Jenny,

Tuolumne General Store, Reds Meadow and Vermillion Valley Resort (VVR) all sell fuel in isobutane canisters, white gas and denatured alcohol. Muir Trail Ranch — as I recall — does not. MTR doesn’t really have a “real” store per se. They have a few items for sale, but don’t expect much. On the other hand, MTR does have backpacker buckets where you are free to scavenge what people have donated.

@MeandMyselfonaTrail — that’s a bit of good news. Toulumne doesn’t charge anything to hold your resupply package, BUT… you have to mail it to them. You cannot drop it off there for them to hold; they simply won’t take it. You have to mail it to them.

There are some bear boxes in a few areas (though these are slowly being removed and not replaced), and there are a few areas where the bear canisters are not (yet?) mandatory. But the safest bet is to squeeze 9 days of food into the canister (it CAN be done with careful food choices) or arrange one more resupply point (usually meeting someone near Kearsarge or hiking out there, which would then add a couple days).

Thanks

Yes, we carried 10 days of food. That was a challenge (10 days x 2 lbs food per day = 20 lbs of food each), but the bigger challenge was getting it to fit in a bear canister. We didn’t have to put the first day’s meals in the canister (we were eating them before nightfall), but even 9 days of food was a challenge. But it can be done.

If I were to do it again, I would probably recruit some friends to come in over Kearsarge Pass with a food drop (we did this on my first JMT trip in 1980). You can also hire a company that will bring in your resupply via horseback around that same area. That helps split it up to something more manageable.

How did you get re-supply for the section from Muir Trail Ranch to Whitney portal, its stretch of 100miles?
Did you had to carry aprox 10 days of food?