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Hot take: The John Muir Trail is overrated and I met a guy in Yosemite who proved it
I was at the Tuolumne Meadows permit office last August and this older guy, Mark, saw me looking at the JMT map. He said, 'You want real views without the 200-person line for Whitney? Go over Bishop Pass instead, you'll see three alpine lakes in the first 8 miles and maybe two other people.' I tried his route and it was insane, way better than fighting the crowds. Anyone else have a local tip that totally changed a famous trail for them?
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finleyf881mo ago
Local beta always beats the guidebook hype.
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claire_wells871mo ago
It's like that with everything now. The famous version of anything is just the crowded, overpriced one. You see it with restaurants, where the best food is at the place with no sign next door to the viral spot. Same with towns, where the coolest street is one block over from where all the tourists go. The real stuff is always hiding in plain sight, you just have to know where to look or talk to someone who does.
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