Bucket List - Backpacking the JMT

July 2025: I started out of Yosemite Valley and sixteen days later ended on top of Mt. Whitney, with a long hike out through Whitney Portal that reminded me the end of the trail is never the end. The John Muir Trail was everything I hoped for — quiet, peaceful, beautiful, and exactly the kind of solitude I didn’t know I needed. Cathedral Lakes, Lyell Canyon, McClure Meadows, Muir Hut, Forrester Pass, Mt. Whitney — not a dud in the bunch. Every turn looked like it was pulled straight off a postcard.

There was only one section that tested my will to live: the hike through Sunrise Lake, where the mosquitos were so thick they could’ve formed a union and negotiated for airspace. Still, even that had its charm — in a “maybe next time I’ll treat my cloths with a gallon of Permethrin and use Deet as cologne” kind of way.

After sixteen days of dehydrated trail food and solitude, that first off-trail hamburger and fresh orange tasted like a religious experience. I spent most of the hike daydreaming about Dr. Pepper and Snickers Bars, and honestly, I think John Muir would’ve understood.