Product Description
The John Muir Trail (JMT) is one of the world's most spectacular treks and is North America's best known mid-distance walking trail. It runs for 216 miles through the high Sierra Nevada mountains of California, from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Mount Whitney (14, 496ft), the highest peak in the USA outside Alaska. The walking trail, which is named after the great 19th-century Scottish naturalist, conservationist and writer John Muir, is entirely through the unspoilt wilderness of the American West and passes through three national parks: Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. To walk the John Muir Trail successfully thorough planning is required. All you need to know to plan and prepare for your trip is contained within these pages, from obtaining trekking permits to buying trek food and forwarding food caches along the trail. Abundant advice is given on such topics as dealing with inquisitive bears, coping with altitude, negotiating river crossings, as well as tips on booking transport to and from the trailheads and on what equipment to take. In addition there is a detailed description of the flora and fauna of this remarkable region.
About the Author
Alan has trekked in over twenty-five countries within Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australasia, and for seventeen years led organised walking holidays in several European countries. A member of the British Outdoor Writers' Guild, he has written more than a dozen walking guidebooks, several on long distance mountain routes in France. His longest solo walks include a Grand Traverse of the European Alps between Nice and Vienna (1510 miles), the Pilgrim's Trail from Le Puy to Santiago de Compostela (960 miles) and a Coast-to-Coast across the French Pyrenees (540 miles). A Munroist and erstwhile National Secretary and Long Distance Path Information Officer of the Long Distance Walkers Association, Alan now lives at the foot of the Moffat Hills in Scotland, in the heart of the Southern Uplands. Alan's first encounter with the Southern Upland Way was in 1995, when he backpacked the full length of the trail. A decade later he repeated the complete trail a second time, this time mainly using bed and breakfast and hotel accommodation, in order to research this guidebook. He has travelled extensively on foot in most areas of the Southern Uplands, having climbed all of the Donalds and most of the other hills above 500m in height, and traversed them from south to north in 2003 as part of his walk between Land's End and John o'Groats.