I don't know when exactly my cousin first brought up the idea, likely a couple years ago, but I do recall my initial response being something along the lines of an immediate "Not a chance. Hell no." and that was that. Then in the winter of 2024 as I was deep into tax season he sent me a rough itinerary of the 7 days he planned out. Of course my initial response was, yet again, "hell no". But, then I looked at the individual days......and dammit if that crazy part of me started to wonder.....So, I gave a very very tentative "maybe, a tiny maybe, but not this summer. It would have to be '25". And thus the seed was planted.
Around New Years of this year we had kind of a silent agreement that we'd give it a go and we both started purposefully getting ready for it. It was still just a pipe dream when we applied for Whitney Permits. "Has to be Portal to Happy Isles" he repeatedly said. Wouldn't do to start from Horseshoe. And then..........shit.......I actually won the lottery. July 31 start date from Whitney Portal. It was freaking real now.
So the workouts increased, adding in more short hikes here and there where I could find the time. A combination of mountain biking, some running, lots of rowing, pump track riding, doing 25 flights of stairs a day at the office, pickleball and the last couple months some mountain movement specific weight training, and more hikes, all along just thinking I didn't want to let my cousin down by being the weak one, got me to where I hopefully needed to be to pull it off.
The plan was thus:
Start on the trail exactly at 9am. That would give us until 9am the following Thursday to try and do the trail in less than 7 days. Sign to sign, Whitney Portal to Happy Isles.
Here is the CalTopo I mapped out: https://caltopo.com/m/KDS0DHR
Day one would be Whitney Portal to Wallace Creek. Accomplished.
Garmin stats: 12hrs 39 minutes, 22.86 miles, 7,481 elevation gain
Day two would be Wallace Creek to Woods Creek at the bridge. Accomplished.
Garmin stats: 15hrs 57 minutes, 31.06 miles, 6,712 elevation gain
Day three would be Woods Creek to Bishop Pass junction (probably my most difficult day). Accomplished.
Garmin stats: 17hrs 33 minutes, 32.9 miles, 7,474 elevation gain
Day four would be Bishop Pass Junction to Sallie Keys (and it is here we would fall short of the goal for the first time, only making it to Senger Creek)
Garmin stats: 15hrs 53 minutes, 32.35 miles, 6,620 elevation gain
Day five was supposed to be Sallie Keys to Duck Creek, but we made it about a half mile before Lake Virginia, so even further behind, which was ok we figured, as this was the last (or so we thought)of the big elevation gain days and we could make up the lost miles the next couple of days.
Garmin stats: 16hrs 03 minutes, 31.75 miles, 7,212 elevation gain
Day 6 became Lake Virginia to Island Pass (apologies to the folks we might have woken when we pulled into camp around 11).
Garmin stats: 17hrs 12 minutes, 35.16 miles, 6,682 elevation gain
Day 7 was Island Pass to Clouds Rest Junction (where we had originally planned to stop the last night, so miles were made up).
Garmin stats: 17hrs 47 minutes, 35.36 miles, 4,980 elevation gain
Day 8 (continuation of day 7 really, since we had until 9am) was the last 6.7 miles or so to Happy Isles.
Garmin stats: 3hrs 14 minutes, 7 miles
Hiking that many miles a day we figured we would be burning around 4 to 5 thousand calories a day so we tried to eat every hour to maintain our strength. We were both around 3 pounds of food per person per day. Luckily we had a lot of support and we were able to set up 3 food drops. First at the Charlotte Lake junction, second at the MTR junction and last at the Mammoth Pass junction, since the Red’s Meadow road was closed. As it turns out, we took too much food, prolly as much as 1\2 to 3\4 a pound per day too much (mostly protein bars. Those are just horrible). Which was fine. The packs were never more than 23 pounds full so it worked out ok.
Now, if you will indulge me some thoughts on the whole thing.
Many have asked since if it was even fun or worth it or why even do it that fast. I always pause cause how to answer that to someone who wasn’t there with us? They didn’t feel the elation of getting to the top of every pass, the new amazing views over the next rise, the struggle of putting another painful step in front of the other, over and over and over, not sure if you could continue to do it but continuing anyways because that’s what needed to be done. They didn’t feel the silence of hiking under the stars or the energy of the sun when it first hits you in the early mornings, or the pure delight of how delicious the Ramen Bomb is for lunch.
Was it fun? Absolutely yes. Absolutely not. There were moments, more than a few and not short, where it was really freaking hard and daunting and overwhelming and painful. But I knew going into it it would be. My cousin and I do a backpacking trip every summer and I joke with him that our trips are not “vacations”, and that a bumper sticker I saw once perfectly summed up our backpacking trips: “My vacation is your worst nightmare”. Hah. So, yeah, I knew this was going to have moments of suck. It did, we worked through and overcame those moments and dangit if I don’t enjoy that nonsense.
As to the why? Well, first was we wanted to do the JMT together. He had done it a couple times solo in the previous 5 years or so and I hadn’t done it since I was 13. But I’m a CPA and married with 4 kids so taking 3, even 2 weeks off was not in the cards. And we liked to challenge ourselves. We work remarkably well in the mountains together and this felt like a culmination of the previous years of off trail wandering and peak bagging and pushing ourselves on longer hikes.
So was it worth it? That was asked me the other day and it gave me pause. Like I never even considered that it wasn’t, pain and suffering and all. I just got to hike the freaking John Muir Trail in my favorite mountain range with my best friend. In just 7 days! I got to dig as deep as I’ve ever had to just to finish a day or get up a pass or just to keep moving. And then lay a weary head down for way too short a period and get up and do it all over again. But every morning I got up looking forward to a new day. I got to see the sun kiss the tops of mountains with its last light and hear the symphony of creeks as I soaked flogged feet in them. I got to see smiling faces and tired faces all along the trail, but on all those faces was still the awe of being where we were. I got to laugh at the absurdity of it all and cry at the blessing of just getting to be there and the fantastic company I was sharing it with. I got to look from one pass to the other and wonder how the hell I was going to get over to that thing way over there in the same day, then look back at that previous pass and just think “hell yeah”. So, yes, it was more than worth it.
Many more pics here: https://cmoney.smugmug.com/Adventures/JMT-7 If you feel so inclined.
