Packrafting the John Muir trail ?

Hey guys,

I am willing to do the John Muir trail which passes through Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks and I was wondering if you think there is a descent amount of packrafting possible.
Cheers !

I hiked the JMT in 2016 and had a great time! There are plenty of lakes to packraft but I’m not sure about the streams / rivers which are not often run and possibly full of snags and seems to either be too small or to dangerous. But packrafting the lakes would be fun and beautiful as well. I think we camped near a lake more than half the nights on our 21 day trip and the fishing is usually quite good too.

I’ve done the JMT 4 times and I’m racking my brain on anything remotely rewarding to use a packraft on. I got nothing.

I could see this as a venue for the CDT. So for example you could do parts of the Flathead & Sun river as an alternate through Glacier and the Bob.

Although I do have another suggestion. Something in the vicinity of the High Sierra Route (crosses the JMT) there will be a ton of remote never rafted drainages. I’ve bushwhacked off into the wilds of these areas and many show no signs of ever been traveled (they have been, but you will not be able to tell.)

As far as I know, the only known runs in the vicinity of the JMT are:

-Headwaters of the Kern: Class V
-upper South Fork Kings: Class IV
-Middle Kings (upper ~half): Class V+
-Upper South Fork San Joaquin: Class V
-Mono Creek: Class V+
-Middle Fork San Joaquin: Class V+
-Lost Canyon of the Merced: Class V

high sierra are a formidable zone for the packrafter!

I’ve always thought a northbound packraft trip through evolution basin and evolution valley would be awesome, not sure if those have been done.