Pamela Zoolalian is an extreme sports enthusiast who specialized in street luge and downhill skateboarding in the mid 1990s. As one of the few women in these male-dominated sports, she was the only female athlete to qualify and compete in ESPN’s X Games, NBC’s Gravity Games, and the Playstation Extreme Games. In fact, she was so prolific in her sports that her leathers, helmet, and street luge board were displayed at Disney’s All Star Café in Orlando.
Additionally, Pamela was a commentator within the skating industry, appearing in coverage for the Gravity Games, X Games, and the Vans Triple Crown. She hosted her own radio show called The Core Radio, and was even featured in a Nike commercial as the Just Do It Downhill Diva. Pamela was also photographed by Annie Leibovitz for her Women in Sports Project.
This particular stretch of the John Muir Trail is unique in that you reap the rewards of the iconic Yosemite National Park, but you begin in a much quieter section of the popular park by starting this leg in Tuolumne Meadows. From there, hike up and over Donohue Pass and drop into the Ansel Adams Wilderness, named after the renowned photographer who was captivated by its beauty. Hikers pass by the famous Thousand Island Lake, one of the more beautiful alpine lakes in the Eastern Sierra.
Nearest Town: Yosemite Valley, California
Getting There: From Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, take CA 120 for 10 miles until you come to the Crane Flat turnoff onto Tioga Road. Then take Tioga Road 38 miles east until you come upon the meadows. If you arrive in the park from the east entrance at Tioga Pass, simply take Tioga Road west 8 miles and you will see the meadows.
Trailhead: Tuolumne Meadows GPS: N37 52.616', W119 20.752'
Fees and Permits: Yosemite wilderness permits are required ($5 per confirmed reservation + $5 per person) for overnight stays in the park. These are available through a lottery system that starts 168 days prior to the start date of your trip. Additionally, hikers exiting Yosemite via Donohue Pass need to also apply for a Donohue Pass exit quota.
Trail Users: Hikers, backpackers, trail runners
Elevation Gain: 4,967 feet
Length: 35 miles (point-to-point)
Approximate Hiking Time: 3–4 Days
Difficulty: Strenuous
Insider Info: This portion of trail wraps through the Ansel Adams Wilderness and passes the practically famous Thousand Island Lake. This aptly named body of water is dotted with small islands and affords an amazing view of Banner Peak. If you can swing it, I highly recommend spending a night—or two!—here to enjoy the scenery. Note: Mosquitoes can be especially vicious if you arrive near the hatch (typically around July, but it depends on the year’s snow pack), so plan accordingly.
Managing Agency: Yosemite National Park; Inyo National Forest
The first two-thirds of Pamela Zoolalian’s life revolved around speed. As an outdoorsy girl growing up with California’s Angeles National Park as her backyard, she did not understand the concept of fear. She splashed in creeks and played with tadpoles; she ran through the forest and regularly skinned her knees. Her life was outside and as a result, it never occurred to her to be scared of much. Life was full of adventure and its consequences; that was all she knew and what she loved. Whether she realized it then or not, this was a personality trait that would serve her well later in life.
Pamela was gutsy and her stubborn streak only widened as she reached her 20s. Thanks to her fearlessness, she found friendship with an athletic group of guys, most of whom were professional athletes. They admired her perseverance and determination and never treated her any differently because she was a female. In fact, they respected her ability to decode any given situation and enjoyed challenging her by presenting her with more and more difficult tasks. She thrived under their tutelage and pushed her skill sets to new levels. There was no room for error and Pamela understood that every obstacle was a solvable problem. If she practiced enough and carefully observed her friends, she knew she was capable of anything.
It was this confidence and resolution that led her to street luge. Similar to the ice luge you now see in the Winter Olympic Games, street luge was just breaking onto the scene in the mid-90s and people were enamored with the high-risk nature of the sport. Participants rode a street luge board (similar to a long skateboard) in a supine position while bombing downhill at very high speeds, using the weight of their bodies to turn when needed. If they needed to stop, they used their feet, burning through a pair of outsoles daily. It was dangerous, thrilling, and packed full of speed. In short, it was the perfect sport for Pamela.
Around this same time, ESPN realized they were missing out on a burgeoning and profitable market: extreme sports. To remedy this, the network spent $10 million to launch the first-ever X Games in 1995, drawing 200,000 extreme sports athletes to the event in Rhode Island. Network executives cherry picked the most extreme games they could find to showcase at that first event; street luge was one of them.
Pamela remembers watching the first X Games on television and marveling at the insane 60-mph speeds of the street luge athletes. After the competition concluded, she and her friend immediately headed out to the nearest Home Depot for plywood, tubing, and 2×4 wood. Once she constructed her makeshift board, she experienced her first street luge run. It was 2 a.m., likely illegal, and Pamela was hooked.
Street luge came naturally to her. She possessed an uncanny ability to slow time down in her mind so that she could methodically and logically process any given situation, regardless of where she was or what she was doing. She learned to control the jitter-inducing adrenaline that is inherent in any extreme sport and compartmentalized her fear. Instead, she harnessed that vibrancy and power to use in her favor. Her rational mindset gave her the best-available options while on the course, but her massive power aided her with speed. More than any sport prior, it was love at first ride.
But it was a male-dominated sport. Since women weigh much less than men, they competed at a major disadvantage, a fact that scared many females away from even trying. Pamela was a lone wolf surrounded by male competitors, but she didn’t let that phase her. In fact, she approached it logically and rationally, just like she did everything else in life. Her tough mentality impressed her competitors once again, and she soon found them helping her. One built her a new board while another placed her on his team. These instances afforded her the opportunity to learn from professionals and improve her riding style. As a result, her skills shot through the roof—and the helpful camaraderie quickly dwindled. Instead of being helpful, the guys grew competitive, not wanting to be bested by one of the few females in the sport. Pamela took it all in stride, thriving on the competition.
Street luge took Pamela all over the globe at a time when the sport was bursting with popularity. As her skills increased so did the accolades. At one point, Pamela was the only female athlete to qualify and compete in street luge in the X Games, the NBC Gravity Games, and the Playstation Extreme Games.
As tends to happen with extreme sports, Pamela eventually grew away from street luge and found herself involved in other projects. She developed a skatewear line for women that did quite well, but when the economy crashed in 2008 her business struggled. In 2011 she closed her doors, unsure of what was next. It was a small industry and gossip thrived, so Pamela made a scary decision to completely walk away from it all. She loved skating and street luge but her passions were now emotionally exhausting. She needed a change, and opted for one that was about as polar-opposite from street luge as any one sport could be: backpacking.
She set her sights on the John Muir Trail, the 212-mile journey that stretches from Yosemite National Park to the summit of Mt. Whitney. Backpacking was far slower and more methodical than any of her previous adrenaline-filled sports, but its calming nature was exactly why it appealed to her. Pamela spent 9 months preparing for the trek, carefully dehydrating meals and counting calories to stash in food resupply caches. She reviewed gear, cautiously choosing the best items for her adventure. She tirelessly trained, hiking 5 or 6 days each week under a heavy backpack, determined to strengthen her hiking muscles. It was often tedious work, but the absolute involvement and reliance on planning helped her get away from the madness she had left behind in the skating world.
Pamela gave herself 30 days on the John Muir Trail. Other than a small sketchbook and a camera, she carried nothing to distract her: no music, no books, and no earphones. Instead, she focused on her experience, whatever it happened to be at any given moment. She didn’t want a playlist packed with enthusiastic tunes to interrupt this experience that she intentionally set aside for clarifica tion and mental restoration. She needed to be alone with her thoughts. She needed this time to move forward with her life.
And it worked. The month Pamela spent on the John Muir Trail was arguably the most therapeutic experience of her life. Everything was so simple. She awoke in the same tent every morning and ate basic meals, never fretting about too many choices because they simply weren’t available. She walked when she felt like walking; she slept when she was tired. If she was hungry, she ate some food and if her feet hurt, she removed her shoes. She laughed and joked with other thru-hikers when she felt extroverted and kept to herself when she wanted solitude. Her time on the John Muir Trail was very simple but the clear-cut instructions and minimalistic nature of the thru-hike were actually what she needed at such a complicated time in her life.
WHAT IS THE JOHN MUIR TRAIL?
To many, the John Muir Trail is the premiere hiking trail in the United States. The 211-mile route runs along the spine of the Sierra Range between Yosemite National Park and Mt. Whitney (14,505 feet), the tallest peak in the lower 48. While the trail has indigenous origins (See: Jolie Varela chapter) that should not be forgotten, most people know it as the John Muir Trail, named after the iconic founder of the Sierra Club. John Muir’s loud and proud style of advocating laid the groundwork for conserving much of the terrain spread throughout Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks.
The entire route covers almost 47,000 feet of elevation gain throughout its 211 miles, and most of the trail is situated in designated wilderness. Over a third of the trail sits above 10,000 feet, affording thru-hikers and backpackers some of the most panoramic views in the lower 48. In the past, the trail was known for its relative solitude, but recent years have seen an influx in thru-hikers, leading to such precautionary measures as the Donohue Pass exit quota previously mentioned in the permit section.
Completing the John Muir Trail helped Pamela find the clarity she so desperately needed. In choosing to hike alone, she allowed herself the time and space she needed to ruminate on her identity. Who was she? What was important to her? Where did she go from here?
The John Muir Trail taught Pamela to walk her own walk, both on the trail and back in Los Angeles. She returned to the city and immediately became a National Ski Patrol member. Then she began teaching a travel course for the Sierra Club. Having walked away from such a transformative experience, Pamela wanted to better equip others to do the same. Thru-hiking changed the course of her life, and she understood its metamorphic powers more than most. Nature became her healer, and she aimed to help others find this same salve. Because everyone needs to walk their own walk at some point.
Fortunately, this is a very easy trail to follow and will require minimal guidance. From the Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Center, head south on the John Muir Trail section of the Pacific Crest Trail. You will follow John Muir Trail signs the entire way. Continue heading south as the trail remains relatively flat for the first 10 miles. This makes a great warm-up as you can prepare for the climbs you will face in the coming days. There are many options for campsites, but many choose to spend the first evening along Lyell Fork, opting to tackle Donohue Pass on the morning of the second day.
From Lyell Fork, you will begin steeply ascending, gaining almost 1,100 feet over the next 3.5 miles. Once you reach the top of Donohue Pass (11,056 feet), take a moment to catch your breath and admire the view. Looking south, you will see the Ansel Adams Wilderness in all of its glory; this is your target.
Descend Donohue Pass, gradually hiking downhill for the next 3 miles. When you reach the trail junction with Rush Creek Trail, continue straight to stay on the John Muir Trail. Shortly thereafter, you will gradually ascend once more, this time to the summit of Island Pass. It’s easy to miss since it is a large summit, but keep your eyes peeled for amazing views of the Minarets to the west.
From there, you will quickly reach Thousand Island Lake on your right, shortly followed by Garnet Lake. Both make great campsites if you can schedule accordingly. A short-but-steep climb welcomes you after Garnet, but you are then rewarded with a gradual downhill for the next few miles so you can relax and enjoy the scenery. The trail rolls up and then down one more time by Shadow Lake before descending to Devils Postpile. As you near the national monument, you will encounter a few trail junctions, so be sure to stay on the John Muir Trail every time.
Note: In high season, you cannot leave a car at Devil’s Postpile. If you opt for this point-to-point hike, you will need to take the $7 shuttle from the national monument to Mammoth Ski Resort. You can take Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System (YARTS) from Mammoth back to Yosemite.
0.0 Begin at the Tuolumne Meadows Wilderness Center. From here, head south and connect with the John Muir section of the Pacific Crest Trail.
1.1 Trail junction; stay right on the John Muir Trail.
2.2 Trail junction; stay straight.
4.2 Stream crossing.
6.6 Trail junction; stay straight on the John Muir Trail.
9.4 Stream crossing.
9.8 You’ve reached a great campsite along Lyell Fork.
10.0 Begin ascending Donohue Pass.
13.9 You’ve now reached the summit of Donohue, so enjoy the views.
17.5 Trail junction with Rush Creek Trail; stay straight and do not go to Waugh Lake.
20.8 You’ve now arrived at Thousand Island Lake; congrats!
23.9 Cross the bridge at the eastern end of Garnet Lake. The large stone slabs beneath the bridge make for a great place to relax and eat lunch.
25.0 Steeply descend via a series of switchbacks.
27.1 Trail junction; stay left to head toward Shadow Lake.
28.0 You are now on the southern shore of Shadow Lake.
29.7 Hike along the eastern shore of Rosalie Lake.
33.3 You will soon see the sign announcing your entrance to Devils Post-pile National Monument.
35.0 You’ve reached the end of your trek. Catch a shuttle to Mammoth Ski Resort to return to Yosemite National Park.
