[pct-l] JMT update

[dwilsonsprint4 at earthlink.net (Don Wilson)]

Just finished a JMT hike 2 days ago.  I hiked it 25 years ago as an 18 
year old, and returned this year with my wife to do it again.  We had a 
fabulous time.

An update on conditions.  The only passes with significant snow were 
Donahue, Muir, Mather and Forester.  Donahue, Mather and Forester had 
partially obscured  trails on the north sides only.  We had only a 
little trouble finding the trail, and nearly always had the trail in 
site.  Of course, the snow is melting fast, so conditions are improving 
rapidly.  The south (really east) side of Muir Pass was pretty well 
snowbound when we descended on the morning of July 5th.  This required 
just some careful attention to the map, and the trail was found pretty 
easily.  Footprints were not prevalent in the difficult areas of Muir 
Pass, as everyone seemed to spread out, and prints melted away quickly. 
  The north side of Muir was no problem, with very little snow on the 
trail.  We carried an ice axe but did not use it anywhere (although we 
both used our trekking poles for the snow slopes).  The weather was 
typical Sierra superb.   VVR rocks.

We met at least 75 thru hikers on our trip south - too many to mention. 
  It was a pleasure to meet all of them - as they showed us universal 
good cheer and encouragement. We were a bit surprised to still be 
encountering 5-8 thru hikers a day as far south as Glen Pass on July 
7th. Our last section hiker was Mr. Zip, who climbed Whitney with us on 
July 10th.

One more note as a recent convert to relatively lightweight hiking -  
in 1978, we spent 20 days on the JMT under arduous loads.  This hike 
went relatively easily in 14 days, although we did push ourselves early 
on with some big days.  Gotta love the flexibility we got from our 
lighter loads.  Wanna see some pics? If so, go to 
http://www.pbase.com/dwilson/jmt_2003

Cheers,
Don