Summary: John Muir Trail Completed

From JMT mile 0.0 to 205.8+ Total: 251.8 miles hiked 7/30-8/21

Totals: 56500 feet climbed, 51700 feet descended, 650000 steps taken

 

I spent about a month in the Summer of 2025 hiking over two hundred fifty miles on the John Muir Trail, from late July into August.  I hiked a total of 23 days, but there were several driving days and bus days as well.  Some of those miles were on side quests, off the JMT itself, but they were all necessary parts of a successful adventure.

Hiking the full JMT southbound from Yosemite Valley to Mount Whitney was one of the best and most memorable treks of my life.  Of course, I had already hiked essentially all of it before this year, in smaller segments, during my limited Summer vacations, spanning roughly fifteen years.  I also hiked most of it, via the PCT last year, in 2024, except in a northbound direction.  I can now state that heading in the opposite direction was a new experience!  Just ask any hiker: None of us turn around often enough to see where we’ve been.  It’s also obvious that I have a lasting love for the High Sierra, so I didn’t mind hiking it all yet again.  Once again, I didn’t try to do huge miles per day.  I wanted to enjoy myself, not partake in a sufferfest.  Which I did!  And it was great!  Best decision ever.

After Vicki and I got back from our aborted PCT Washington hike attempt in May, I made my plans.  I already knew all the places that had great campsites.  I worked out a plan that varied my days from ten miles to thirteen or so, depending on difficulty and best destinations, and mapped it out.  Not bad, I said to myself.

And that’s what happened.  My plans actually worked!  I managed to stash (or mail) my food resupplies to the places where I could get to them easily, without breaking stride and spending any zero days at motels.  Except in the beginning while I was traveling north by bus, of course.  I’m talking about resupplies while hiking, and only the one at Onion Valley took an extra night, which I spent in a tent on trail.  Oh, and we stayed in a cabin at Reds Meadow Resort for one night, but that was by pure luck and an all-too-human failure to resist the temptation of hot showers.

 

You can see what I did while hiking the John Muir Trail on my CalTopo Map.  It shows the exact locations where I camped, stayed in motels, took buses, and plenty more.  For example. I marked all the passes along the way, even the ones the USGS hasn’t named yet.  That’s because I took the liberty of naming them!  I put this map together using gpx track files that I found on the internet (made by others) and edited them, point by point, to fix the errors I discovered.  Personally, I like CalTopo best as a mapping app, because it delivers the easiest and most functional user interface.  I also use the Far Out app, because of the crowdsourced info about water and camping locations, and it is totally worth the $25 cost.  Both are good, but if you have to choose, Far Out is absolutely required for all JMT hikers.  Bring a paper map, sure, but don’t go crazy and only carry a map and compass.  Use the best tools you can buy to get the best results for your hike.

Included here is the elevation profile of my John Muir Trail GPS Track.  This was also generated by CalTopo.  The Far Out app says that the trail is 205.8 miles long, whereas CalTopo says it’s 209.7 miles total.  The signs in Yosemite Valley at the Happy Isles Trailhead say 215 miles.  I’ve also heard 211 miles.  In other words:  Your mileage may vary.  Not shown here are my side trips, because my total mileage hiked was over 250 miles when all was said and done!  You can see how it starts down near 4000 feet elevation at Happy isles and ramps up to some serious High Sierra Shenanigans within the first ten miles.  The ending is the highest of all, on Mount Whitney at 14500 feet elevation.

 

As a “Type A” hiker personality, I had to include in this summary a spreadsheet showing my daily toil on the trail.  “JMT Mile” in the chart means the Far Out app’s mileage number, and “Elev” is the elevation, in feet, of the campsite at the end of the day.  All elevation gains and losses were generated by the Far Out app as I lay in camp each night.  Exceptions are when I hiked off-trail, such as visits to Half Dome, Tuolumne Meadows Campground, Reds Meadow Resort, Muir Trail Ranch, Onion Valley, and Whitney Portal.  These are the sections where I used CalTopo’s mileage and elevation data.

As a Map Nerd, I find all of these numbers to be quite amusing, because they are generated by mathematical algorithms using vector sums from topographic projections.  In my opinion, they overdo some parts, especially along the sides of steep canyons, and underdo the reality on the ground, where the trail bounces up and down beyond the resolution of topo lines.  Those lines are also subject to the error of cartographers.  Not everything in the mountains has a perfect-to-the-nearest-inch radar-reflective value in the USGS datastore.  To make it worse, the track itself is made of 26,592 data points (averaging 42 feet per point) that are connected by 26,591 straight lines, which introduces additional error.  With so many data points it’s hoped that all the zigzags eventually cancel out.  Real trails are continuous curves.  With varying width!  Yes, reality is always more complex, as all True Map Nerds know.

Oh, and before I forget, an additional data point that I collected was the number of “steps” that I took each day, according to my Enduro 3 smartwatch.  All told, I took far more than a half million steps this past Summer!  How did I do it?  One step at a time.

Day	Page Name	JMT Mile	Elev	Mi/day	Up	Down	Steps	Date
	John Muir Trail 2025	0
1	Happy Isles to Clouds Rest Jct	6.5	7164	6.5	3353	226	19955	07-30
2	Half Dome	10.3	8566	8.9	3452	1887	23820	07-31
3	Tuolumne Meadows	22.5	8620	12.8	2307	2256	37707	08-01
4	Lyell Canyon	33.1	9659	10.7	1360	312	27987	08-02
5	Donohue Pass to Garnet Lake	43.9	9759	11.3	2503	2540	27086	08-03
6	Shadow Creek to Minaret Creek	54.3	8130	10.9	1841	3409	27872	08-04
7	Reds Meadow Resort	58	7653	7.2	935	1358	19938	08-05
8	Crater Meadow and Duck Lake	68.9	10051	13.5	3394	1088	33282	08-06
9	Tully Hole and Squaw Lake	78.2	10286	11.4	2657	2396	23889	08-07
10	Silver Pass to VVR	86	7684	9.2	791	3384	25790	08-08
11	VVR to Bear Creek Ford	95.8	9583	12.2	3072	1189	30917	08-09
12	Selden Pass and MTR Resupply	109.1	8081	13.8	2202	3700	36691	08-10
13	Evolution Valley and Lake	121.2	10876	12.4	3196	400	29973	08-11
14	Muir Pass and Le Conte Canyon	133.5	8865	12.3	1227	3274	31150	08-12
15	Golden Staircase to Palisade Lk	145.3	10853	11.8	3067	1106	30695	08-13
16	Mather Pass to Lake Marjorie	156.1	11167	10.7	2448	2136	26660	08-14
17	Pinchot Pass to Arrowhead Lake	169.4	10321	13.3	2907	3765	34303	08-15
18	Glen Pass and Kearsarge Pass	175.7	10515	11.5	2982	2781	29656	08-16
19	Onion Valley to Bubbs Creek	180.3	10400	14	3610	3735	37559	08-17
20	Forester Pass to Tyndall Creek	190.2	10973	9.9	3232	2178	25531	08-18
21	Guitar Lake	201.5	11484	12.3	2697	2142	32846	08-19
22	Whitney Summit	212.8	10385	11.4	3250	4379	24677	08-20
23	Whitney Portal and Lone Pine	216.8	3727	3.8	26	2056	11579	08-21
	JMT Completed
TOT		216.8		251.8	56509	51697	649563
Avg			9594.3	10.9	2457	2248	28242

Anyway, the more interesting numbers are down at the bottom, in the totals and averages.  I hiked over 250 miles out there, but I only hiked 11 or so per day.  Some days were longer, and others shorter.  I also climbed and descended over fifty thousand feet.  That’s about twenty miles straight up!  And down.  I didn’t include the time spent per day, because it varied depending on how I felt, or how my feet felt.  In general, I hiked anywhere from nine to thirteen hours per day (including rests).  I’m not that fast either.  I simply wake up early and keep on trudging along.  I also spend a lot of time taking photos and videos, more than almost everybody, I’m sure.  But that’s just me.

If you want to know what gear and food I brought, check out my Intro Page, where there are two more Type A Spreadsheets.  These lists were dialed in during 2023 and 2024, when I hiked 1150 miles of the PCT.  All of my gear worked well for me, and I treated everything with the respect it deserves, so none of it failed me.  That’s good gear.  But you can’t abuse this ultralight stuff, as it can be fragile.  Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you.

This year, I also stayed on top of any foot issues that arose.  Yes, I got a couple of blisters, but I used tape and a change in gait to cure them before they got worse.  It worked.  Unlike in 2023, when I had to leave the trail for a week due to severe blisters.  I learned my lesson then, and it’s been paying off ever since.

 

All told, it was one of the better Summer hikes that I’ve ever experienced.  I met new people and enjoyed their company.  I ate a lot of boring noodles and bland oatmeal, and snacked on too many Skittles and Cosmic Brownies.  But I wouldn’t change a thing.  True, I lost about ten pounds over the course of twenty three days, so that when I got home and looked in the mirror I saw an old man with loose skin.  It didn’t matter that my muscles were tough and lean and mean.  If I was still twenty that extra skin might’ve been more taut, but I can’t change my age.  Only my attitude.

I’d like to thank my hiking partners, Bob and Keith (and Sabrina!), my “Tramily” during this hike.  They turned it from a lonely solo trek into a fun time full of laughter and shared memories.  In fact, we’re hoping to hike together again next year, in 2026.  Let’s hope so!

And last of all, I’d like to thank my wife, Vicki, for putting up with my endless planning and exuberance.  We’ve been married for over forty years, and it wasn’t easy for her to remain home all alone.  I’m hoping that next Summer we can return to backpacking together once again.

 

For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page

For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page

 

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