I took a quick break at Le Conte Ranger Station junction with Bishop Pass trail. It was a blissful morning with granite peaks catching early morning glow while walking next to a gurgling river. Light was just perfect and each lake I walked by was sparkling like a gem.

This was undoubtedly the prettiest section of the trail. Soon after I came up to Helen Lake where I stopped for a quick drink. I had stopped filtering water by now. 

By the time I reached the iconic Muir hut, I was so overcome with emotions of feeling lucky and alive in the moment; life and spirituality pulsing through me that I found myself singing Ganapati Arati and crying. 

There were multiple groups taking a lunch break inside. I took a long break exchanging stories with them. Now that I was covering a lot of ground, I had the opposite problem - too much food. I happily passed around my delicious treats to others. By the time I stepped outside, rainclouds had gathered.

 

I pressed on with a deliberate pace only stopping to change in and out of rain gear. I felt just a few drops and nothing significant. I walked by some relics from the past. Evolution basin had so many lakes, streams and meadows. Evolution meadow used to be a sacred homeland of the Paiute. 

Soon the trail was crossing a river. I searched for a crossing that doesn't involve getting my shoes wet. But no such luck, so I took my shoes off and crossed bare feet. It was beginning to get dark as the trail went through the meadows.  I was lucky to catch pretty sunset just before reaching the campsite by the footbridge. 

Mission accomplished, 29.41 miles covered!!

Day 6 (9/4/2022) : MTR - Mono Creek

Woke up very late. My alarm didn't go off as I was charging both my phone and watch overnight. Enjoyed chai and pohe with my neighbor. 

Reached Muir Trail Ranch around 9 AM, charged my power bank for a couple hours while I talked to other hikers, watched a rescue in progress (a woman had to be carried out due to a broken leg). Bought a new fuel canister. MTR had enough USB dongles, I didn't need to carry one. In retrospect, I should have hiked until MTR the night before and slept in the campsite nearby. Just a few hour delay ended up costing me one calendar day. I finally left MTR just before 11 AM. It was already very hot and the climb from MTR was steep. I stopped at a stream crossing to dunk myself in the refreshing cool water. That's where I met super fast Ben who was shooting to finish under 6 days. He carried food for the entire trip with no resupplies. His pack still only weighed 16 pounds. He didn't have a tent and was eating cold meals. He was moving fast and only hiked during the day light. I could barely keep up with him for an hour. Very impressive athlete! Seldon Pass was nothing spectacular. Due to the late start, I didn't expect go long so I planned to make it only as far as the foot bridge before Mono Creek which I reached in the dark. 

Day 7 (9/5/2022) : Mono Creek - Reds 

I woke up very early like 4.45 AM. I had a big day ahead of me. I made a huge breakfast but just couldn't find my spoon. After several minutes of frantic searching I found it in a nearby bush. Perhaps raccoon or something must have smelt spicy flavors and ran off with it. Today was the day of mushrooms, saw so many of them in different colors and shapes, only if I can tell which ones are edible.

It was also the day of rendezvous with rice items and Kiran who I was in communication with. He had planned to hike in 5 miles and go back with me but afternoon was so hot. No matter how hard I tried my legs were just not responding. I got so frustrated with myself at one point that I stopped and started yelling. I messaged Kiran to not bother coming to meet me on the trail. I also asked him to pick up my care package from Reds Meadow. He responded asking me to send him a permission message to receive the package which I promptly did. Trail from purple lake was confusing, GPS took me on a different trail so I got lost for a few minutes.  Fortunately met NOBO hikers who assured me that I was headed in the right direction.

Trail was quite boring from here on, I could not stop thinking about the home made rice, meeting with Kiran and a dip in the hot springs. I rolled into Reds in pitch dark. I was so tired and mentally fatigued that I just couldn't find the campsite where Kiran was. I requested horse pack folks to walk me to him. I had been so cutoff from cell signal for last few days that they had to remind me I can call Kiran. I was very happy to finally meet him. He had setup a campsite right next to the hot spring. He fed me warm homemade veggie pulao and tamarind rice. He had gotten so many treats for me that I just kept on eating. Having traveled 31.5 miles, I was too tired to goto the hot springs. I promptly setup my tent and was asleep within minutes.

Day 8 (9/6/2022) : Reds - Donahue Pass (almost)

Got a good night sleep on a stomach full of real food. I woke up to a 5.30 AM alarm. I was looking forward to taking a dip in the hot springs that Kiran had conveniently booked a campsite right next to. It was definitely worth the effort. Water temperature was perfect. We stayed in there for 30+ minutes. 

Kiran fed me a big breakfast of Pongal rice. Got a lazy start to hiking by 7.45 AM. I was glad to see signs of Happy Isles and began to smell the finish line.  Kiran hiked with me for 5 miles before turning around. I was very glad to have his company. 

Clouds started to gather by the time I got to Island pass.  Horse pack from Reds Meadow passed me there. They were carrying supplies for a guided group from New Zealand and South Africa doing the JMT.  

 

 At this point the scenery opened up to the expansive views of the sierras.

Thousand Island Lake was in full glory with some cloud cover as if to add colors and diffuse the harsh afternoon light.

From that point on, I was racing with the horse pack exchanging lead every so often. I last saw them at 6.45 PM where they setup camp. I continued on for an hour before calling it a night. It was a chilly night having drizzled a little prior to my arrival. Ground was slightly wet. Glad I carried water from the previous stream to last me through the night. 

Day 9 (9/7/2022) : Lake just before Donahue Pass - Happy Isles

I woke up super early to start hiking around 6ish. I wanted to cover 14+ miles by 11 AM. I witnessed a spectacular sunrise over Ansel Adams wilderness as I was going up to Donahue Pass. It was in the bags within 30 minutes. I had heard that there would be cell signal on top of the pass. I video chatted with my wife Jaya and shared the scenery with her. I was tempted to call my dad as well but was short on time so I decided to press on.  I was looking forward to seeing Maya, Ekta and Bharathi in Tuolumne Meadows. 

It was mostly down hill from then on. Stopped by to chat briefly with kids from France who like everyone else were going the wrong way (SOBO). My body had heated up too much by 10.30 AM. I had to dunk myself in the river. 

Little further I talked to a woman from Korea who spoke very little English and was hurting a lot in her knees but still going strong. What a mental fortitude!! Encouraged, I picked up the pace even more.  A short while later I was frisked by a ranger for a permit/bear can; she let me know go fairly quickly as she had seen me running.  Last mile was on or along the asphalt. It was  unnerving to see so many people, cars, not to mention the fumes that I gotten  unaccustomed to for being in the woods past 8+ days.  There were so many people going on either JMT (a large group from Japan) or PCT. It gave me shudders just looking at their heavy packs. Glad I was traveling light.

Last mile on the road until I saw Bharathi, Maya and Ekta was mind numbing. 
They not only brought yummy food (parathas, jalebi,  homemade lemon rice, puran poli) but also amazing spirits. We left fairly quickly after a massive carb loading session. It was tricky getting back on JMT as there was bunch of trail work going on.  Conversations made miles pass by quickly. 

We had good sense to fill up on water before Cathedral Pass. All the streams had dried up. In fact there was no water until Merced River at Little Yosemite Valley.  

Dark clouds rolled in; we got a few drops.  We could tell it was raining hard just a few miles east of us on the other side of the mountains. We had to get in and out off our rain gear a few times.

We stopped by for supper at around 6.45 PM; by that time I had made up my mind to finish JMT that day no matter the time of the night. Night was dark with a red moon. We had very little water left so we sped our way until Little Yosemite Valley Camp Ground. We took a well deserved water break at the Merced river. We made a mistake of taking the mist trail instead of the JMT. It was not only super steep but the steps were also very irregular. We were lost on top of the falls for a fair amount of time. My brain had shutdown by then but Maya kept her cool and managed to get us back on trail. From then on it was quiet uneventful. As we got closer to the finish line, we started seeing half dome day hikers going up.  

I was happy to finish at Happy Isles around 1 AM. This was my longest day hike. I had walked 39+ miles that day from 6 AM to 1 AM the next. It was amazing to finish with Maya, Ekta and Bharathi, so grateful for their company.  I was relieved to have completed JMT after so much planning, training and support. Ideally I would have liked to finish in 7/8 days. I felt very content that Anil kept me going after day 3 debacle. Thanks to the cool headedness of my JMT partner Deepak who insisted we sleep at upper twin lakes and re-evaluate the food situation the next morning. While walking back to Maya's car at Curry Village,  I kept insisting that I will take the first shift but I was told later that I started snoring as soon as I sat down in the passenger seat. We were all super sleepy so we decided to take a quick 30 minute nap at the park entrance. Maya was either super nice or didn't trust any of us with the steering wheel, she graciously drove all the way home, dropping Bharathi first and I got dropped off around 8ish. I basically slept the next 24 hours only to wake for bodily functions. The JMT achievement didn't sink in until I woke up the next day.

Lessons Learnt

• Training (and taper) works! I can't stress this enough. We all have different goals/pace expectations. JMT is such a long/varied (terrain, weather, difficulty level and distance wise) adventure where things can and will not go according to the expectations. At the very least,  physical/logistical preparation should be to the completed to the T.
• My target pace was 30-35 miles a day. It was a constant battle for me with day light. My next attempt would be in early July (additional 2-3 hours of daylight)
• Have exit routes researched/downloaded should an unfortunate event of bail out or self rescue arises.
• If you've a hiking buddy that you're planning to hike with, definitely sleep at the same location .
• NOBO is definitely a better direction to go.
• I should have hiked last 3 miles until MTR resupply the night before and slept there. Best to either pick up supplies during the day or get to it the night before so you can pick up first thing next morning and be on your way. MTR resupply timings caused me a delay of a day at the very least.
• I know this is a cliche but both good and bad times during JMT won't lost forever. I was having a tough 3rd day and almost gave up. Though I persevered in the end, looking back I should have remembered this line.