This is going to be a very interesting year for the John Muir Trail team. Over the last several months, one by one people have been dropping out– the latest because of injury and another because of date conflicts. So here’s our first post of the trip:

This is a trip called the Three Musketeers– Derek, Jon & Hiro. In the next couple days, you’ll be receiving the tales and trials and experiences of three musketeers wandering through the Sierra wilderness. We are in search of :

+Winnie the Pooh the bear with lots of honey
+Looking for the unicorns and
+The famous beer hall of the Sierra that’s in a very hidden location.

So we’re on our way to Tuolumne Meadows to pick up the trailhead to Merced Lake. It will be a tale of the three of us using superhero powers to unlock the mysteries of the Sierra. Stay tuned to this blog for more interesting stories, and. antidotes as we head off into land of mystery, beauty and awesomeness.

What is the source of Tuolumne Meadows groundwater and where does it go?

Water sources include two forks deep in Yosemite’s wilderness—the Dana and the Lyell—and include three creeks—Budd, Delaney and Unicorn. The Tuolumne River runs through the middle of the meadows, for three miles, and is supplied by snowmelt and hill-slope aquifers. In spring as soon as the snow melts, it is not uncommon to see large areas of the meadows flooded and practically transformed into a lake. Most of the water that filters through Tuolumne Meadows eventually becomes the drinking water for San Francisco, via the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. That water is so clean, that it is one of the few urban reservoirs in the United States to require only minimal water treatment.

Glaciated granitic bedrock dominates the Tuolumne Meadows landscape. The area receives 1,000 mm (39 inches) of precipitation annually, predominately in the form of snow. Shallow groundwater supports meadow vegetation within most areas of Tuolumne Meadows. Accumulation of topsoil—made up of glacial till and fluvial deposits—at Tuolumne Meadows has taken place for more than 2,000 years. from NPS

We decided to take away the Track the Hikers page this year because of the number of hikes (17) and so many different Garmin devices, there was no easy way to help you see an individual hike, so I hope the blog posts give you a tase of the trails and our amazing hikers. Thank you for joining us on the journeys.