The Plan

Casey Koehn, Shane Groff, Bryson Jon Coblentz, and I are planning to start a thru-hike of the John Muir Trail starting on June 17. All are from Livingston, except Bryson, who is from Southern Ohio. We plan to resupply four times: Tuolumne Meadows (Mile 24), Red's Meadow (Mile 60), Muir Trail Ranch (Mile 106), and Taboose Pass (Mile 158). Waylen Koehn (also from Livingston) will join around June 25 at Muir Trail Ranch, which is halfway between Happy Isles and Mt. Whitney. Dad will hike a resupply over Taboose Pass and join us for the last few days of the trip. We should finish the hike on July 4.

    Hiking southbound, we should have plenty of time to acclimate higher altitude before hitting the twelve thousand foot passes later in the hike. In the first half of the trip, we will climb three 11,000' passes, but most of our time will be spent around nine thousand feet. After the halfway point, we will climb five 12,000' passes before summiting Whitney (14,496') on our final day. Our eighteen day itinerary calls for ten to fifteen miles of hiking every day without any rest days. We will also be climbing two to four thousand feet most days. At this point, I have no idea if we will find this to be too slow or too fast. Bryson and I did a hike last March where we covered forty-two miles in three days so I think we will be able to keep up with our itinerary.

    Knowing how much food to pack is another challenge. In Yosemite, King's Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks, we are required to keep all food in an approved bear proof container. The BV500, which is a 9" by 13" cylinder, seems to be the best canister available for a long through hike. Because of the size limitation of the canister and our high caloric expenditure, I was quite concerned about packing enough food to provide the necessary energy but keeping it compact enough to fit six day's worth of food in the canister. Helpfully, many online sources recommended packing around three thousand calories per day so I used that as a starting point. Many people use freeze-dried meals for such trips, but I find these pose three problems: they are expensive, the packaging they come in is bulky and does not pack well, and they often cause gastrointestinal distress. I chose to put together some recipes that have been put together by Andrew Skurka, an experienced backpacking guide. For breakfast, I mixed three and a half ounces of granola with half an ounce of Muscle Milk protein powder and half an ounce of powdered milk. Love Crunch Double Chocolate Chunk granola mix made a delicious breakfast. For suppers, I will use beans and rice, peanut noodles, and cheesy potatoes. Beans and rice consists of dehydrated refried beans, instant rice, cheese, taco seasoning, and chili cheese Fritos. Although I know it makes a delicious supper on the trail, I am a little concerned about the gastrointestinal issues commonly associated with ingesting too much fiber. Peanut noodles is a regular Ramen noodles plus a peanut butter based sauce that adds flavor, fat, and protein. This one seems to be quite easy on the gut and may end up making a good lunch if I want to fire up the stove along the trail someday. Cheesy potatoes is nothing more than instant mashed potatoes mixed with cheese, bacon bits, freeze dried green chiles (or green chile powder), butter, and a touch of nutritional yeast. Non-backpacking onlookers have turned up their noses at the soupy green mess, but please don't down it until you have tried it yourself. It is simply delicious.

    In addition to my main meals, I also plan to pack Nature Valley granola bars, fruit leather, Paydays, hickory smoked tuna packets, nuts, Tootsie Rolls, and Trollie gummy worms. Hopefully, this will be enough calories to keep me going and enough variety to keep me interested in eating.

    I cannot write in detail about the other guys' food plans, but I know Casey is taking lots of Ramen; Shane has enough Siracha and mayonnaise to eat several packets a day, and Bryson is taking several packages of raisins and M&M's. I hope they don't get burnt out on their food after a week.