I recently did the JMT in 20 days but I'm really concerned about how long it took me. Any advice on how I can increase my time? I'd like to be able to do it in at least 30 days, but ideally I'd like to take the whole summer.
I know that conventional advice would be to increase my packload, to slow myself down, but I have become accustomed to carrying much lighter gear in recent years and can't bring myself to give up the creature comforts this gives me (comfortable back, minimal joint pain, pain-free bunions).
I'm thinking I may have to do something radical...like quit my job.

Assuming your post is not a tongue-and-cheek thing- Why would you do the JMT more than once? To me the JMT is just a crowded trail that gets you to places where you can then explore - off-trail or other trails to see more country. If you want to spend the summer in the Sierra, just get out a map and go all over. On the High Sierra Topix forum we have a fellow who does just that- spends the whole summer in the Sierra going to all the little nooks and crannies and does a lot of climbs too. You just have to sit down and figure out the resupply logistics. And, of course, have the time- be independently wealthy, retired, unemployed or homeless!

well, I am being tongue-in-cheek...sort of. I just mean to say that, though I certainly did enjoy the trail ( I liken it to a necklace that strung together a bunch of beautiful pearls that I had already visited on shorter trips, or which I hope to visit in the future), for me I didn't really like pushing through and not stopping off to spend more time explore all the little side routes and untrailed canyons, or spending a day kicking back in a field of owl's clover, doing nothing but enjoying the sun on my back and the sound of the wind. No, no, instead I had to go back to work As you suggest, Daisy, I very much look forward to the day when I retire and can spend my whole summer meandering as I see fit, taking as much time as I feel like.
What really triggered my post was seeing some irritating article in Backpacker Mag on the virtues of someone who hiked the JMT, or the PCT, or whatever in some especially fast time, breaking it down to the very last minute it took. As though spending LESS time in nature (ie getting it done extra fast) was somehow a good thing . Ugh!
I have great respect for people who manage to do long through hikes, and I know that you can't do something like the PCT without hiking some long days, at fast paces: you have to beat the snow, for sure (or get back to work or whatever). But all the same, I am increasingly irritated with this whole emphasis that has developed on trying to be faster, do longer days, and measuring trips down to the minute is just too much. What, is it going to be an Olympic sport soon? Are we going to start having steroid scandals? Sure, you have to crank out the miles sometimes (and it can be fun), but it comes at the expense of experiencing your surroundings, IMHO.

I think we may be a dying breed - those of us who like backpacking for the wilderness experience. There is so much emphasis nowadays on the "extreme" sports and competition. This has been going on for decades in the climbing world - now it has crept into backpacking. But, the backpacking "media" does not necessarily represent the general backpacker. Most of our trips are pretty boring - no extremes epics or dramas.

The Wind Rivers were very stormy this summer. I cut my summer short because the unsettled weather was too risky for the solo off-trail stuff I had planned for my last 8-day trip. Going into the sunny Sierra tomorrow morning!

I love the country along the JMT, but I do not like the JMT. As a "big name" trail and essentially the PCT, it gets too much use. I prefer more solitude and off-trail. There is so much more to the Sierra than the JMT! Hope you can some day soon just go out and wander around and explore at your own pace.

Researching routes for my annual "big" trip I found a beautiful 50-miler report with trail description and lots of photos in a mix of Hoover and Yosemite. Lakes! Passes! Scenery! Got to the end where he described getting to the car just at sundown and only then did I realize he was describing a one-day run.

Sigh.

I think we might have done that run...in about 8 days.

I was lol at the end of the 3rd sentence bobito.

And again after reading Rick's.

I loved exploring the Sierras. I got to do a few longer stays there. Those trips were probably the best I've ever done. I just lived in the forest for the month of August. It was as close to perfect as life had ever been for me.

I think WD offers the perfect advice:



And she's right when she says a trail gets you to places where you can then explore. That is the insight that leads to truly awesome trips.

Thru hiking is a sport. What I do when backpacking isn't. It's not competitive at all. Some people think hiking off trail is extreme, but I don't consider it to be that at all. For me, that's why trails exist. They make it easier for me to get to spots where I want to get off of them. I've never thought of them to be anything but that.

It's hard to explain, but when you are a few miles from any trail or road you are generally that far away from any other person too, and there's a difference. If you are comfortable being there it is a very soothing difference. If not, it will bug the hell out of you.

For me, it is where I am most comfortable. A trail is a link to the city, and that's what I am trying to escape when I backpack.

My advice is to walk slower. I don't like to run in church.

The way I plan trips is to just get a map and see where I want to wander.