Q and A
LEAD:  John Muir Trail
John Muir Trail
Question: I plan to hike the John Muir Trail in California this summer with my two children and my father. Do you know of any pack companies that hire out mules to carry provisions for extended periods? - C. C. L, Easton, Pa.
Answer: Experienced hikers say it would take about two months to hike the entire John Muir Trail, the 200-mile path that follows the crest of the Sierra Nevada from Yosemite National Park to Mount Whitney in Sequoia National Park. A couple of commercial packers there express doubt that any outfitter would rent mules without one of their own experienced packers' going along. Usually outfitters either provide everything needed for a long trek - mules, packers, camping equipment, food - or supply camping equipment to backpackers who carry it themselves.
One outfitter said it might be possible to rent burros, which are easier to handle than mules, but slower and smaller. Mules are preferred, and on a mountain camping trip, with tents, food and utensils carried, one mule per person is usually needed, he said.
One of the guide services near the trail is Mammoth Lakes Pack Station, Post Office Box 61, Mammoth Lakes, Calif. 93546 (619-934-2434), which also has a station at McGee Creek, about 15 miles south of Mammoth Lakes. It supplies mules, packers, guides and all necessary equipment. The service's options include group trips of three to six days along a section of the trail, and customized trips for family or other small private groups. It also does what it calls spot trips, providing mules and packers for people with their own gear who want to camp by a lake or some other spot and then be collected at the end of their stay. Another option is the dunnage trip, a shuttle ride to a particular spot on the John Muir Trail.
Often a packer and a cook-guide goes along with a group, the packer's mules carrying all the camping and other equipment supplied by the service. All hikers need to take along are sleeping bags. The mules graze in the evenings, and they carry some grain for themselves. These trips generally cost $100 to $150 a person a day for small groups, $100 a person a day for larger groups. Once on the trail, trekkers don't have access to any towns, although Red's Meadows, which has a store and cafe, is accessible from the route. Most people hiking along the trail do about six or seven miles a day. Another service is the Bob Tanner Pack Station, Post Office Box 395, Mammoth Lakes, Calif. 93546 (619-873-3928 and, from early June, 619-934-2345). For a trip with mules, packer, food, and camping and other equipment, rates are around $100 a person a day.  The Hermitage
Question: Is it true, as we have heard, that the Hermitage in Leningrad is to be closed for extensive renovations? We are going to the Soviet Union in July. - D. R., Grosse Pointe Park, Mich.
Answer: Soviet officials say emphatically that there is no plan to close the Hermitage. They do concede that restoration work is often going on and that visitors sometimes find a wing closed for repairs or maintenance. The Hermitage houses one of the leading collections of European paintings and sculpture, thousands of drawings and engravings, tapestries and furniture, as well as collections of art from India, China, Egypt and other countries. The museum has about 3.5 million visitors a year.  Paris Opera
Question: We are interested in attending performances at the Paris Opera. How can we get a schedule and then reservations? - D. K. O., Wichita, Kan.
Answer: The old Paris Opera - a new one is scheduled to open next season - does not have a booking service in this country, so people eager to get tickets must either write directly to the theater or ask a travel company with a representative in Paris to approach it. The address to write to for information or reservations is Theatre National de l'Opera, Service Location par Correspondance, 8 Rue Scribe, 75009 Paris, France (telephone 47.42.53.71). A self-addressed envelope with an international reply coupon should be enclosed. The old Opera's last full season, alternating with ballet performances, continues until mid-July. (The French Government Tourist Office, 628 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10020; 212-757-1125, can provide the schedule.) In September the theater is due to reopen with dance only. Opera will be presented at the new Opera de la Bastille, where inaugural concerts celebrating the bicentennial of the French Revolution will be presented on July 13 and 14. The plan is to commence the first opera season there in January 1990, but dates and programs are not yet available, and a ticket office has yet to be established.  Rail Route
Question: What is the best way of going by train from Oslo to Switzerland, passing through Copenhagen and the Black Forest in West Germany? - D. W., Longboat Key, Fla.
Answer: The most direct route is from Oslo to Copenhagen, where you change for Hamburg, and catch a train from there to Basel, Switzerland. The Hamburg-Basel train passes through the Black Forest. From Basel, Swiss Federal Railways provides good nationwide service.
Starting from Oslo, the traveler has the choice of taking a ferry to Copenhagen or catching the Copenhagen train, which runs down the coast of Sweden, via Goteborg, and is carried by ferryboat across to Denmark. There are day and night services. Traveling time is about 10 hours. The traveler doing the whole leg to Copenhagen by ferry would sail with D.F.D.S. Seaways, a Danish company; the crossing taking about 16 hours. The Copenhagen-Hamburg-Basel journey takes about 13 1/2 hours. From Hamburg the train goes through Frankfurt, Karlsruhe, and Offenburg and Freiburg, which are in the Black Forest. There isn't a night train on the Copenhagen-Hamburg route, but there are both day and night trains between Hamburg and Basel.
One-way train fares, Oslo to Basel, are about $200 in second class and $400 in first. Sleeping accommodations are extra. It would pay a passenger traveling first class to buy a 15-day Eurailpass, which allows first-classs travel. It costs $320.