So in the first days September I'll be starting the JMT with three long-distance newbies and am now just starting to seriously look at planning, so I have a few questions. We have a 25, almost 30 day window to do the hike and plan to stretch out the experience.
We will have two vehicles, leaving one at Whitney Portal/Lone Pine and the other hopefully in Yosemite. Any suggestions on the best places to go about doing this?
We'll be meeting in Lone Pine a few days before the hike and driving up to Yosemite, so that leaves the option of dropping off resupply packages along the way. It looks like Reds Meadow would be a good place to do so - does it make sense anywhere else?
Our hike will start on the 4th from Happy Isles - this is a Friday so we'll skip Tuolumne and go straight on to Red's Meadow, also planning to stop at Vermilion and Muir Trail Ranch. I'm assuming all the resupply points have denatured alcohol/HEET and a good supply of white gas and isopro on hand?
I'm interested in hearing more about the difficulty of the hitch from the Kearsage Pass Trail into Independence. There's 4 in our group so we would likely have to separate for the ride. Initially we were going to pack 8-10 worth of food for the long haul but this seems like a much better option since we'll surely have the time.
Speaking of extra time, feel free to let me know about viable interesting side trips, etc. Thanks!