[pct-l] JMT trip in August

[rpepper8 at attbi.com (Ron Pepper)]

My name's Ron, no trail name yet and since this is my first post, I'll 
mention some things about myself. A few years ago, I was introduced to 
ultralight packing and have been gradually lightening my load. This has 
worked very nicely even for snowcamping trips in the Sierra's. I'm 
interested in thru-hiking  the PCT in sections and to that end I've 
been following this newsletter and some other thru-hiker sites.

A friend and I are planning to hike the JMT starting on August 14th. We 
want to break our hike into three legs of about a week each. This is 
our first attempt at a longer hike and we want to be conservative. 
We'll hike north to south and plan to resupply at Muir Ranch and again 
in Independence by hiking out over Kearsarge Pass.  Alternate 
resupplies might be done at VVR and second by hiking out to Cedar Grove 
via Bubbs Creek trail. Any thoughts on these options or others?

I've been using trail running shoes for most of my summer hikes lately, 
but haven't been over high passes like those we'll encounter on the 
JMT. Will trail runners be adequate for late August? Should we take any 
special precautions, such as timing the passes for afternoons when the 
snow is softer or carrying ice axes? I've heard there is a very icy 
section on the switchbacks leading down to Whitney Portal, will the 
lighter shoes be a problem there?

We plan to carry bear canisters, but the idea doesn't trill us. It's an 
extra 3 lbs. that has no dual use except as a camp stool. More 
importantly, can we fit a weeks worth of food into a standard Garcia 
canister? We'll be bringing dehydrated beans, lentil, some pasta, 
cheese, dry salami, tortillas etc. I don't have a canister at home to 
test the capacity and was planning on renting one in Yosemite. If we 
can't get it all into our canisters, do we need to camp where there are 
bear boxes for a few nights until the excess is eaten? Generally, we'd 
like to camp away from the usual sites, a'la Jardine, but we realize 
that some nights it might be better to camp near a bear box. Any 
comments about all this? Thanks in advance!