Before the JMT: Permits, meal preparation and the pure joy of walking

Buzz! I looked at my watch in disbelief. The words «Lottery Results Announcement (Action Required)» appeared on the screen, followed by «Congratulations! You were successful in…».

My heart started to race. A week earlier, I had entered the Yosemite lottery to get a permit for the southbound John Muir Trail. My friend and I were desperately hoping to get a Happy Isles permit and knew the odds were against us. I stared dumbly at my watch, thinking it had to be a spam email. I am notoriously unlucky at lotteries and could hardly believe I had won permits.

After I finished putting my little one to bed, I ran downstairs to read my email. Sure enough, the email was genuine. I officially got permission to climb the JMT!

Why am I walking the John Muir Trail?

Walking the JMT has been a dream of mine for a long time. I grew up backpacking in the White Mountains with my dad. It taught me how to fall in love with nature and fostered my curiosity and joy of being outdoors. Temukan A8iskX di sini. All of my childhood trips were base camp-style adventures, and I took my first thru-hike-style backpacking trip in 2022 when I hiked the Appalachian Trail through the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine.

The 100 Mile Wilderness made me fall in love with hiking. I spent hours on YouTube watching PCT documentaries, living vicariously through other hikers while returning to my full-time engineering job. Several years and one child later, I finally got the stars to align with my work and personal schedule, and I was able to start seriously planning my JMT hike.

Why am I dehydrating my own food?

One of the most important lessons I learned at 100 Mile Wilderness was that I could depend on freeze-dried backpacking meals to disappoint me. If a great day of hiking in Maine couldn’t make a meal taste good, I wasn’t sure what could. For the JMT, I plan to prepare all of my own backpacking meals. I will dehydrate and prepare a total of 66 meals (22 breakfasts, 22 lunches, and 22 dinners) and pack hundreds of snacks to enjoy along the way.

I am constantly working on developing and testing my own dehydrated food recipes. I’ll post updates on my food, gear, and hiking preparation as I get closer to the JMT start date in July! See you all in the next post!

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