THE JOHN MUIR TRAIL

[Music] i know i look like hell now but there are a lot of stories behind those blistered and battered feet they walked on some of the most beautiful places i've ever laid eyes on a place i first fell in love with back in the fall of 2015. that time i drove into the eastern sierra and crested over eleven thousand feet at curacao pass for the very first time [Music] i knew right then and there i had to see more of it my name is billy yang i've been running trails and ultra marathons for over a decade now but never tried through hygiene before when i got the invite to do the john muir trail from friends elon and gabby i of course said yes because it's hard for me to turn down a good adventure but i have limited time to prep so between youtube videos and advice from friends i did my best after a covet test and one final weigh-in before i knew it it was time to leave the congestion of los angeles and off to mammoth lakes to stay with friends tim and lindsey thompson before the big launch day but first one final weigh-in of the pack 37 pounds gabby how are you feeling i'm really nervous but i'm excited you're good company we have our guide here our uber i'm really nervous too if it drives like a little over two hours we go trail mix for days for days the john muir trail is the 211 mile point-to-point trek in the iconic sierra nevada mountain range in california it has a total elevation gain of 47 000 feet traversing six mountain passes over 11 000 feet each we chose the northbound route where the trail officially kicks off at the top of mount whitney and finishes in yosemite valley quite simply it is one of the most famous the most stunning through hikes in the world it is also extremely tough we officially said goodbye to keith and our journey towards the jmt began for about 160 miles of it the trail shares the same path as the pacific crest trail so while we would encounter both along our journey with what is currently going on in the world not nearly as many hikers as we would in years past so we're about three miles in what'd let them know you're there bears aside we made it to our first camp with nearly 30 miles to cover before we even officially started the jmt from mount whitney we decided to start a day early and knock off some bonus miles look at how these guys are camping got chairs had some gourmet freeze-dried food organic too yeah cheers gabby night number one okay here's a quick cribs gmt edition this is the copper spur tent big agnes a lot of room lets me sit up i have room to hold some clothes some accessories kelty sleeping bag and the nemo tensor alpine sleeping pad all set up ready to go so far so good day number one is a wrap i'm gonna try to go to sleep and um god willing knock on wood on our way towards mount whitney okay have a good night alas those were famous last words although physically i was quite comfortable not a lot of sleep was had still i dutifully went about my morning routine one that would repeat day after day after day until we reached yosemite valley pack it's all loaded up for day number two oh i swear i feel like it got heavier this corals vertex is allowing me to resume my activity which is cool so hopefully we get one long 200 plus mile activity on strava [Music] feeling pretty good my pack is heavier somehow i know my shoulder straps are killing me same but i mean when you look we picked up a pc tear that's uh kyle back there say hi [Music] same gabby same that last mile kicked our butts [Music] [Applause] [Music] those of you watching at home i do not recommend it's no bueno kyle's trying the chicken fried rice by mountain house they say you eat with your eyes first and that appears to be what he's doing don't forget the egg too yeah chicken fried rice by mountain house not good what was however was the company we met that evening at crabtree so brian leah leah and sierra okay and i met them i was crying on the side of the trail and a mess up why were you crying again um just life stuff just alone and sad and it was hard and yeah i felt like crying at least two and a half times today so i feel your sister look at the stellar company you have i know and then we met brian yesterday and it's his birthday today and it's my birthday yeah happy birthday man thank you this is my my midlife victory turned 40 today oh did you really yeah morning of day number three came on the heels of another poor night of sleep but we had a big day ahead so let's really this here's a typical breakfast two packs of oatmeal a scoop of peanut butter some dried blueberries and of course coffee today's day number three heading up to mount whitney left our packs back at camp feeling infinitely lighter it's gonna be a great day gonna summit whitney and officially start the gmt trek even though it was only for half a day it was definitely definitely welcome so this is basically the 99 switchbacks but on the jmt side multiple switchbacks how are you doing you guys we're doing good it's a little hard to breathe up here it's getting thin above 13 000. yeah way over 13. [Music] hey 14. just under a mile from the summit oh [Music] yeah debbie your first whitney we can officially start the jmt now only 211 miles ago [Music] it's just kind of surreal i also made a little request to the gang we needed to jump into as many alpine lakes along the way as humanly possible one through through ten i'm starving i'm really hungry so i would say [Applause] seven out of ten solid but if we hadn't just done whitney i would give it maybe a five out of ten i went with some annie's mac and cheese and i would give this a solid seven and a half out of ten [Music] views for days son look at that we're at willow creek 11 miles into the journey about 200 left yikes okay so tonight we will rate our dehydrated backpacking meals first up it's good to go real food real adventure we've got a mexican quinoa bowl wow fancy i have beans and rice santa fe beans and rice but i do have a tapatio courtesy of kyle over there that may take this up a full point we shall see yeah that's impressive that there's mole oh no i'm pleasantly surprised i'm not ravenous because we did semi eat lunch not that late not that long ago but it's nice because i can really like take the time to savor it because i'm not just like starving like i think i gave my lunch a bit too high of a mark today because i was so hungry i'm gonna go seven and a half out of ten okay so this is the alpine fair santa fe beans and rice it's also got pieces of corn in there carrots i'm gonna do it plain without the tapatio because that's cheating we'll go six and a half i think the top of teal is going to take it to a seven and a half it's not bad poly ingredients infinitely better than the chicken fried rice that on top of teal on bread that's better than seven and a half that's an eight tapatio game changer finally got some sleep yay it's time for a very special edition of pooping in the woods with billy so these are all secondhand things i picked up make sure you are at least 200 feet away from a water source and from the trail what i have in this kit are a trowel and also toilet paper i have a waste bag because you do not want to toss your toilet paper in the woods or bury your toilet paper you want to take it out and hand sanitizer that's off to do my business there you go it's going to be a big day we have two passes to go over including forester 21 miles [Music] [Music] all was going great on our approach to forester great day stunning scenery not a cloud in the sky until bit of a may day one of the buckle pieces broke on my hip ah i'm not gonna lie i'm so happy with your pax osprey only four days in and for this to happen oh disappointed oh boy that is intimidating i can see the sign this one was not easy no it was not came down from there up all these switchbacks why did we decide to do this man i cannot get over the beauty of this place beautiful ridges another alpine lake you see forester where we descended from i'm like emotional right now every new place every mile a more beautiful place reveals itself to me it's only day four so i'm gonna try to contain it but man alive we are in it jmt the sending down forester was beautiful probably among my favorite sections from the trip although we finally saw some snow the patches were brief and it was also where i was given my very first ever trail name and to say i was happy with it would be an understatement so in a couple days i've known billy he's shown exceptional attention to cuisine in the backcountry also displaying an unparalleled sense of adventure and before that i can think of no better word to sum them up than one of my personal heroes anthony bourdain so billy i doubt the game yes kyle's my new favorite it also turned out to be our last day with kyle so being anointed billy bourdain made for a nice parting gift from our pct pal head up final pass of the day packing a lot of pop into this climb very steep there are similarities and differences when it comes to through hiking and ultra running an obvious one is that the longer you do anything the more opportunities present itself to change for better and for the worse you can have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows all in the same day and in our longest day of the trip which involved two big passes the high i felt at forrester took a turn for the worse on our climb up glen pass when i fell behind on calories and started to bonk big time well today is uh day number five of our overall trip yesterday was a good day until i wasn't taking enough calories and the morale got a little down when what we thought would be a 21 mile day it turned out to be somewhere closer to 24 to 25. may not be a big deal in terms of um you know in running terms but when it involves big passes tired legs um so if you're bonking on my end it becomes a big deal so we got into camp here at ray lakes kind of late but we rallied and caught some food on us and got some sleep so here we go today's another big day we have a pass and i have to do i have a blitzer on my right foot left knee is a little tweaky but uh overall pretty good the pack is uh i'm still trying to play around with the pack there are times when it really digs in on my shoulders and obviously with a broken prong on my hip harness it's making things a little tough otherwise we're here it's a beautiful place beautiful part of california and the us and the world not a whole lot else to complain about really no pass today and uh pinchot yes pinchot intro pass making way up to mather so it's gonna be a better day feeling good all right let's go gang i've met some trail buddies what are your names more in the gear malfunction of billiang this lasagna with meat sauce by mountain house it's a solid 8.2 oh it's been a warm day very exposed climbing consistently to pinchot pass it's pretty spectacular you definitely have to work for its beauty yes we're by this creek inside of camp after a 19-mile day i know this is cool more importantly check this out we have fire pits for the very first time it is a little buggy here that's the only drawback but any day we get to jump in an alpine lake it's a great day cheers tunes cheers bourdain this is good to go indian vegetable karma i can really taste the cardamom i don't know what a cardamom is 8.8 wow it's up there highest score yet highest score yet i'm re using my mountain house bag but in it it's not pad thai with chicken is actually home style chicken and rice by peak refuel 740 calories supplemented by some couscous i know it doesn't look that great that's dry that being said has a nice creamy texture [Applause] i think the couscous sucked up a lot of water so that excuse the score [Applause] i'm going to give it a 7.2 hot sauce would take this to an eight condiments bring condiments so it appears definitely a blister here right on the ball of the foot it's been hurting and this one came today this one is a felt like a rock or like a little pebble i'm just looking at it for the first time that looks that looks gnarly i have to go to work am actually probably had the most decent night of sleep i've had on this trip and i was partially helped by this white noise of uh the russian creek nearby here we go a new day a big day it's really unbelievable how lucky we've been in terms of weather every single day has been a spectacular bluebird day today is no exception both gabby and i agree it's our favorite pass long gradual switch back to the top thank you mather thank you mather good job roxanna [Music] can't say that i was surprised [Applause] over 100 miles into our journey from cottonwood pass jeez louise look how stunning this whole meadow is [Applause] oh my god today is spaghetti with meat sauce yum yum i've had this before too but never quite this hungry remember we were talking about home style chicken dinner last night this is like that this is more so yeah this is a solid 8.2 out of 10. i have this ruptured blister right here that's kind of gross and on this foot this is when it gets fun i have a blister there i have blister on the big toe blister there a blister there blister there let's focus on this i honestly had no idea how bad they had gotten neglecting the slow mounting annoyances as it turns out would become a larger issue do you want to explain what happened this morning i was trying to paint ice and fill up our waters so i put the water filter right by my side when i turned around to grab another bottle i'll compile it number four we do have this hand pump as a backup but it takes a long time to fill right despite the multiple feet problems and now the lost paradigm filter we pressed on towards mere pass collective energy of the group is a little down i know my energy is a little down this morning's hot feels hard feeling every step gorgeous up here especially after we broke above treeline my mood is starting to lift a little bit energy's starting to lift a little bit [Music] friends descending mirror pass have a big day in front of us 20 plus miles more to go to get to our resupply packs are going to get a lot heavier but at least i have a lot more calories to consume i don't know if you can see this right now but i have a swarm of nats attacking me chew okay seriously that was insane there were two patches of just intense gnats just attacked everywhere this one guy came across me with a bug net on i was wondering why could have told us something anywho views still don't suck how long have you been doing this my first solo trip was in 1981. wow where was that do you remember yeah i went in over um a wilderness in hoover wilderness 20 lakes basin right outside of yosemite on the east side of yosemite every new place i just i'm just excited and blown away by it just fills me up with certain joy this is probably the most beautiful place i've seen it's unbelievable yeah i agree this is why i can't believe it muir pass it's been a long series of downhills and as if i didn't have enough issues now my right knee is flaring up i've never had issues on my right knee almost exclusively on my left knee um but it's it's sore and it's hurting we still have just like halfway there unfortunately as it turns out my knee would be the least of my problems it just started getting worse and worse to the point where i'm just like limping right now yeah all right see you guys soon i love you if you're not if you're not there by 10 i'm just gonna start hiking back with our food supplies running low and me slowing them down we made the difficult decision to separate in the hopes that elon and gabby would reach our resupplied mirror trail ranch before they closed for the day hi everybody see ya oh man my body is just not happy with me right now i'm on this once in a lifetime potentially once in a lifetime place this beautiful place just today everything is going to sh all right i'm gonna try the sandals and keep my fingers crossed that i can work with these let's try this we have 10 miles to go to mtr so i'll be honest there were moments for sure i was thinking about how do i remove myself from the situation as stunning as a place that says felt like i've been beat up chewed up and spit out but sometimes you just have to ride the lows and think about what you can do switch to sandals let my feet breathe a little bit i'm hoping i'm hoping there's a better outcome than the scenario that's been playing in my head for the past hour plus onward to mirror ranch and we'll see what the future holds for me those are my haunted thoughts for now ordained out it was definitely rough going thankfully though just before sunset and before mtr i found my cruise camp i can't believe you're here i can't believe so either how did you do it [Applause] mornings were definitely the toughest the feet always throbbed in pain the worst first thing main thing is i don't want to slow you guys down and compromise your experience here as well i of course also felt bad that i was slowing them way down but for now we had a resupply to look forward to i don't know [Music] it's all got to go in there though don't remind me thank you we just got here yesterday oh really yep oh thank god we got here yesterday tortillas toilet paper [Applause] ramen [Applause] right there thank you i think those are the the two main points okay so the pack is fully reloaded there's a scale nearby over my right shoulder question is do i weigh my pack or is ignorance bliss add three pounds let's do it can't wait 100 miles to yosemite i am patched up have some calories haven't felt my knee all day today all good signs well i went from feeling pretty good started noticing a pain in my right foot and medical tape was just wrapped a little too tight and it ripped off like a chunk of skin it just has me dejected again yeah my feet are a mess right now i honestly would have started laughing if it weren't so distractingly painful every time i try to take my mind off it and try to pause to appreciate the beauty of the jmt it was right there there was just no way to ignore it we're gonna see if i'm ready for shoes again [Music] i'm able to move pretty decently with my shoes back on i definitely feel it there's no denying that the ibuprofen does just enough to dull some of the pain but i also don't know how dangerous it is to just pop morning noon and night just to get through this adventure but as long as we have ibuprofen i'm able to at least look like a hiker instead of a hobbled homeless man wandering the woods nearly 18 miles today oh feet are jacked let's jump in the water and eat oh mountain house classic spaghetti with meat sauce it's so good what do we give it we give it high marks show us inside at this i have to say 9 out of 10. what's your hunger level my hunger level is really high like 11 out of 10. like maybe 11 or 12 out of 10 but there's like little bits of rosemary in here mountain house you guys are crushing it just not the fried rice just not the fried rice all right and this korean it's got the booze and it's got the shin ramen with let me check this out bits of spam in there and it's like just tastes like home so good 8.8 out of 10. just worked on my feet again spared you from having to look at my crow's feet um there's another huge blood blister that i popped on my right foot we're down to one ibuprofen um down to like one or two blister pads that i bought yesterday right now both feet feel swollen really painful and as great as i was moving yesterday at the end of day it's like the complete opposite this morning hopefully people will come across the hikers they have some more ibuprofen for me because otherwise i just can't seem to move very effectively i switched back to the sandals so i just passed a pair of young youngish hikers and they said hey just so you know your friends up ahead we gave them a crap ton of ibuprofen and i said oh god bless you guys thank you so much and then after a beat i turned around and i said hey is there anything i can offer you guys in return and they said that gabby gave them some fruit roll-ups and they seemed ecstatic about that exchange backpacking through hiking communities really generous and awesome [Music] do man mosquitoes love me this is stage fright and bear bait bear bait new trail friends surviving the jmt yeah [Laughter] as if my trip couldn't get adventurous enough last night it appears that i've sprung a bit of a leak in my air pad it's a new day new morning despite my continuing saga of equipment let down and failure legs are fine climbing gray we're climbing right now anyway today's big day we're in a reds meadow 18 miles away where we'll get our first proper meal and i really have a big decision to weigh do i say nothing is enough and call it a trip i know these guys have been really supportive and had my back but it's tough for me keeping these guys back and and just uh you know affecting their trip like we did yesterday where they would have rolled into camp 60 90 minutes ahead of time instead or scrambling all the time because my feet and it's just like slow moving each morning [Music] bye at long last we made it to reds meadow this would be the first time in a while we'd be able to enjoy some of the daily modern comforts we typically take for granted things like phone reception a hot non dehydrated meal and of course a cold soda we bitter due to our friends bear bait and stage fright as they continued on as we would be getting picked up by our friend keith to head into town for a desperately needed resupply you don't want scurvy first up for me some feet maintenance more advil some new socks and a new old pair of wider shoes courtesy of keith following the relaunch i really decided to become much more diligent about managing life ah son of a taking the time to switch out the socks every few hours apply the necessary first aid to my feet and really focus and cherish the rest of the journey that we make so much has happened to us in 10 days it's such a trip out just walking from a to b she's holding that like it's her dog you ever go through hiking you must bring this with you it's so good instant grits and some clarified ghee and home style chicken and rice experience there's i think it's day 11 heading to tuolumne we're 40 miles from our destination happy isles donahue pass we're going up johnny our last big pass we're here one of our last two passes we're going to go back up to 11 000. so please cooperate feet well i was managing my feet a lot better boys there was another unexpected twist that almost derailed the rest of our trip for good all right do this take off the back deep breaths squeeze on my hand okay deep breaths you're okay it takes a lot to crack a bone i think it's just like a you wouldn't be able to move it too keep that in mind low ankle sprain all that blood's just rushing right there you know support it just might get really stiff in this point okay last 11 000 foot pass that's 11 000 feet anything gabby way to rebound so proud of you crusher how does ankle feel i just keep moving forward it's okay it definitely feels like there's a huge like just pressure build up but what can you do you're great we are officially in yosemite after many days of perfect weather looks like we have a little system rolling through we have less than 30 miles left in our journey and over like 210 miles overall from where we started at cottonwood pass you have about two days left to go and i'm just trying to stay in the moment enjoy every inch of this journey i mean look at this metal classic yosemite end of the day tell you how good it feels to let these puppies out [Music] as usual we go all in all the time [Music] it's kind of crazy to think that after tonight there'll just be one night left i definitely don't want to take for granted the luxury of being able to do something like this as grinding and as much as is he beating me down that the experience of it the simplicity of it creating shelter tearing it down hiking up and over passes ultimately incredible beauty like this is a luxury this is something that not many people will be able to experience in their lifetimes and i'm really trying not to take that for granted i miss food i miss a refrigerator i miss my couch i i miss my work but i also desperately needed this given the chaos of the world and chaos of certain parts of my life this has been good it's been good for the soul and it's been good for the head and the heart so that's it some random thoughts before call it a night and we have two days and one night left in this incredible journey that is the john muir trail that's it a lot less i'm on pavement again how weird heading up our final pass cathedral pass at what's the elevation 9 700. relatively easy compared to all the passes we've done just past the sun i said we are officially under 20 miles to yosemite valley very final pass [Applause] you made it i made it do you have any final words before we do for our final night of camping i'm really looking forward to my oatmeal very profound elon do you have anything a little more it's been an epic trip so that we got to all share together there we go we love you love you too have a good night see you in the morning you need to stir the milk this first dehydrated milk courtesy of our friend stage fright stage fright it's been a game changer oh yeah this is officially our final camp meal ever for a while oatmeal with peanut butter has been our staple for the last 14 or so morning oh i'm gonna miss this meal look obviously i don't condone taking these on the regular but i have to give a shout out to these guys without your help i most certainly would not have gotten through this trip so let's hope these two are the last ones i'll have to take for a while cherish i'm nervous excited and anxious all mixed into one there was a point where i never thought this moment would happen okay we have 10 miles to freedom home stretch let's do this ongoing [Music] so as we're finishing up i just want to say that if you guys should be so fortunate to get a chance to do the john muir trail do it it's in one of the most beautiful places on earth it is a challenge it is hard but it is a worthwhile journey in so many ways so hope the mountains call hope you answer and uh the 211 mile john muir trail oh my god what an experience right gabby yes what he said one mile [Music] oh my god awesome tripod so proud of you you're so resilient oh gabby you know i want to tell you it's been an amazing three years you're absolutely loving my life and uh it's been an insane journey we had some insane highs and lows starting at whitney and i feel like it's going to be in our lives we're going to be going up we're going to going down but i always know if i got you by my side we got this we didn't make it and i couldn't imagine spending my life with anybody [Music] [Applause] congratulations thank you [Music] did you carry it the whole way congratulations you too all right one two three all right it all worked out [Music] let's take let's leave this place [Music] um

Channel: Billy Yang Films

Views: 123,411

Rating: 4.9537287 out of 5

Keywords: jmt, john muir trail, thru hiking, ultrarunning, ultramarathon, mount whitney, yosemite, thru hiking gear, hiking, billy yang, eastern sierra

Id: 6OHGr8MTRjA

Length: 53min 28sec (3208 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020