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I'm looking for your opinions on the best guide book to start researching a JMT thru hike with.
I'm pretty sure most people don't necessarily carry a guidebook while hiking the John Muir Trail (I didn't) but carry the Harrison maps (http://www.amazon.com/John-Muir-Trail-Map-Pack-Shaded/dp/1877689343). However, you may want to get JMT: the essential guide (http://www.amazon.com/John-Muir-Trail-essential-Americas/dp/0899974368) to give you a feel for the trail.
1Greywolf
03-05-2013, 10:54
I'm looking for your opinions on the best guide book to start researching a JMT thru hike with.
As you, I also was looking for a guide book to prepare for my July 2013 thru-hike of the JMT
What I discovered is that unlike the AT, the materials used and most recommended for planning and guide for the JMT
are: Elizabeth Wenk and Kathy Morey book, "John Muir Trail, The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail.
and the maps by Tom Harrison of the trail. You will find other recommendations out there.
What I have found in reading Wenk's book is a very detailed descriptions of the areas on the trail, references of trailheads,
and instructions of campsites and flora and fauna. Some may find it to detailed. It does not give you a step by step,
milestone by milestone instructions only of the trail as you find in a AT guidebooks.
The information it has will be more than sufficient to plan your hike and understand it's surroundings.
I hope this is helpful and not too long winded.
wcgornto
03-05-2013, 11:52
There is also the Erik the Black JMT pocket Atlas.
http://blackwoodspress.com/john-muir-trail/maps/atlas/
I have all three of these resources for preparation / planning. I have not yet decided what will come with me on the trail.
Cookerhiker
03-05-2013, 11:56
For last year's hike, I bought the latest edition of Wenk's book which included the statement: "...in this edition, we are using the maps from Tom Harrison's excellent John Muir Trail Map-Pack..." However, you'll still find annoying little discrepancies between the book and the maps.
Hole-In-The-Hat
03-05-2013, 12:06
I used Wenk's guide for planning, and Harrison's maps for the trail - this worked out well for me. Some I met on the trail preferred the Blackwoods Press guide...
This September my wife and I shared a copy of Erik the Black's guidebook --- that worked great, it was all we needed, and quite light. It also fit well enough in a cargo pocket to keep it pretty handy along the way.
I used Tom Harrison Maps plus Yogi's guide pages the first time through when I was doing it as part of the PCT. Hiking the trail in a lot of snow, it's good to have decent maps, no question. But at least for more normal hiking times, I think Erik the Black's book is a good choice.
Elizabeth Wenk aElizabeth Wenk and Kathy Morey book, "John Muir Trail, The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail.
nd Kathy Morey book, "John Muir Trail, The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail.
For planning and on trail this book has what you need. If doing the JMT in summer or fall when snow doesn't obscure the trail you really don't need Harrison's maps IF you have the book AND basically stay on route. The tread is obvious with very good signage when clear of snow. Harrison's maps are great though if venturing off tail for appreciable distances, electing obscue resupply options, and when trail has much snow cover.
I haven't seen Eric the Black's JMT Pocket Atlas but if it's anything like his other atlases it's probably bare bones more suitable for UL on trail nitty gritty use and not so much for planning purposes.
Berserker
03-06-2013, 11:29
I have the Tom Harrison maps and Eric the Black's pocket atlas. Why both of them you say...it's because I have a map fetish. But that aside, the TH maps are just detailed topo maps with the JMT highlighted. The pocket atlas is comparable to the AT companion as far as the amount of information included in it, and has maps with elevation profiles. For anyone who has any experience planning a longer trip the pocket atlas would be all you would need in my opinion.
Dogwood is right, Erik the Black's book is on the lean side. To be clear, I'm not a die-hard fan of Erik's stuff as I find it kind of spendy, but it's well engineered as sort of "just what you need" on trail.
For planning purposes what I would suggest is that you find a relatively recent edition of such a guide via your public library system. If they don't carry it, ask your librarian if it's possible to get via "inter-library loan".
Plus, of course, there's planning info available on the internet with a bit of searching.
All that said, I bought the same book that Dogwood referenced in eBook format. I had it on my PC and tablet at home for review in planning and I brought it along on the trip on my phone.
It's a fine book, but in fact I never looked at it on my phone during the trip; Erik the Black's guide had all that I needed/wanted once underway.
I have the Wenk/Morey guide, the Harrison maps, and Alan Castle's book. I plan to carry the maps on the trail along with the campsite information in the Wenk book. I can't justify carrying any of the books for the actual hike but I enjoyed both Wenk and Castle's books for planning purposes. If you are looking for inspiration for the trip, "Walk the Sky" is outstanding. Not a guide book but some of the pictures may help you determine where to take side trips, zero days, etc.
postholer.com
03-06-2013, 20:09
I'm looking for your opinions on the best guide book to start researching a JMT thru hike with.
For planning or arm-chair hiking here's a google map with a very accuarte trace. Use the topo overlay for the best effect. You can also toggle the mileages/elevations:
http://postholer.com/gmap/gmap.php?trail_id=4
We also have free, very detailed digitized JMT maps that are second to none. You can preview and download the maps here:
http://postholer.com/mapbooks/preview.php?trail_id=4
Also available is the free JMT data book, although it's not as extensive as Wenk's. You can preview and download here:
http://postholer.com/databook/index.php?trail_id=4
Good luck with your planning!
-postholer
http://postholer.com/mapbooks/images/preview/4/11.jpg
Thanks guys. Lots of good stuff here.
DaFireMedic
03-19-2013, 14:14
I bought the Wenk guidebook in paperback, and the Castle book in ebook format.
This is the one that helped me the most:
http://jmtbook.com/?page_id=10
I actually emailed Ray and he helped me with the permit process and ideas on how to arrange lodging for my wife when there was nothing available in Yosemite Valley.
I would not carry one of the paperback guidebooks (except maybe the Erik the Black one) on the trail, it will be of little use there and weighs too much. I found one of the Wenk books in the MTR hiker barrels, apparently someone must have realized this at the halfway point...lol. I loaded the electronic version of the Castle book and Ray Rippel's book on my smart phone for casual reading. Like most people, I carried the Harrison maps, these are a must IMO.
Many people seemed to have the Erik the Black book with them. It had the best campsite information of all of them, and the easiest to read info on elevation/grades of the trail sections, but the maps were not as detailed as the Harrison. Everyone I talked to that had one said that you pretty much have to carry the Harrison maps as well.
fredmugs
03-21-2013, 10:22
I used Halfmile's maps. Everything I needed and more.
Interesting responses here because I have heard so many negative things about Eric the Blacks info.
DaFireMedic
03-21-2013, 16:55
I used Halfmile's maps. Everything I needed and more.
Interesting responses here because I have heard so many negative things about Eric the Blacks info.
I just looked at Halfmiles maps, they look pretty good actually. I had not seen them prior to my hike. A lady we met on the trail had been using his GPS waypoints on her giant smartphone, they looked helpful.
Erik the Black's stuff seems pretty good for what it is. I ran into quite a few people carrying his Pocket Atlas and they all seemed to like it. The main complaint was that folks felt that they did not feel comfortable with the maps themselves, and most all chose to bring the Harrison maps along for actual navigation. I don't have one, but that same lady I just mentioned had his pocket atlas as well and she hiked along with us for a few days. The topographical information was much easier to read as far elevation gains and such to expect if you are not used to reading topo maps, as the info is put into more layman's terms with numbers instead of just trying measure how close the lines are together on a topo map. Not a critical feature if you are good at reading topo maps, but convenient for seeing if you have big grades coming up and just how steep you can expect them to be. Also, there was a lot of good information on campsites (better than the Wenk or Castle books IMO), water sources, etc. There's not the detailed narrative on the trail sections that there is in the larger guidebooks as its more of a "pocket reference", but its also smaller and much lighter for those that want to carry a physical book with them. Its not all things to all people, but I am considering getting one for my next JMT hike (hopefully next year). $24 seems a bit pricey for what it is, but the info is useful. I believe that you can download the first chapter to see if its what you are looking for.
For actual planning of the hike itself, I still recommend "Planning your Thru-Hike of the John Muir Trail" by Ray Rippel (the link is in my previous post). He seemed to have the most current info on the permit process and resupply info, as well as numerous itineraries and such. Its a fairly short and inexpensive ($7) ebook, and there's not much in there that would cause you to want to take it with you on the trail (although I did on my cell phone) but it really helped me out in the planning and you can also email him with any questions as I did. The permit process was a complete unknown to me and I was worrying that I was going to get to Yosemite and spend days trying to get a walk-in permit. He gave me some suggestions that all turned out to be great and things went smoothly. That alone was worth the $7 for me.
I usually take any info that I need from the books, put it into document form and put it on my cell phone (since I'm carrying it anyway), such as suggested campsite locations and GPS coordinates, sections with longer distances between water sources, etc. The exception to this is critical info such as maps, in which I scan them for my phone but also carry a hard copy.