DolomiteSport Hiking the John Muir Trail | John Dittli

Rae Lakes sunset, John Muir Trail, Sierra Nevada

As mentioned in our earlier post about John Dittli’s new coffee table book Walk the Sky, John himself would be writing a follow up article with his thoughts about tackling a photography project that required hiking 220 miles of the most rugged terrain in the lower 48 – on foot.

Walk the Sky : by Special Guest Contributor John Dittli

A certain burden had been lifted. On day five of hiking the John Muir Trail this last summer with my wife Leslie, I came to the realization that the project was over. Four years of wandering back and forth, constantly searching, working if you will, for the right composition, the right light in the right place, had left me well aware of every bend, every hill. But heading up the south side of Forester Pass, I became relieved of all that.

I no longer would have to look ahead, but rather now had the opportunity to reflect on past days, months and years. To many the walk along the JMT is a lifetime accomplishment, and it is certainly worthy of such a cause. For myself, after a lifetime of weeks and months spent exploring wild lands, I was not expecting any kind of epiphany along the Muir Trail.

Having spent my childhood summers criss-crossing the Range of Light, end-to-end, painstakingly avoiding the JMT, I was well aware of references to the trail as the John Muir Freeway. In fact I have previously referred to it as such myself. For me the JMT was merely a crowded pathway to use on my way to some other remote location.

It wasn’t until I started on the Walk the Sky project that it became evident; hiking the John Muir Trail is in fact, a social walk through some of the finest mountain scenery in North America. Accepted as such the JMT becomes a truly “world class” trek.

As I sat atop Forester Pass, looking north across countless divides, I reflected not only on the places I had seen, but the people met: the young curly haired woman whose beautiful voice I heard singing on the breeze, or the grizzled old man who was no less beaming when he talked of days “following the music of water”.

Indeed there was an epiphany; that wilderness truly can be a state of mind. While I personally still very much value the trail less, I also see the importance of places like the John Muir Trail. A thread not just connecting place, but a common thread binding an environmental and cultural heritage.

To see more of John’s work, and to get information about ordering the book Walk the Sky, visit: JohnDittli.com

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Below…… some of John’s favorite images from 25 years of working as a professional photographer.