For those who are curious, we did in fact get our permit though for a slightly round-about start. Due to trailhead quotas as well as the Donohue Pass Exit Quota, we are pretty much skipping over the Yosemite section of the JMT. Thankfully we did Tuolumne to Happy Isles a couple years ago so as much as I regret not doing the whole thing in one go, at least I'm not missing out on too much of the trail. Our trailhead is in Tioga Pass and heads up out of the park over Mono & Parker Pass. We will rejoin the JMT a couple days in below Donohue Pass.
While that was certainly a stressful week in our planning, now we're getting into the more important parts, which include our training regimen! There are many long-distance hikers who manage to get on the trail with little-to-no training. However, Dan & I prefer to calculate and offset our risks with proper preparation.
Last week we drew out a 3-month plan, filling in tasks that need to be accomplished through the weeks and listing out training hikes to get us in shape. In addition to our weekend hikes, we'll be walking the hills of our hometown and continuing our regular fitness routines through the week.
The first hike we chose to do is one I was familiar with, having done it with some friends a couple summers ago.
Name: Elk-Thurston
Date: Saturday April 9
Location: Chilliwack, BC
Approx. drive time from home: 1 h 15 min
Distance: 5 mi. / 8 km
Elevation gain: 2210 ft / 670 m
Max. elevation: 4270 ft / 1300 m
Time on trail: 3 hours
Eventually we broke out into some rocks and were rewarded with a great view of Mt. Baker to the South and the Fraser Valley to the West.
While it wasn't a long trail, it was a good wake-up to our legs, and I feel that we accomplished the hike in good time and with only a moderate degree of effort. Next weekend we'll be pushing ourselves a bit harder with a steeper climb!