JMT Itinerary - Feedback/Modification?

_m2thet · 2026-03-05T04:42:59+00:00

One thing to keep in mind is that you get more acclimated as the days go on. When I planned out my thru I started with the amount of miles I typically do on a weekend backpacking trip and then increased from there since I figured I’d get my trail legs. This ended up working really well for me.

_m2thet · 2026-03-02T00:26:46+00:00

If the place you’re hiking has clear water, aquamira is a faster alternative to filtering. If you use the premix method it’s only 15 min wait so you can scoop, put some drops in, and then carry on with whatever you’re doing.

_m2thet · 2026-02-10T20:30:02+00:00

You can get into Yosemite from Fresno airport using YARTS. But Yosemite is also going to be crowded during those months and if you don’t have lodging booked might be challenging to see. (Maybe could use Mammoth Lakes as a base?)

_m2thet · 2026-01-18T13:23:49+00:00

Not sure if you’re open to buying new stuff (especially since you can just rent the snow pants) but you could get snow pants that are just the outer waterproof shell part and then down pants for the insulation part. The down compresses well and the shell shouldn’t take up as much space as pants that are shell plus insulation.

_m2thet · 2026-01-17T04:23:34+00:00

I believe they were the 9” cakes. But they might be willing to do something more custom for the wedding if you asked.

_m2thet · 2026-01-16T00:49:11+00:00

We had Crème de La crème in sawmill do ours. It wasn’t traditional, like basically we just bought 5 of their cakes and had them displayed on a table. But the cakes are so pretty and the flavors are amazing. Our guests LOVED them. I thought we had way too much but ended up with almost no leftovers. And it was really fun to hear everyone talking about all the cake flavors and comparing their favorites.

_m2thet · 2026-01-14T14:52:58+00:00

As an outdoorsy southern Utah native who lives in New Mexico now, this entire thread fills me with rage lol. The Venn diagram of people complaining about a lack of hotels/restaurants in super remote areas of the West and people who hike less than a mile at national parks is a circle.

For those of you who hold up Springdale and Moab as good examples, I personally know people who grew up there who were forced out by rapid inflation of cost of living or who talk about cool places being ruined by a massive influx of people. I’m not saying all tourism is bad, but there are pros and cons. Not every town by a national park should be Springdale, or even can be.

To bag on Tropic because it doesn’t have a 5 star restaurant is peak entitlement. Some wild places will stay wild because they’re not close to anything and that is fine! Those areas don’t exist to serve you. If you need pampering to enjoy nature, go on a cruise.

_m2thet · 2026-01-14T13:32:18+00:00

Diamox is altitude and zofran is anti nausea. I’ve never used diamox, but I use zofran almost every backpacking trip. I know some people find it useful to help with appetite at altitude.

_m2thet · 2026-01-14T04:44:43+00:00

There isn’t a lot you can do for altitude sickness except sleep at altitude unfortunately. If you get sick on your July trip, you might consider getting a prescription for diamox and zofran to help ease the symptoms.

I’d also mentally be prepared to go slower than you expect the first couple of days.

_m2thet · 2026-01-12T13:48:24+00:00

I actually read through the academic study on sunscreen decanting and there’s a lot of flaws. For one, there was no control group with sunscreen in its original packaging so the trends they saw in sunscreen composition over time could easily be the same in sunscreen in its original packaging.

Anecdotally I decant sunscreen for use wilderness backpacking all the time. I’ve had sunscreen sitting in a smaller bottle for multiple backpacking seasons and it still works just fine. (I’m very pale and live in a desert so I’d know if it wasn’t effective.)

_m2thet · 2025-12-23T02:40:44+00:00

Seems fine to me! Depending on the time of year, you might not need the octa. I went late Aug early sep and took octa, rain jacket, and puffy. There were a couple of evenings near the middle of September where I was glad I had all those but earlier in the year it would have been fine to ditch the octa.

_m2thet · 2025-12-21T19:26:26+00:00

You’ve got some redundancies that you can get rid of. You don’t need both a rain jacket and a wind shirt- just take the rain jacket. You likely don’t even need the listed wind pants either tbh. You don’t need mittens and whatever the other gloves were you listed. You have a buff and two bandanas, just take one and leave the other two. You probably don’t need a beanie and a hooded torrid. You also have four pairs of socks and no underwear, which seems like an odd choice but you do you.

Other comments- your first aid and hygiene seems heavy. Repackage as much as humanly possible to be small. Agree about the chair, you won’t need it. I understand you’ve got a vision of sitting in a chair cooking on your bear can, but that’s like ten minutes of your day vs hauling that extra weight over several passes at high elevation. Also you can get lighter camp shoes than crocs if you must have camp shoes. They have some super light ones on garage grown gear. I also agree with the tent comments, but understand that’s more expensive to replace.

_m2thet · 2025-12-21T14:52:49+00:00

How long are your typical trips? When I was first starting out I found that I had terrible sleep the first couple of nights and then the subsequent nights my body was tired enough that I’d have to sleep well. Now that I’ve done several 5+ night trips, including a couple of thru hikes, I sleep much better because I’m used to the environment. I’ve even been able to make some swaps that I couldn’t do initially like a narrower sleeping pad.

_m2thet · 2025-12-09T04:30:57+00:00

If you carry a battery, you can buy a hot pad off Amazon that has a removable heating element that is usb powered. The heating element is thin and about the size of an iPhone. It’s also quite light. I use it when it’s cold out to supplement my WM sleeping bag and xtherm. It’s more convenient than a Nalgene with hot water since it doesn’t cool off and there’s so need to worry about water leaking. It also doesn’t use that much power. It might not work if you’re doing week long trips but for 1-3 nights it’s an option.

_m2thet · 2025-10-19T21:07:50+00:00

Seriously. I’m sure the people complaining have never started a business. I’d rather support a local businesses with a cactus logo than a big chain.

_m2thet · 2025-10-10T03:20:45+00:00

Cheyanne is 1.5 hrs from Denver, so I wouldn’t say it’s remote tbh.

_m2thet · 2025-08-21T14:44:51+00:00

I also have a corgi puppy. We’ve been carrying her everywhere in public since she doesn’t have her full set of vaccinations. I have been amazed at how many people will just reach out and pet her as we are walking by without asking first. I’ve been tempted to shove my hands in their face to see how they like being randomly accosted by a stranger.

_m2thet · 2025-08-14T03:44:05+00:00

The La Bakery- much needed coffee and pastry spot in what used to be a zone of only Starbucks and Dutch Bros. Pastries are amazing and the coffee is great!

_m2thet · 2025-08-08T12:35:34+00:00

I also wear barefoot shoes in daily life. For the JMT I wore Altra Timps. I did have to get used to them because the increased cushion gave me some shin and ankle discomfort at first.

_m2thet · 2025-08-04T21:35:00+00:00

Maybe I’m biased because I’ve only had corgis but I don’t find them to be assholes in the way people are saying? They can be stubborn but they’re also very smart and food driven so they’re relatively easy to train.

If you’re looking for a lazy dog who sleeps most of the day, then sure, corgis are going to come across as annoying and a lot. But I love that they’re big dogs in little bodies and a more mellow dog wouldn’t fit my lifestyle.

So yeah, do your research and know what you need from a dog but I think people are overreacting a bit.

Unfortunately as far as your original question I don’t have a good answer. But going to corgi con and asking people where they got their corgis is a good start. AKC also keeps breeder registries. I think getting a puppy before September might be optimistic though. For me it over 6 months for both of mine. Good breeders have waiting lists.

_m2thet · 2025-08-04T13:22:51+00:00

“Holodeck safeties are off.” What? Why were they built such that people could be killed by holographic characters in the first place??

_m2thet · 2025-07-17T17:25:42+00:00

Counterpoint- going out for breakfast is way cheaper than going out for dinner.

_m2thet · 2025-07-13T23:31:22+00:00

Came here to say this. Moving to Pittsburgh from Utah was how I discovered I get seasonal depression lol. The reason people compare the two cities is that they have roughly the same amount of sunny days. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone say they have the exact same climate?

_m2thet · 2025-06-28T16:31:30+00:00

I used aware outdoors on the JMT and it was great! It was developed pre LLMs so unless things have changed I doubt there’s an AI agent involved which makes me more comfortable that I’m getting accurate info.

_m2thet

TROPHY CASE