This trip started out with me telling all my friends that Half Cookie and I were going to hike the John Muir Trail in 2020. Ultrashuffle, Bee’s Knees, Finder, and Flower Power all expressed interest in joining up, and we said sure! The more the merrier.

To fit everyone’s schedule, we had to limit the hike to 14 days, and at 10-11 miles a day that would be about 150 miles. So we decided to focus on the northern two-thirds of the John Muir Trail, starting at the South Lake trailhead near Bishop and ending at Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley.

It was amazing! My longest trip yet, both in miles and days. I feel like it really helped me to get a feel for what it might be like on my PCT thru-hike attempt in 2021.

Here’s a caltopo overview of the trip (click on it to get the full map):

And here are links to trip reports for each day:

Day 0: Night of the Comet
Day 1: Bishop Pass
Day 2: Storm on Muir Pass
Day 3: Fifteen Miles!
Day 4: Selden Pass
Day 5: Bear Creek to Mono Creek North Fork
Day 6: Hail on Fish Creek
Day 7: Virginia, Purple, and Duck
Day 8: Down, down, down to Reds Meadow
Day 9: Up to Gladys and down to Ediza
Day 10: Garnet Lake, Thousand Island Lake, and Island Pass
Day 11: Over Donahue Pass to Lyell Canyon
Day 12: Lower Cathedral Lake
Day 13: DA BEARS!
Day 14: Down in the valley, the valley so low