The day started with the hike
starting at 5 AM. It was going to be a long
one any way you look at it. I basically got up
at 3:30 - I wanted to take the time to prep and
allow breakfast to digest a little. It was
dead still out, but cold. I was quite warm
with the zero degree bag I brought. That was
pretty much over kill, but I would hate to have to
have a cold night in the backcountry.
Annie wanted to get up 15 minutes
after I did; after taping my feet and bundling up I
woke her up. Started making breakfast and the
rest of the camp slowly got up. Coffee never
tasted so good then on a cold morning. Love
it. We made sure the camp was secured and all
food contained within bear canisters to keep the
rodents out. We started up the switchbacks.
Dots of light could be seen on the trail above from
early hikers. I would stop every 10
switchbacks and rest the group. This pace
worked extremely well for everyone. I used to
hear how terrible the switchbacks were - not really -
I find the ones in the canyon by far more difficult
and long. Most of the switchbacks here are
very short in comparison; the difficulty is that you
are at altitude.
The trail continued to disappoint.
It is a environmental disaster here. As I
hiked up the trail, it was evident someone defecated right on the side wall. I
would pass four such disgusting scenes where people
defecated right there on the trail.
The sun was starting to rise and
caste a wonderful orange glow against the rocks - I
knew the wind would soon be coming. The group
headed up the switchback and made it to Trail Crest
by sun up. We took a brief break, fueled up
and started down a steep section of trail to pick up
the John Muir Trail. The summit was but 2
miles away and another 1000 feet. Everyone was
doing fine and not experiencing and signs of
fatigue. We passed a series of windows where
the wind would gust through. Again this was a
section where I heard of great tales of trail
narrowness, etc. Hardly. There are great
views through the windows and back down the other
side of Sequoia.
We finally rounded the last bend
and crossed the last of the rocky part of the
trails. Ironically the last 300-400 feet of
trail to the summit is on a well worn path and
devoid the rocks and boulders. this was in
direct contrast to coming down the John Muir trail.
Victory was in sight and the summit hut sat there on
a crystal clear day. We headed up the trail
and walked over to the USGS marker - well all of
them. There are several up there from various
years.
100% success rate - 5 for 5.
You have to love when a plan works and the entire
group makes it!
We took our
obligatory pictures then headed over to the summit
hut to crash, eat, and recuperate. We hung out
in the hut crammed into the one lone room and waited
for our energy to return. We packed up and
started to heading down. We started to shed
clothing as the sun started to rise higher. We
took one last final break at Trail Crest. Mark
zipped down a head of all; I cannot blame him after
playing sweep the entire morning.
We eventually made it back to
camp. Mark was almost a solid 20 minutes a
head of us. It was quickly apparent that the
Marmot paid a visit. The two rookies made an
error and didn't secure their trash. It was
strewn all over the campsite. Krystan and Anne
had to spend several minutes picking up all the
chewed trash.
We packed our tents and camp and
started the last 6+ miles back to our car camp.
This was the painful part- after doing a summit
having to pick up our packs and carry a load back
down the hill. Mark and Annie had an
interesting debate: Was it harder to do all 22 miles
or have to haul gear on a 16+ mile day for 6 of
those miles......
Once back
down into the tree line I started to enjoy the
scenery more. It was just one switch back
after another. We took a quick break at
Outpost Camp, then started back down the trail.
We started to hear the pleasant sound of cars.
That may seem strange, but we were all pretty tired.
We were about a mile from the
trailhead when I heard Annie take a spill behind me.
She went turtle and lay their clutching her ankle.
She had switched to running shoes because her boots
were giving her problems. We took her pack off
and it appeared she had a light sprain, but could
walk. Two day hikers coming down the trail
offered to carry her pack back and leave it at the
store. We walked a few minutes to she how she
was doing then stopped while she popped some Advil
for the pain/swelling. She made it down OK and
secured her pack at the store
We took our time and soon the roofs
of the buildings were spotted. We got back to
the portal store and had our dinner. After a
long day, greasy food is a wonder.
Unfortunately we had one more camp to pack. We
went back over to the car camp site and quickly
packed up. It was about 830PM by the time we
finally left. Long day, but a good hike
CLOSING NOTE:
Mt. Whitney unfortunately ranks
probably about 2nd to the bottom on my list of
favorite places. This is due in part to the
ecological disaster above tree line. When
NPS/NFS states to take water from the streams above
the lakes, this is an indication there is a major
problem. The NFS has taken down both toilet
facilities and now requires WAG Bags.
Unfortunately people do not use them and the trail
and campsites are dotted with rocks with streamers
of white toilet paper hanging out from them.
Or in worst cases, people just defecated right there
on the trail. The trail itself from Trail Camp
to summit was littered with dropped food, discarded
clothing, gear, fecal matter, etc. It was
truly a disgusting situation. The Interagency
should shut down the main trails for several years
to allow the lakes, ponds, and trails to recover.
However this will never happen since it is a cash
cow for both agencies. All I can say is boxed
check.
