September 13, 2023
Back on the John Muir Trail with my HikaNation hiking family of 42 years - a most beautiful part of the country!
Pack feels heavy but my spirit is filled with awe. Three days till we enter the backcountry of Yosemite National Park.
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Stacey Waring |
Sharon Morrissey
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Cindy Burke |
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Stacey Waring & Sharon Morrissey |
Stacey: The beauty of Yosemite regaled us over the final four days of our trek. Hiking the John Muir Trail through the backcountry of this incredible park with my friends was pure joy. Three of them got permits to climb the cables of Half Dome, and I was so happy for them.
Gorgeous lakes, trails, and happy hours at the campgrounds was the perfect ending to a lovely two week journey.
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Cathedral Lake |
Sunset in Yosemite |
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Climbing up a beautiful ridge.
Click here for the video |
The non-Half Domers hiked behind (but John Mills, Jr. later did it!)
John Mills, Jr., Cindy Burke, Lyle Bialk, Sharon Morrissey |
You can see the cables on Half Dome with climbers
if you look closely...whew! |
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Tim Geoghegan on top of Half Dome.
He said it was exhausting pulling himself up 400 feet! |
Tim's view was impressive and scary!
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Stacey Waring
Trails were wonderfully maintained throughout the park. |
Beautiful Yosemite Valley
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Stacey Waring
Ready for more?! |
Nevada Falls from a distance. |
Nevada Falls
Click here for the video |
Stacey Waring
Great directions if you can read them!
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Happy hour was a highlight after hiking all day.
Lyle Bialk, John Mills, Jr.,
Sharon Morrissey, Cindy Burke |
How did Honnold climb El Capitan without ropes??? |
Lyle Bialk & Stacey Waring
went to see the Giant Sequoias. |
Amazing Giant Sequoias trees,
over two thousand years old!
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Stacey Waring, Tish Butcher, Lyle Bialk, Cindy Burke,
Sharon Morrissey, Tim Geoghegan, John Mills, Jr.
Til we meet again, dear friends, happy trails!
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John Mills, Jr., Tim Geoghegan, Cindy Burke,
Tish Butcher, Lyle Bialk, Sharon Morrissey, Stacey Waring
Duck Creek Pass - September 2023
Photo provided by John Mills, Jr.
Commentary along with more of John's photos from this trip can be found
on his Facebook page and his Facebook album, John Muir Trail Backpack. |
From John Mills, Jr.:
In September, 2023, for almost 3 weeks (11 days of actual backpacking - September 9th through September 20th) , I made a trip to California's Sierra Nevada to backpack 77 miles of the 211-mile-long John Muir Trail (JMT), just over 1/3rd of one of the most scenic mountain trails in the U.S., named after the iconic naturalist John Muir. I had done all but the northern-most section from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley 46 years prior (in 1977) when I was 22 & most of it yet again 4 years later. So I was glad to have the opportunity to do it again recently.
What made this trip extra special was that I was doing it with 6 other old friends all of whom were participants in HikaNation 43 years prior, a transcontinental backpack trip we completed over 13&1/2 months, walking 4,300 miles from coast to coast.
It was my good fortune to be able to participate in this JMT trip since an ailing Achilles tendon had already forced me to postpone another endeavor, an August trip to equatorial Africa to climb it's highest mountain, Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,341'), now happening in January, 2024. But fortunately the ankle healed in the nick of time & I was able to go & complete the entire walk. Two of my companions are going to Africa with me in January.
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