John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 1 - Lyell Canyon

And so it begins...

On Saturday, August 4th, the six of us (me, Mary, Andrea, Anna Marie, Michael, and Kerry) set off on the John Muir Trail from Tuolumne Meadows. The advantage to starting in Tuolumne is that the trail goes along Lyell Canyon, which is quite possibly the flattest stretch of trail in the Sierra. The first-day hiker is lulled into a false sense of 'this is easy!' and 'pfft, bring on the switchbacks!' that they will be regretting as soon as they begin the climb to Donohue Pass.

We took our time meandering down the canyon, stopping to enjoy a lovely lunch break along the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River. We decided to give ourselves a head start on Donohue Pass by adding an extra mile and a half and 700 ft climb to the day's itinerary. This ended up being a very wise decision.

This day's stats:

• Mileage: 10.64 mi
  
• Ascending: 1163 ft
  
• Descending:173 ft
  
• Cumulative Mileage: 10.64 mi
  
• Cumulative Ascending: 1163 ft
  
• Cumulative Descending:173 ft