John Muir Trail - Day Three

The map for the day looked very promising: almost entirely downhill or flat! We improved on our camp-departure time, leaving around 8:45AM. After a brief scenic stroll back around the lake and onto the JMT we had a huge downhill grade ahead of us! We passed through a peaceful forest and began seeing more and more day hikers on their way up the hill. The slow, 3-mile return to society was a little strange and we ultimately ran into a trailhead parking lot along the highway where I felt a little out of place!

We paid careful attention to the map at this point because there were many route options through Tuolumne. The trail paralleled highway 120 for a bit, then crossed and cut across the meadows towards historic Parson’s Lodge [22.0 mi, 8560’]. We saw it from afar and chose a direct route to the Tuolumne store and grill rather than getting a closer look. We hadn’t planned a resupply at the store here since it was only our third day, but we each carefully chose a snack and re-stocked the supplies that Purple 6 damaged. The grill smelled heavenly but it was too early for lunch so I opted to devour a blueberry muffin and steal some chips from the others. I tried to give my family a call to let them know I was alive but couldn’t get good enough cell reception.

We continued back down a side trail along 120 that met back up with the main trail which at this point was actually both the JMT and PCT. We passed some interesting features called Lembert Dome and Puppy Dome before the trail veered back towards the wilderness. Once again there were many trail junctions in this section but they were well marked. We found a nice lunch spot between meadows with grazing deer.

The afternoon section was my favorite part of the day, hiking up Lyell Canyon along the river. It was basically one giant meadow between mountains with some forests sprinkled in. The whole hike was a very gradual climb which was nice on the legs. Fortunately since we were hiking later in the summer we saw very few mosquitos, but I’ve heard horror stories about this section of trail! Towards the end a snow-capped breathtaking Donohue Pass came into view and we setup camp at Lyell Forks [32.3 mi, 9020’] near the base of it. We found a quiet and shady campsite right along the river - the perfect point to start our first massive pass of the trip the following day. We actually made it to bed before sunset to prepare!