July 10, 2012, Day 1-JMT, Happy Isles to Sunrise Creek

Title: July 10, 2012, Day 1-JMT, Happy Isles to Sunrise Creek

Trail head: Happy Isles

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail

Destination: Sunrise Creek

Distance: 9.43

Moving Time: 5:11

Elevation Rise: 3,500'

Maximum Elevation: 7,500'

Description:
Got to bed a lot later than expected—about 11pm. I thought we were all packed and ready to go. But things did not seem like we had everything so we went through our stuff and inventoried them again.



The alarm did not go off. But we still woke up around 5:15. Out the door and on the road by 5:45. We stopped in Oakhurst for Breakfast Burrito's at Carl's Jr. Then go to Camp Curry Parking Lot by 8:15. By 8:45 we hopped on board a shuttle bus and got off at Happy Isles to both the bathroom and to start our adventure. This is the start of our John Muir Trail adventure. We are planning on doing this in 20-22 days.



Before we have gone very far, we meet our first two disasters. Sherri does not have her Allegra and did not pack her energy shot's for this leg of the trip. She has packed those in for our restocks. The energy shots she will sorely miss on this section's steep rises/ She adjusts her attitude and onward we go.

Steven walks with us for the first three miles, just above Vernal Falls and about 1 ¼ miles from the top of Nevada Falls. It is good that Steven walked and talked with Sherri. With the couple of things forgotten, it was affecting how Sherri was thinking about this trip. Steven was able to talk through it with her and get her calmed down. After that Sherri was good and walked ok.

Of course, the walk up Nevada is drop-dead gorgeous (DDG). The falls, the domes and all. As wonderful as they are we were concentrating on the task at hand-getting to the top of Nevada Falls. It is a 2.000' rise from the Valley floor to the top of Nevada Falls and another 1,000' rise to the junction with the Half Dome trail. By the time we cross what we think is a dried up Sunrise Creek, we are spent.

When did reach the top, we had lunch. Felt good to get the pack off the back and food into our stomachs. After resting and admiring the area for half an hour, it was back on our feet, crossing the Merced River on top of Nevada Falls. I got ahead of Sherri and was wondering where she was. Turned out that Sherri looked like she knew where she was and was giving advice to others about how to get down, where were good views and the usually Gary tourist director stuff. We also stopped by the Merced a little ways into Little Yosemite Valley to restock our water and take a bite of gorp. There we were joined by a snake who encouraged us to move along.



As we went through Little Yosemite Valley, we came across what has to be the queen of latrines, at least in the Sierra's. It is a two story outhouse and always a fascination for me. We both did our business and moved on. As we climb up to the trail junction with the Half Dome trail, we met a ranger coming down from Half Dome. While not asking to see our permit, we did give answers to our travels and where we were going enough that he was satisfied.



We went beyond the Cloud's Rest trail junction before feeling like we needed to stop. Met a fellow JMT'er who camped along the creek. He found some pools of water and is boiling his. We go up a little beyond the creek crossing and find a site on the ridge, east of the creek. Nice site. Even found a place where the water is running—very slightly We are able to catch the water in my filter bag. We dropped our packs around 5:30.



Dinner is freeze dried Beef Stew—tastes good. At a 3,500' climbing day we are glad to be able to do it, but very tired. We go to bed at 8:45 to escape the mosquito's.



Did I mention that it was hot all day? We were sweating like crazy. So when we got to the semi-dry creek which we thought was Sunrise, we were a bit disappointing. Also we thought we were crossing Sunrise Creek and had gone a bit farther. But all in all, we did well for the day.