JMT... People are Honest

I just returned on Saturday from another trip to Yosemite. Still my favorite place to go. With this Backpack trip I have now completed the High Sierra loop in Yosemite. It was a good four day trip. I did learn a couple of things on this trip. One people are very honest in the back country. On the first day after driving to Yosemite and hiking six miles I made it to Sunrise High Sierra camp. I was backpacking so I started to look for a good spot to camp for the night. I took off my pack and put my camera and hiking poles down on a stump. After looking around I found where I wanted to camp for the night. I went back picked up my pack, poles, and thought I had my camera. After starting to set up camp I noticed my camera was not there. As Panic started to over come me I remembered I had put it on the stump back where I sat my pack down. I went back about 20 yards to the stump no camera. Now panic did set in $300 bucks gone. I had just seen the bill on my CC for parking in a no parking zone if SF and having the car towed. It was becoming a bad month. I thought I must have not picked it up after my last rest stop about a mile up the trail I mean up. With no pack off I went covered that mile in less than 20 mins. Found the stump no camera. Now it was setting in no camera the rest of the trip someone had picked it up and it was now theirs. One last idea maybe someone turned it into the High Sierra camp office. Back down the trail to the lodge office. Really just a canvas covered frame. All there supplies, etc come in by Mule train each day. I asked the guy getting dinner ready for the guest and he said was that it on the shelf?? Yes it was the nice folks in tent #9 turned it in. I found tent 9 and thanked them. The lady thought it was a cell phone. She hated electronic things and did own a cell or digital camera. They had seen it on the stump and thought one of the guests had forgotten it. So people in the back country are honest.

Most people on this loop hike from HS camp to camp and stay in the tent cabins complete with food, bed, water and maybe a shower at two of the five camps. Each camp has a backpackers area so you can backpack the loop and stay for free. People told me if you volunteered to do breakfast dishes some of the camps would feed you breakfast. I stuck with my instant oatmeal. This year being so dry Sunrise was short of water and would not share with the backpackers their supply. So it took a little hunting up the dry stream to find a pool of water but it was only about a 150 feet up the hill.

I have been thinking about doing the JMT ( John Muir Trail ) sometime. At Sunrise camp I talked to a young guy from Ohio who had just completed the JMT a week faster than he planned. He did the 220 miles in 12 days. As he said once you get going all you really have to do is walk unless you bring a lot of books. After the four days not sure I could do 20 miles a day. I may have to rethink how I do it. I do need to make my own tarp tent. I have a plan off the Internet I just need to get the materials and sew it. That plus a couple of other changes should save about 3 more pounds out of my pack. My Pepsi can stove performed great again I can get by on 2.5 oz of fuel a day. And the REI pack I purchased with my saved pocket change and REI Dividend worked great. It is about 4 pound lighter than my Gregory. And with some planning has the needed room.

Enough for now I need to get out on the bike again.