2009 John Muir Trail

placeholder for Yosemite Valley to Mt Whitney with interruption by snow storm.
We started July 25 in Yosemite Valley. On the eleventh day we approached Paiute Meadow (?) when several hikers coming the other way said the Ranger in Evolution Valley was warning that a major Arctic storm was going to dump too much snow to make it over Muir Pass--meaning hikers might be tent-bound for one or more days in sub-freezing weather. The thought of spending daylight hours in a tent convinced Lance that we needed to turn around and get out at Florence Lake. We hiked back to Muir Trail Ranch, made phone calls to try and stop our upcoming resupply planned for LeConte Canyon; we then went to the nearby large campground for the night. The next morning we hiked to Florence Lake, took the boat across, met a great guy who was headed out anyway, and got a ride to Fresno.
We returned to Sacramento, then spent a couple of days at Lake Tahoe, then drove to Onion Valley and hiked over Kearsarge Pass to meet the next scheduled resupply in Vidette Meadow. Steve's knee started to hurt (from several days without stretching), took an Aleve, got sick from it, and rode out with the re-supply wrangler. Kevin went out with Steve on horseback and Lance retraced steps to Onion Valley and drove eight hours across the southern Sierras to reconnect at Sequoia's End of the Road. bummer.
Steve returned two weeks later to Onion Valley and completed the hike over Kearsarge to Mt. Whitney on Labor Day.
Pictures to follow.