There is no time like the present.
This year, a small group of us to decided to enter the permit lottery for the John Muir Trail. The JMT runs from Yosemite Valley to the top of Mt Whitney through 211 miles of the most scenic mountain lakes, peaks, and forests that the Sierra’s have to offer. Add on an additional 11 miles to make it out from the top of Mt Whitney to Whitney Portal for the complete 222 mile journey. We had a rough idea of what we wanted to do. We wanted to start from Yosemite Valley and travel South-Bound (SOBO) on the trail. I know myself as someone who couldn’t count the trail complete unless we started from one end and finished at the other end. The advantage to travelling south is you get to acclimate slowly as you work your way to Mt Whitney as opposed to having to top out on day 1 or 2. You also don’t have very far to go until the first resupply.
Despite having backpacked for several years now, this is my first real thru-hike and feel sort of like a newb all over again. In my mind, thru-hiking is a different kind of game compared to the short multi-day trips we have been doing. I find it daunting, both mentally and physically.
If you know absolutely nothing about the JMT or if you do and just want to know more details, the best free resource I found is from the PCTA, here.
If you want a nice breakdown of each section along with mileage markers, I found the John Muir Trail: The Essential Guide to Hiking America’s Most Famous Trail
by Elizabeth Wenk to be perfect. The only out of date info I found was the cost to send food resupplies to the various resorts.
To apply, you need to know
Entry point
Exit Point
When you would want to start
Approximate exit date
Group size
Entry Point
Your entry point changes which permit system you will have to go through and how far in advance of your start date you’ll apply. Both directions utilizes a lottery system.
Yosemite National Park (SOBO)
If you start from one of the options in Yosemite (Happy Isles Pass-Thru, Happy Isles LYV, Glacier Point, Sunrise Lakes, Lywell Canyon), you’ll use the Yosemite wilderness permit system which opens 168 days prior to the entry date. You can find the Yosemite start JMT permit here. If you don’t get the start date you want your application will roll-over to the next day until the “last desired date” indicated on the application (max 20 days) uness you cancel it. If you still haven’t received a permit after 20 days you will need to submit a new application.
The cost is $5 per person + $5 per permit. Should the trip leader be unable to attend, you are allowed to transfer the permit to someone else.
Whitney Portal (NOBO)
Disclaimer: I only applied for permits through Yosemite so I don’t know the fine details of the Whitney application. What I list here is what I could find from online resources.
If you start from Whitney Portal, you’ll need a permit for Inyo National Forest and go through recreation.gov. From February 1st to March 15th you can apply for permits starting from Whitney Portal for any date that season. Starting March 24 you can view the results of the lottery. On April 1st, any remaining spots are made available online. I didn’t enter the lottery this way but it seems like any overnight hiker in the Whitney Zone competes for the same spots.
The cost is $15 per person + $10 per transaction. You can list up to 3 alternate trip leaders on the application. Alternate trip leaders cannot be changed after the lottery.
Exit Point
You can either do the full trail or segments of the trail.
When to Start
Like any trip in the Sierras, snow levels, bugs and water availability are what to consider when planning your trip. I’ve backpacked through snow before and its exhausting. In picking our start date as well as determining what gear I will be taking, I frequently check the current snow levels for the Sierras.
Approximate Exit Date
Give yourself a few days buffer to complete the hike.
Group Size
Like any backpacking permit, the larger the group, the harder it will be to get the day/trailhead that you want. Yosemite allows permits for up to 15 but not all trailheads have daily quotas that large. A great reference to keep track of is Yosemite’s Full Trailhead Report which will tell you which trailheads and which days are already full.
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