John Muir Trail Packing List, Budget, Base Weight
I found a lot of great information while reading through other people’s John Muir Trail packing lists, so I’m sharing ours. Hiking as a couple, Caffrey and I had near-similar gear lists, but we did divvy up the load for a few shared things. He carried our tent, bidet, and water filter; I carried toiletries, the first aid kit, camera, and Jetboil. We used LighterPack.com to catalog our packing list and calculate approximate cost and weights. See below for the list.
What Was Your Base Weight?
My pack typically weighed in (on a scale) at a base weight of ~19 pounds. C’s base weight was usually about 2 pounds heavier than mine. I felt like my gear was right on, even considering that we walked through almost a week of monsoon rain. I was sometimes a little chilly, a little wet, or a little hot. But I was never in real jeopardy; I managed to stay relatively clean and stinky-free (subjective, I know!), and never felt like I missed a single item. I also used every single item I brought.
I carried between 8-10 pounds of food for 5-7 days on the trail. Caffrey carried about 5 pounds more. My heaviest pack weight on the trail was after our re-supply at Muir Trail Ranch. When I loaded the scale, it read 34 pounds. I’m not sure it was scientifically calibrated, though. I’d say there was a margin of error +/- 2 pounds.
How Much Did We Spend? What Was Our Budget?
Don’t pay too much attention to the prices in the list below - we had a lot of these things before our trip (like the tent and camera!). We spent about $1,500 in pre-packed food, re-supply shipments, resort meals, and in-town restaurants during our 24 days on the trail. This works out to about $31.25 per person per day for food.
Our estimate is that we spent about $4,500 for two people to purchase additional gear and food we needed for the JMT hike, drive cross-country from the east coast (gas), and reside in the eastern Sierra towns a bit pre- and post-hike. That total does not count the money we spent acclimating (and enjoying life) in Colorado before driving to California.
2022 July/August JMT Through-Hike Gear List (LighterPack.com)
Yellow starred items are shared things that Caffrey carried; red starred items are shared things that I carried. I hope this is helpful - if you have questions, please feel free to ask in the Comment area below. Happy trails!