Follow Ellen on the JMT

[Hikin_Jim]

They don't call it Tully "hole" for nothing.

HJ

[skunkboy]

Looks like Ellen spent the night at the Vermilion resort, and probably enjoyed a well deserved hot shower and chilled refreshing beverage or two.

[zippetydude]

Hi all. Ellen came to visit us (a week ago Sunday) in Yosemite and stayed the night with us. We get very poor cell reception there and were lucky to catch her inbound call.

Cat and I went and found her by the ranger station and brought her home with us. She had had a very rough time of it coming up from the valley with the hordes of mosquitoes and daily monsoon rains making it all but impossible to travel. She did so anyway, but had mosquito bites in the triple digits. We dried her out and just happened to have a couple of her favorite beers on ice, Ivette made us all a yummy dinner, so things were on the upswing. Next day I walked Ellen through the confusing trail junctions up there and sent her on her way up the trail in Lyell Canyon. It was warm and clear and a beautiful morning. She was full of energy and looking good.

We couldn't get reception for the next couple of days, then I got a message from Ellen in Reds Meadow saying she had a "disastrous couple of days over Donahue" and she was ready to pull the pin on this thing. I think the message was 3 days old when I got it, or we would have picked her up in Mammoth. I texted her back immediately, but she didn't make further contact. We got home today and I see she continued forward from there.

That's all I know from this end, but feel bad we missed her first message and left her stranded in Mammoth with no bail out point. I hope the snow in the passes isn't too bad and things are smoothing out now. I'm glad to see she's on the move, hopefully she'll end up having fun and glad she finished this arduous adventure. The snow and water levels are very challenging this year, not to mention those evil mosquitoes. We're rootin' for ya Ellen!

z

[Hikin_Jim]

That's very cool that you guys were able to hook up in Yosemite.

Go, Ellen, go!

HJ

[Mike P]

I wonder how Ellen fared over the Garnet Lake outlet.
On Thursday, Aug 4, my son and I hiked from Agnew Meadows out to Silver Lake on the June Lake loop. We took the PCT/High Trail and ran into lots of JMT through hikers up there. All of them said they had to divert to the PCT rather than stay in the traditional JMT valley approach to Agnew Meadows. The JMT hikers were warned by rangers that the bridge over the Garnet outlet creek was gone/destroyed by water.

[calicokat]

Hello all. I just returned from the JMT last night. There were epic/terrible thunderstorms in the Sierra's July 29th through August 1st with the 31st being the big one. I am sure it slowed her down.

Conditions are spring like. Muir Pass and its lakes look like it is April. The stream crossings weren't as bad as initially reported and outside Muir Pass and the North Sides of Mather and Forester, all is well. She will be fine........

Here is an ongoing blog, i will post more later.......

http://calicokat-johnmuirtrail2011.blogspot.com/

[Norris]

As of 2 hours ago:
ESN :
0-8221153
Type :
Check in/OK
Latitude :
37.29963
Longitude :
-118.87137
Time :
Sun Aug 07 2011 18:27:41 GMT-0700 (PDT)

[AlanK]

Ellen made some good headway today -- all the way to Marie Lake from Vermillion Camp.

[Cy Kaicener]

i was looking at this link for hikers on the JMT looking for Ellen

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johnmuirtrail/messages

Latest JMT trail conditions as per Summitpost thread
http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=59391

[Sally]

I'm supposing Ellen picked up her food drop at Muir Ranch today. It looks like she crossed Piute Creek this afternoon. There was a bridge there when I crossed it back in 2000. I think she did about 12.5 miles today.

Thank you, calicokat, for the reassurance that Ellen will be fine. I was a bit nervous about reports about conditions on Mather and Forester Passes. Congratulations on your JMT experience.

zip, I bet in the long run that Ellen will be glad that you didn't bail her out!

Keep on truckin' Ellen!