The Initial Idea:

My family and I have always been into the outdoors. I started backpacking at the age of 6 when my parents took me and my two older brothers hiking about 2 to 3 miles into the Middle Fork of the Tuolumne River, near Yosemite National Park in California. It was primarily a fisherman's trail that put us onto some very scenic river. My Dad took my two older brothers up stream to fly fish while my Mom and I stayed back to tend camp. While they said I'd probably be in the way, Mom said they were too afraid I'd catch all of the fish! Moms always know these kinds of things! Anyway that was back in 1962 and our family has been backpacking, hiking, camping or just spending time outdoors since. I've been back to that original spot several times, some as a kid and some as an adult. I even tried to get my son there one time, but we could never pick up the trail after the big fire they had there in the 1990's. I have fished the waters below the site many times and have probably come close to the original site on day fishing trips in the past. It is a beautiful small stream that turns more into a creek in the later days of summer. But it can hold some of the most beautiful rainbow and brown trout there are.

My brother Mike has been the most enthusiastic about backpacking, and has been at it almost all of the time since that first trip. Except for the days when his kids were young and backpacking can be difficult; it seems he has been out on the trail all his life. He first did the John Muir Trail (JMT) back in 1972 between his junior and senior year in high school. He went solo and met up with a guy on the trail and made it from Whitney to Red's Meadow before the blisters took over. The next year, he talked a good friend of mine and myself into finishing the trip from Red's Meadow into Yosemite. In 2003 he did the trip again with a friend of his and this time made it all the way, even through a very consistent monsoon season! Rained almost every day of the trip!

Last year Mike and I did a trip between Tuolumne Meadows and Yosemite Valley in an effort to catch as many different species of trout we could. Wound up catching four of the five species of trout in the Sierras that trip (brown, brook, cutthroat and rainbow). The golden eluded us that trip as we had to replan due to the high snow pack and late runoff we had that year (2005). That was the first time I had gone backpacking in many years and I got the bug again. I have camped for many years on back roads and in forest service and national park campgrounds, but had lost that feeling you get with being way out in the back country. I think being out on the trail and seeing all of the sights just calms the spirit! Plus fly fishing in some of the most pristine Sierra Nevada waters isn't that bad either! To drop a fly on the headwater of a nice little riffle in a stream that has never seen a plant, and see that wild trout rise and take your fly is awesome. Of course in these conditions, catch and release is a given!

During the off season, Mike was planning his third attempt on the trail, this time going back to solo and working on a 10 day jaunt. We traded some emails, and one thing led to another. The next thing I know I'm planning on doing the trip with him. However this time it will be planned for a 16 day trip. Still pretty fast for such scenery, but all I could manage from work. In fact, my work year (and thus private life) was basically planned out through October in the second week of January! Kind of shocking to see your calendar full on January 8th! So with some emails traded back and forth, the trip started to gel. I had originally planned to meet up with Mike for a few days or a week and then bail out. However, I wanted to do the southern section as I have never been in that area before, and well that's where all of the golden trout are! Looking at various web-sites and books, I started to get a handle on where I could bail out after a certain amount of time. Well the more convenient locations were too early in the trip and they would make too short of a trip. Longer into the trip had overnight bail-outs with pick ups down long dirt roads that would be difficult to expect my wife to negotiate (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!). So when the best bail out turned out to be Red's Meadow, I figured what the heck let's do the whole darn thing! Yosemite is only a few more days, give or take a few, from Red's Meadow. Thanks to my wonderful and understanding wife (as for now we have not left for the trip!), she said go ahead and do the hike! Lucky guy I am! So what started out to be a four to seven day trip turned out to be a plan for the entire JMT north to south.

The Planning of Our Trip

For a detailed account of our trip please refer to the Journals section of this site!