SeeingEyeBlog

Paul woke up really early, around 4:30, to great starfield views. He was itching to get on the trail, and my mom had to crap. So we were all up. We decided that since we were up so early, we should boil water for breakfast after all. Originally we planned to skip breakfast.

By 6am we were on the trail. About 8-10 people were above us on the trail, and Paul and my mom were going a little slow for my taste. I powered up the switchbacks and got to the Whitney trail junction at 7:20am. There were a lot of people I passed, and at trail junction, there was only one guy ahead of me, and he was gonna wait for the rest of his party.

While I was rearranging my water and stuff into my summit pack, there were two speed demon guys who passed me. But they weren’t taking off their packs for the summit. The summit trail has awesome views along the ridge and through the “windows” (sheer drops 2500′ down with views on the east and west sides). As I was taking pictures along the trail, I noticed there was another speed demon couple. So I kicked it into high gear since I was getting closer to the summit. I passed the two guys who passed me at the junction. But the speed freaks were close behind me and I could hear their footsteps. I kept at full output, and managed to eat a cliff bar while walking and breathing hard (not as easy as you would think). But eventually I had to stop for water. They ended up passing me about 1/8mi before a snowfield that ends at the summit area. So now I was in third place again. I think those people were doing some kind of endurance challenge from Badwater in Death Valley to Mt. Whitney. The lowest point to the highest. If I was going to be passed, I’m glad it was by them.

When I summitted, it was 8:40am, and I learned there were two people even ahead of the two who passed me. That put me at 5th for the day. It was a beautiful morning at the summit. Verizon gets coverage, but not AT&T. I think Sprint works too, if only I still was with them.

Ny mom and Paul summited an hour and 10 mins after me, and we left the summit after taking some pictures and signing the guest book. When we got back down the snowfield, Paul took a faceplant in the middle of a very rocky section of trail and was lucky that he ony bruised his thigh really badly. We still had 11 miles so he would be fighting through the pain the whole way.

Getting our packs back on, we headed to trail crest and then down the east face. At the very first switchback, there was a particularly precarious patch of snow along the already narrow trail that had a 3000′ drop in store for anyone who took a bad step. I crossed first, and then mom panicked and needed help so I coached her with where to plant her poles and when to step, while two other guys went onto the downhill part below the snow and pushed her gently into the hill for support. Just after she crossed, she started crying. And then it started snowing.

The snow and thunder were our clues that we should expedite our descent, since lightning could come anytime. We hiked at the fastest safe speed down the 99-switchback trail. As we lost altitude, the snow turned into hail, and then rain. There was a lot of thunder, and we could feel the electricity in the air. My arm hair was standing up on end. It was like we were in an Indiana Jones movie and we had just pushed the wrong button that caused the mountain to self-destruct.

After the 99-switchbacks, it was down/flat/down, etc, for what seemed like an eternity. Down from 14,500 to 8,500. We had to lose 6000 feet over 11 miles. It is difficult terrain when it’s raining because the granite is very slippery when it’s raining, and also, the water runoff path is the trail along many parts, so you’re hiki g on smooth granite with water flowing over it.

Finally at 6pm we made it to the bottom. We disposed of our wag-bags and had giant cheeseburgers from the Whitney Portal store. We drove down and checked-in to the Dow Villa motel in Lone Pine and took showers. Felt great being in a bed. After showers, we drove back up to Horseshoe meadows to retrieve the Jeep. Then we came back down and had pizza at the Lone Pine pizza factory. That night I slept like a rock. It was a great accomplishment.

We hiked up to Guitar Lake, and got there early to pick the best spot, as usual. We got to guitar lake proper and then kept going along the trail towards the switchbacks. We got the best spot that was very close to the beginning of the switchbacks leading to trail junction.

People didn’t start showing up for 3 hours. Plenty of time to take the first wag-bag crap of the trip, which I what I did. I quintuple-bagged it. The bag of poo was placed into an opaque ziplock bag, which I then put into another ziplock. And that ziplock was placed inside the liner baggie for a kayaking dry-bag. Hopefully that’s the only deposit I need to make, because I don’t want to open that thing again. I kept the dry-bag away from the camp site, so that if someone wanted to steal it, they’d be welcome to it without thinking it was mine. I don’t think there’s a paternity test for feces.

One of the groups that camped near us was about 8 kids about 11-yrs old, and three of their dads. One of the dads walked all the way to trail crest and back, just to see whether he would let his son hike the trail with a pack on. We watched him with binoculars the whole way. There were parts along the trail where he disappeared and the reappeared.

Scale is very deceiving because everything is so huge that there’s an illusion that things are smaller than they really are. The same effect happens in Rome, in St. Peters basilica, which was built with an eye for perspective and scale. Columns with human-sized statues on them will be life sized at the bottom, but they’ll be 25 feet tall near the top. But since all the figures seem life sized, your sense of scale is confused. The same thing happens in this basin, and I was made aware of it watching this guy walk up the trail. He gets smaller than a speck of dust, and you couldn’t pick him out with the naked eye if you tried. Yet the rock pinnacle next to him is very prominent. Which makes you realize the pinnacle is 500′ tall at least.

The guy went up and back down again in 1hr 50 mins. He was in great shape apparently, although one of the dads said that he smokes a pack a day.

It started to get overcast, so we decided to make a hot meal for lunch, just in case it rained and we couldn’t cook later. And we kept the stove going non-stop in order to deplete the excess fuel. Some of these clouds look brutal, but none have dumped yet. I felt a couple sprinkles around noon thirty. We went across the rock field toward Mt. Hitchcock so we could see Hitchcock lakes at the base. Meanwhile, the other group sent another dad up and down to trailcrest. Light sprinkling of rain. Not a big deal. Today is lots of waiting.

We decided our rest day would be best spent by doing a 10-mile round trip day hike to the north. We went to Wallace Creek, which is a major trail intersection for several routes to Whitney. We met a lot of hikers that were all headed for guitar lake. They would be summitting the next day, Thursday. I didn’t envy a lot of them, who had 60lb+ packs. It seemed like Friday, our summit day, would be a light day for Whitney hikers entering from the backcountry.

After we got back from the day hike, our longest mileage day and most exhausting, we bathed in the icy creek and rested a bit. Dipping my feet in felt great.

We took stock of our gear and gave our excess food to the ranger to pass on to hungry JMT hikers. We had only gone through half of our first can of fuel, out of three, so we burned the stove nonstop for a long time. The ranger didn’t want the fuel.

I have a bit of a headache. I think it’s due to mild dehydration. I’m drinking lots of water from the spring. I’m planning to over-hydrate til I pee clear and often.

On the way back on the hike, I also started feelig some unusual joint pain in my left hip. I haven’t been finding many good sleeping positions for my hips, so maybe there is something going on that is just now starting to manifest.

Clouds on the horizon. Hoping it doesn’t rain! Also, all my clothes smell mildly like butt-hole. 2 more days.

We are getting better at the routine of setting up and breaking down camp. And since we’re on sidereal time, we’re hitting the trail earlier and gettig to the next camp site first, so we can choose the absolute best spot.

Today we had a good slog up Guyut pass, where I tried to get cell service but there was still no signal (AT&T is worthless). We spotted some radio towers on one of the peaks, and the ranger later confirmed our suspicion that they are radio repeater towers. That is what lets a ranger’s radio broadcast loud and clear when he is transmitting from down a ravine or canyon. They had to helicopter those towers onto that peak. Seems like another 3G tower isn’t going to hurt.

On the way down into Crabtree meadow we saw our first glimpse of the peak of Whitney. Paul knew what to look for, so we got a good idea of the lay of the land. Gettig to the ranger station at Crabtree we took a long lunch break. The ranger was out on patrol so we were waiting to ask some questions. Meanwhile we met a guy from San Diego who was doing the summit solo. He runs a holistic elementary school where the kids do yoga and stuff. He had a lot of ultralight gear, and so we got his email so he could send us his gear list. His pack weight was 30lbs for his 14-day trip. He’s my dad’s size so now we know my dad can do it. Although this guy said he lost 30 lbs to get to where he’s at now, and he did it by walking 5 miles every weekday.

When the ranger came back, we realized it was Dave again, who we met the day before at the Rock Creek ranger station. This time he was carrying his 8-month old boy in the backpack with a bug net around him. Dave told us about the nearby spring water that we could drink without filtration or treatment, and the pit toilet at the west end of the meadow.

I was excited not to have to dig a hole anymore. But instead of finding an outhouse, there was a throne in the middle of the meadow, totally exposed. The limited privacy was brought to you by a fallen log nearby. It was very odd dropping trou in the middle of a meadow. Didn’t get the TP to stay on the seat without blowing off, so I just say on it directly and made sure to use a lot of anti-bacterial wipes after. I can’t imagine there being a line for that toilet. I guess that’s another reason to crap early.

After setting camp at Crabtree, we did a day hike to Guitar lake to scout out a camp site for the staging day. It’s really cool at a certain part of the day you can clearly see the trail going up the face of what is otherwise an alluvial fan that doesn’t look trail-worthy. At first glance, it doesn’t seem possible. Along the trail we met Dave’s ranger wife Erika, who was descending from summit patrol. It would be crazy hiking Whitney every few days–especially after just having had a baby.

Chicken a la King is really good, and has tons of energy packed in. Tomorrow is a rest day so we’ll probably just day hike around the area. I’ve been feeling great and haven’t used any meds. No pain in the mornings. I’m going to choose not to have any meds for the remainder of the trip, since I’ve gone this far without. I was trail-running back down from Guitar lake for about 1/4 mile. I think I’ll be fine for the summit.

Slept without the rainfly on last night. It’s awesome to see the stars but it gets much colder. We hiked through some nice meadows in the morning, and then found a ranger’s hut where we met Dave, who is on the trail blazing (blasting) crew. He lives in the backcountry for 4 months of the year with his wife, who is the head of all the backcountry rangers. They also have an 8-month old that lives up there too. He eats meadow grass and learns to walk with the baby deer. And he obviously has no altitude issues.

We had lunch at a stream crossing at the base of the next big pass (Guyut pass), on the way to Crabtree. We made camp near a stream about halfway up the pass. We did some laundry, and I decided it’s good to do that wearing your outer rain layer of clothes, because you’ll get a little wet, but also you’ll then be able to wash the current day’s clothes.

I decided I’m not eating enough food, so to lighten the load I’m going to eat 2 meals tonight, and/or eat a cliff bar for dessert. Even though my pack is still too heavy, it is definitely starting to feel lighter. Butt rash all but gone thankfully.

We got to camp really early so we decided to take a side hike around the area. We went upstream along the creek, crossed over the stream and found a big meadow. We walked across part of the meadow, which was really slushy, and went up into the hills above it. There was a great view from there. We walked around the uphill perimeter of the meadow, and then started back. On our way, we saw some Bear poop, which was disconcerting since we were close to our camp.

Spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner. Excellent. After dinner we took another walk downstream along the creek, and found an even bigger meadow with a better view. We got there just as the sun was about to go down behind Guyut peak.

Tonight I’m sleeping with socks on, and the rainfly on. I like to sleep with my feet on top of my pack, so that the hip belt cradles my legs. Putting a soft stuff-sack under my heels helped since they were hurting a little.