ESSENTIAL INFO: THE JOHN MUIR TRAIL

Length: 211 miles/340km

Height gain: 47,000ft/14,000m

Time of year: mid-July to mid-Sept

Map: Tom Harrison Trail Maps 1 inch to a mile from tomharrisonmaps. com

Peacefulness on the trail is guaranteed by the fact that limited permits are issued. They are distributed randomly. For any start-date, there’s a two-day window for applying. If you get it, you must pick it up on exactly the start-day specified (nps.gov/yose/ planyourvisit/jmtfaq.htm and see also this very useful site bearfoottheory.

com/john-muir-trail-permit).You arrive from San Francisco, first by train and then by bus, which takes most of a day. You depart from Lone Pine to Los Angeles, by bus or rental car.

The food drop to Muir Trail Ranch must be in a specific sort of varmintproof plastic tub, obtainable from a hardware store in San Francisco. Allow half a day for buying the tub, filling it up, and sending it on its way. After its journey through the US Mail, it’ll finally arrive by mule (muirtrailranch.com/ resupply-info.html).

Bears cohabit with humans along the trail. All food must be kept overnight in bearproof plastic barrels, which can be rented at Yosemite. The barrels are awkward to fit into the rucksack, and rather heavy (nps.gov/yose/ planyourvisit/bearcanrentals.htm).

Everybody will tell you that drinking water must be sterilised. That said, no experienced trail hiker actually does this; apparently the bacterial risk is almost entirely theoretical. We sterilised our water.

There are many regulations, and they’re enforced by rangers.

The rangers are Americans, so they carry guns. Bring a trowel for toileting to avoid unnecessary shootouts with your trousers down.

In summer there are mosquitoes. It can also be uncomfortably hot. We postponed our trip to early September, avoiding both insects and the possible summer afternoon thunderstorms.

The risk then is that early snowfall could block the high passes.

The trail ends on the summit of Mount Whitney, the highest point of the contiguous USA. Mount Whitney lacks a bus stop. Remember to add on the 12,000ft of descent to Lone Pine.

All these issues are helpfully dealt with in Alan Castle’s John Muir Trail guidebook from Cicerone Press. Many American walkers also use this book! cicerone.co.uk/the-johnmuir-trail-second