John Muir Trail 2012 Day 5 7-18-12
Today was set aside for final gear checks and a shuttle ride to the Valley to begin our hike the next day. We picked up our permits and and loaded our packs, then took off to catch the shuttle. Along the way I had an idea, why not hike DOWN to the valley and take the shuttle back up to Tuolumne Meadows. We would save ourselves 3000' of climbing and still hike every mile of the JMT, BRILLIANT!! We turned around and went back to the Tuloumne Meadows Backpackers Camp, grabbed our same site from the night before, and settled in for the night.