There will be plenty of time to rough it here. Why not treat yourself to some creature comforts before?
The two most popular places to stay before your John Muir Trail hike, assuming you are hiking southbound, are Mammoth Lakes and Yosemite Valley. (There are certainly other options, including Tuolumne Meadow, Oakhurst, and Mariposa, but Mariposa and Oakhurst are too low, and staying at Tuolumne means a Spartan, wilderness experience. Most folks want a little more, particularly since they’re going to get a whole lot of the wilderness in the following weeks. A new option is Fresno, since there is now YARTS service to and from the valley, but Fresno is even lower than Oakhurst!)
Before you decide where to stay, however, you are going to have to decide how long to stay. If you don’t live in the mountains, I would suggest three nights. I recognize that adding three nights to your time away can be difficult, but so can HAPE and HACE. Spending three nights (and all or part of four days) at a higher elevation can give you a tremendous head start at acclimatizing to the backcountry. If three is out of the question, two is better than one, and so on.
There are certain advantages to spending those nights in Yosemite Valley. To begin with, the options for accommodations run the gamut from a spot in a campground, to a tent cabin in Curry Village (which is an easy walk to the trailhead), to a room in Yosemite Lodge, to the luxury of the Ahwahnee hotel. Staying in the valley will also give you the opportunity to check in with the Wilderness Center, where you pick up your permit. (You even may be able to switch your permit for one you prefer.)
There are some disadvantages, though. The most significant is that Yosemite Valley, at 4,000 feet, is not very high. You’ll certainly gain some benefit if you are coming from a home near sea level, but you will likely be above 8,000 feet on the second day of your hike, and it will be nearly a week before you descend to Red’s Meadow.
The other disadvantage is that it is hard to get reservations, unless you can make them a year out. The park fills up quickly, particularly in the summer and fall.
My choice is Mammoth Lakes; it has a lot to recommend it.
First, you can fly right into the town from either San Francisco or Los Angeles. A cab ride to one of the town’s hotels from the airport is about $20.
Speaking of hotels, I like the Shiloh Inn. It is inexpensive, near one of the town’s shuttle stops (more on that in moment), has a restaurant next door with the best huevos rancheros I have ever eaten (The Breakfast Club), and is mere steps from the YARTS bus stop. You will take the YARTS bus into the valley the day before you begin your hike. There are plenty of other alternatives to the Shiloh Inn, at a very wide variety of prices.
Mammoth Lakes also happens to be a delightful place to relax for a few days. The town has a scheduled shuttle that is free, and it will take you to good restaurants, a movie theater, and a number of well-equipped outdoor stores, in case you want to make some last minute changes to your gear list. It is definitely a place that caters to tourists, but I’ve never quite been able to summon the condescension necessary to dislike those sorts of venues.
Most importantly, at nearly 8,000 feet, by the time you leave for Yosemite Valley you will be ready for the high country ahead.
Good hiking, Ray
I stayed at the Shiloh Inn unexpectedly like 10 years ago. We were doing a camping/fishing trip up north of Bishop and a mother of a storm blew in. We didn’t think our tents could withstand the hail and winds so we packed up and headed into Mammoth Lakes and ended up at the Shiloh Inn. I have a distinct memory of watching the rain and hail pour down and the storm blow itself out while I sat in a sauna comfortable and happy.
It was pleasantly memorable back then and it’s really great to hear it’s still a pleasant option.
Great story, Sean. Thanks for the comment!
After weeks of trying to get a permit out of the valley with no luck I decide to look at alternatves. I’m flying into mammoth lakes Wednesday sept 9. Next day hitch to Devils pp start northbound to yosemite via jmt. Sunday afternoon catch yarts back to mammoth from the valley. Return to same hotel then next day hitch out to Devils pp southbound on jmt with exit whitney permit. Both separate permits. Unfortunately shuttles stop day before my hike…lil concerned about the altitude as I’m from north Florida. All my hikes are done -6,000′ on AT. I’m on a tight schedule and only have 15 days to hike it. I’m fine doing 15-17 mpd in southeast. I plan to keep my pack under 12 lbs with out food or water. Still trying to decide on my shelter set up. I use a solong6(2lb) and love it for me and my dog. Thinking about trying a tarp to save a lb or so since I plan to cowboy camp as you did. Should I try tarp or stick with the solong6?
It has been a tough year for permits, Richard. I understand your frustration. The Solong is already pretty light, so my question would be this: are your tarp skills sufficient that you can pitch it in a way that it will weather a thunderstorm with hail and strong winds? If you are at all in doubt, go with the tent. Good hiking!
We stayed in Merced last summer and bought all our resupply gear from the local stores & supermarkets! It kept our costs down significantly as the motel rates in Merced were relatively low. Merced also has an Amtrak station and is a YARTS stop also.
We did take our time and took 5 days to get to Tuolumne having had two very easy days around the Cathedral Lakes area (easily worth the slow pace). This allowed us to acclimatize a little easier.
We flew in to SF from the UK and as such were straight from sea level. We have had experience of altitude before so we knew what to expect and how to manage that.
If we had a greater budget then the Ahwahnee would be great. It was good enough for the Queen!
Merced is a great option, although not high. Thanks for suggesting it. For those interested, more on the Ahwahnee here.
For those starting in yosemite valley, I think the altitude increase is gradual enough it wont matter for most. For some that that have issues, they might take greater precautions.
typical for a fast person :
night 1 in yosemite valley – 4000 ft
night 2 at LYV (or not very far after on pass thru) – 6185 ft
night 3 somewhere close to Tuolumne meadows 8600 ft max.
night 4 somehwere near donahue pass – ~8000-10000
This is a reasonable acclimation rate.
Thanks, MB. I prefer a more gradual acclimatization, but you are right: some don’t need it.
A different perspective on the comment “For some that that have issues, they might take greater precautions”:
You can’t reliably predict from past high altitude experience whether you will have altitude issues, and thus need to take greater precautions. And if you find yourself experiencing even moderate high altitude sickness while on your JMT hike, you’ll probably regret not taking greater precautions to acclimatize in advance.
Before my JMT hike, I had never experienced any altitude issues, despite hiking/camping at 10K+ altitudes a fair number of times, except for a minor issue with nausea starting at about 13,500 ft. on a Mt. Whitney hike.
On the JMT, with a Glacier Point start and a permit-mandated night at LYV, I found myself suffering nausea and loss of appetite starting below 9,400 – and this continued for several days, from below the Sunrise High Sierra camp area until I resupplied in Mammoth and was able to start a course of Diamox, which made a difference very rapidly.
The study that Dr. Ken Murray and others conducted at Mt. Whitney showed that the main risk factors for altitude sickness severe enough to keep people from summiting were: gender, age, and total number of hours spent over 10,000 ft. elevation during the two weeks before the summit attempt. (Perhaps surprisingly, females and older persons were at lower risk.) Obviously, the only one of those that we can control is the # of hours over 10,000 ft.
Since I live in So. California, I easily could have timed my JMT training hikes on Mt. Baldy, San Jacinto and San Gorgonio to be within that two-week window, but as it happened, I did them too far in advance to be of optimal benefit in acclimatization for my JMT hike. I would change that for future hikes, and I also share Ray’s more gradual acclimatization preference. I loved my JMT thru-hike (and had NO issues on Forrester or Whitney), but would have had a lot more fun on those days in the Sunrise-to-Reds stretch without the nausea. And though Mammoth is sort of ugly, it is a great place to get last minute supplies and enjoy some excellent food while spending pre-JMT time at high altitude.
Thanks, Betty. This is great stuff. Good news about older dudes like me.
I can’t say that I agree with Mammoth being ugly. I kind of like the place!
A friend and I are prepping for a JMT through hike in 2016 and are debating on June/July start vs your suggestion of Sept. Sept sounds good except concerns about water, lots of bugs etc. June July concerns about lots of snow. Love to hear from you and your readers. We hope to start applying the moment we can.
Given the changes to permitting rules, and if you are committed to hiking a more or less “pure” JMT, one should probably just keep requesting a permit starting as early as you feel comfortable. The permit is definitely the toughest part, now.