Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board JMT Photos from our recent trip

Hi everyone! We hiked the John Muir Trail from north to south, taking a leisurely 3 weeks from mid-August through the first week of September. It was AWESOME! We had one resupply at Vermilion Resort, which was great, and we had all sorts of weather. The fishing for goldens was fantastic! I lugged along a tripod, a couple lenses, and a katrillion rolls of Velvia film (pant... pant!). The country is so gorgeous, I wanted to spend some time capturing it on film. For those of you who are interested, here's a link to an online album where I've been uploading my photos. I'm scanning more every few days or so, I haven't even gone through half of them yet! I'm not sure how to link properly, so you may have to cut and paste, but here's the URL. HIKE ON!

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=334185

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=334185 ">JMT Photos</a>

Oops, forgot to mention... we spent the last night on our JMT trip just below Guitar Lake (we wanted to stay a little lower due to lightning), and we were up and ready to hike before 3 a.m. This guy comes into our off-trail camp in the darkness and introduces himself as Reinhold Metzger, and said he was trying to break an unsupported speed record for the JMT. He had spent the night up on the summit of Whitney in the hut, which had white-out conditions for a bit, and started down the mountain right after midnight to go for the record. We were the first people he saw, and he had me write my name and addy and phone and stuff in his record book thing for documentation purposes. I had to write when and where I saw him. He was (well, he still is!) quite a character of a guy! We had a blast visiting with him for about 15 minutes or so! He's over 60 and he was trying to break his own previous record. What a guy! He's e-mailed me a couple times since, and provided links to his story in the San Diego newspaper, down where he lives. It was pretty cool to meet this guy. I just wanted to share that!

Buck, The pictures are great, and just what I needed. I am trying to put together a JMT hike and want my wife to go along. She is a shutter bug as well and I think your photos may inspire her to go along.
When you say you took a leisurely trip did you have many rest days, or did you keep moving everyday just at a easy pace? I know that if my wife goes she will require a few days along the way to recover & enjoy the place.

Hi GCHiker! The only layover day we had was at Vermilion Resort at Lake Thomas Edison, where we resupplied. We averaged around 12-15 miles a day. Some days were 8 miles, some days were 18. The JMT goes through so much beautiful country that it's tough to pass up with a camera. As you know, photography is all about lighting, and there were so many places I'd love to hang out and wait for the lighting to go magic, but with so many miles required per day, you gotta just keep movin' on. I'm also an avid fisherman, and I was shakin' in my boots as I had to walk past some golden-trout filled creeks and lakes! We usually camped by lakes or streams though, so I just had to wait until the end of the day.

Of course you can take as many days as you possibly can, but we gave ourselves three weeks (ended up being 19 days). Three weeks isn't too tough of a pace, but four weeks would be better. We met many people doing it closer to two weeks. Or you can break the trip up into two summers to do it and spend more quality time just taking photos or fishing or exploring some of the beautiful basins the trail passes.

I'm not normally a thru-hiker, I still prefer taking whacko trips into trailess wild high basins, but this is one thru trip I've always wanted to take. It was worth every step. And believe me, going up some of those passes, many of those steps are pretty agonizing! Ha ha! It's tough to draw the line between weight and camera gear. It's a burden to some degree to carry so much camera gear (multiple lenses, filters, tripod, wads of film, etc.), but for me it was worth it. If your wife enjoys hiking, even with all the grunting up passes only to drop down into canyons so you can climb another pass so you can drop way down again :^D, she'll love the JMT! The country is just amazing, and the photography opportunities endless!

Great pictures Buck!

I love all the pictures that were taken in the evening when the clouds are glowing. Trully a memorable trip. I think I'm going to attempt the JMT when I get out of college. I was wondering what kind of camera you used? I want to get into outdoor photography and can't chose a camera. Thanks again for the pictures and take it easy. That is a great accomplishment.

Matt

Wow!!!
Nice photos.

wow! those were great pictures. Would you mind telling me what kind of equipment you used camera,
lenses etc. I know you used fuji velvia . those color definition was great. Just inquiring.

Thanks again for the compliments!

Hey domine, the lenses I used were a Canon 17-40mm, and a Canon 70-200mm. The filters I carried were a warming polarizer filter and four Galen Rowell/Singh-Ray GND's, 2-stop and 3-stop in both hard and soft versions. I also hauled around a tripod (pant...pant!). My camera is a Canon Elan 7. To make up for all this camera gear weight, I only had one pair of underwear for 19 days. THAT'S JUST FINE, BUCK, TOO MUCH INFO, OKAY? Okay, sorry. :^D

If you look on the photo album site where I have my photos uploaded, it shows which lenses and filters and film that I used for each shot. The only film I carried was Fuji Velvia 50. Thanks again!

thanks for the info. I knew you used some special equipment. A big difference really if you used third party lenses.

Wow - what great pictures. I'm sure you had quite a trip.

I saw a picture that identified "Muir Hut". I have never heard of nor seen this. Where is it?

Muir Hut is on Muir Pass.

Yes, Scott is el correctamoongo. Muir Hut is a stone hut built by the Sierra Club (I do believe in the early 1930's, if I remember correctly?) on top of Muir Pass, with Evolution Basin to the north, and Le Conte Canyon to the south (s.e.), and it is just under the 12,000' elevation mark. Oh man, this is beautiful country, whew doggy!

Hi Buck,

I'll be going from Tuolomene Meadows down to Mammoth Lakes over 5 days in August and I'm trying to get a handle on possible weather to plan for. Rain, temperatures, etc.

I also noticed in the photos (Marie Lake Camp) that a couple of folks used tarps instead of tents and I was wondering how they worked out, especially with heavy rainfall and keeping gear dry. "Ive been looking at the Mountain Hardware 2 pound single wall tent instead of tarps.

Thanks!

Jim

PS: Great photos!

Hi Jim! We had good experiences with our tarps on our trip. We got pounded by rain and strong winds a few times and I never got wet. My hiking partner used an Integral Designs Siltarp with an OR Advanced Bivy, and I used a MSR Heptawing and an OR Bug Bivy. We used our trekking poles for supports. If staked out properly, tarps are very secure. I actually prefer them. They are typically lighter and I like being out there and feeling the fresh breeze and being able to see what's around me better. In early season with lots of bugs I still prefer a good tent.

Hey Buck,

AWESOME PICS!!!!!!!!!! Where did you get your Goldens?

Thanks vchs! I caught goldens in lots of places along the JMT. The photo of the small golden in my pics was caught in the morning near our camp at Big Pete Meadow on the M.F. Kings River in Le Conte Canyon. But I caught many goldens from Evolution Creek up through Evolution Basin and Le Conte Canyon, then again along Upper Bubbs Creek and most of Sequoia National Park where the JMT goes near water. There are lots of goldens along Bear Creek too. I used dry flies, but those things will hit anything. They are my favorite trout to catch.

Hi Brian,

Those pictures are really great. But I have a question... I have a Kodak 3.2 MP digital, and my pics don't come out with as much brightness or intensity as yours -- yours really pop out at me.

Are they enhanced somehow, or is it just the camera?

Thanks!

Thanks, Steve! I shot all those pics with Fuji Velvia 50 slide film. Velvia is color-saturated film and is popular with landscape photographers for this reason. It's not a good point-n-shoot film or tourist-on-vacation film because it's too slow of a speed and it's not great for skin tones. It's a high-contrast film and the f-stop range is quite limited so it doesn't do good in real bright light or real low light, but it really brings out the color in landscapes. A tripod is recommended, which I brought along with me and used for the lower light scenes. As for colors, I always attempted to match the scan with the original slide, but I'm no expert in Photoshop the results probably vary. But the color pop you see is definitely from the Fuji Velvia 50 film, especially on the shots with a warming polarizer filter.

Outstanding photos, Buck!!
Thanks for sharing with us!

Awesome photos Buck. I had the fortune to hike the JMT in 2001. Hope to do it again soon. You had to carry allot of gear- I assume. I used to carry a 4x5 w/ lenses, filters, tripod... Jeeeze. I remember one load weighed as much as 70+lbs. Crazy. On the JMT I carried a small digital and no more than 30lbs at most. Sorry to say I had to sell my 4x5 to buy a new drift boat. Broke my heart. (I make a living as a fly fishing guide here in Redding, CA.) BTW- I have some Schneider lenses 90mm, 150mm, 210mm for sale if your interested. Not sure if LF makes sense anymore. Anyway- this is a cool message board- can't wait to get some time off and disappear into the High Sierra for a couple weeks!

-Tip Up!