The mountains are calling and I must go.
— John Muir
I never started the John Muir Trail at Happy Isles. I walked the Yosemite section on its own, northbound, in July 2022, a five-day trip from Rush Creek back to Happy Isles. The Donohue Pass exit is the hardest permit on the trail to draw, so many hikers do what I did and enter from a side trailhead.
The trail itself was Theodore Solomons's idea, sketched as early as 1884; construction started in 1915, and the last link (the Golden Staircase, far to the south near the Palisades) wasn't finished until 1938.
Day 0
I drove up from the Bay Area, left one car at Happy Isles for the finish, and spent the night at a motel in June Lake.
Day 1: Silver Lake to Thousand Island Lake
I left the second car at the Silver Lake trailhead and climbed from Silver Lake up to Thousand Island Lake, 7.6 miles, 3,200 feet of gain and 500 of loss. I had done the same climb the year before and it was tough. This year I thought about starting at Agnew Meadows instead, but the summer driving restrictions there make it hard, and at the end of the trip, getting back to the second car at Agnew Meadows would have meant another hour of driving in and an hour back out. The other option was to head straight to Rush Creek from Silver Lake, missing the section around Island Pass, but this was the first visit to Thousand Island Lake for the friends I was hiking with, and I wanted them to see it.
It was worth it. The sunset at Thousand Island Lake was among the best I have ever seen. Watching alpenglow at 10,000 feet is always wonderful, and we all felt it.
Day 2: Thousand Island Lake to Upper Lyell Canyon, over Donohue Pass
The second day took me from Thousand Island Lake over Donohue Pass to Upper Lyell Canyon, 12.7 miles, 1,700 feet of gain and 3,000 of loss. I had planned to reach Ireland Creek, but one of the group fell ill and would have to exit at Tuolumne the next day, so I stopped a couple of miles short.
The climb up Donohue was pretty and tough. I find all passes reasonably hard, and Donohue is among the tougher ones. The descent was worse still. It dropped me into an astonishing Upper Lyell Canyon.
Donohue Pass, at 11,056 feet, is where the trail leaves the Ansel Adams Wilderness and enters Yosemite, and it is the permit bottleneck for the whole trail. Mount Lyell, the highest point in Yosemite at 13,114 feet, rises just southwest of the pass. Its glacier has lost around 90% of its volume since the 1880s, and a 2013 study found it no longer moves.
Watching alpenglow at 10,000 feet is always wonderful, and we all felt it.
Day 3: Lyell Canyon to Upper Cathedral Lake
I hiked down Lyell Canyon to the Tuolumne Meadows wilderness center and store in the morning. It is flat ground, and a ranger had warned of rain, so I pushed hard, and that gave me blisters. I had cached two and a half days of food at the wilderness center, so I picked it up, dropped my trash, and had a cold hand-assembled sandwich at the store.
The stretch from Tuolumne to Cathedral Lakes is familiar ground, but the fear of rain drove me on. I lucked out; it rained either ahead of me or behind me. 12.9 miles and 1,557 feet of gain, and it was the distance that did me in, but the sunset was worth it.
Upper Cathedral Lake is one of my happy places on earth, a short hike from Tuolumne Meadows for a quick overnight, and I have camped there many times, including on this trip.
Day 4: Upper Cathedral Lake to Little Yosemite Valley
This day took me from Upper Cathedral Lake down to Little Yosemite Valley. I was carrying injuries by now, which meant longer breaks; the Helinox Chair Zero I had added to my pack this year found plenty of use. 13.7 miles, 860 feet of gain, 4,000 of loss.
Once over Cathedral Pass, with its views of Matthes Crest and Cathedral Peak (John Muir made the first recorded ascent of the peak, alone, in 1869), I walked through a meadow full of lupines.
The views of Echo Valley were great. Dropping over 4,000 feet to the valley was hard on the legs, but familiar sights kept me moving. I reached Little Yosemite Valley after 8 p.m. and still jumped into the Merced River, which helped.
Day 5: Little Yosemite Valley to Happy Isles
The last day got me from Little Yosemite Valley to Happy Isles, 4.6 miles, 500 feet of climbing and 2,000 feet down. This section of the JMT is one of the best places to view Nevada Fall.
Nevada Fall drops 594 feet in one plunge, nearly twice the 317 feet of Vernal Fall below it.
Then pizza at Curry Village, and the long drive back to Silver Lake (two hours with the construction on Tioga Road), where, as the year before, I jumped into June Lake to wash off before driving home over Sonora Pass.