Background:
We (Larry, Roger and me) planned to hike JMT in 11 days from Happy Isle, Yosemite to Whitney Portal. We started at 1PM on Aug 7. 5 days later(Aug 12) we camped at Sergen Creek (~3 passed Seldon Pass, ~4 miles short from Muir Trail Ranch), Larry felt serious pain in his right feet, he could barely walk. At Aug 13, we decided to bait out from MTR. We reached MTR at 10AM, stayed there for 2 hours to sort out our resupplies, give most of the food the other hikers since we don't need them any more. Then hiked out thru Florence lake. Since we still have a car in Whitney portal, we hitched a ride to Shaver Lake from Florence lake, hire someone to drive us to Fresno, rented a car at Fresno Airport, at 11:30PM we found a motel at Bakersfield and spend a night there.
10AM on Aug 14, we were having the breakfast at McDonald. Larry's feet starts getting better, he claimed that it is almost normal. This is encouraging, but we were still very disappointed on the early termination of JMT. "Let's hike up the Mt. Whitney" The idea occurs to me."We go up trail camp today, then hike/jog to summit for sun rise tomorrow morning!". Yes! Why not? Everybody agree. We need to pick up our car at Whitney portal anyway, Mt. Whitney summit is part of our original plan, we have never run at such high altitude, we couldn't complete JMT, but we still want to finish the trip with high note. Most importantly, we have a safe exit strategy, if Larry's feet hurts gain, we could simply backtrack to portal. We quickly finished the breakfast, checked out from motel and drove to Lone Pine.
On the way to Lone Pine, we stopped at visitor center, I though my original JMT permit will allow us to summit the Mt. Whitney, all I need is picking a Wag bag(we were supposed to pick up the Wag bag at Crabtree ranger station if coming from JMT). It turns out that the old permit only allows the exit from main trail, not to entering it (OT: why do we make this system so complicate?). But this is no problem, the friendly officer in visitor center issued us a 3 overnight permit in 5 minutes!
We arrived at Lone Pone at 12:30, since we have given away the foods, we will have to shop again:(. We bought bagels /Philly cream cheese for breakfast, 4 bottles of 24 ounce water, lots of fresh fruit, 3 energy bars (1 each), some cookies. Then we went to Carts Jr. for a big lunch, ate lots of fruit during the lunch time, order an extra one for dinner. We reached Whitney Portal at 3PM.
The hike
3:40PM Aug 14, after repacking, we found out that we need 2 backpacks to carry our staff to trail camp, the normal food items take too much space. But still one of us doesn't need to carry anything, Roger hung our heavy Nikon D80 digital camera in the neck, started his "after dinner stroll" to trail camp, Larry and I followed. With big meal, we made a good progress, passed many hikers. We met a couple of JMT hiker, chat together for 10 minutes or so to share our stories. When the time we said bye to each other, "Ou my god!Roger, where is your backpack? how are you going to spend a night at trail camp like this?" They could not believe that Roger wear a t-shirt, carried nothing but a camera! We laugh, we told them that we just need 2 backpacks for all gears, we'd just need one if we didn't buy those bulky foods. "Next time, let me know if I could just carry a camera to the high country!" He smiled.
7:10PM Aug 16, we arrived at trail camp, lots of people were there, we managed to find a spot big enough to set up the 3-person tent, ate our Cart's Jr. Hamburger with the left over fruits for dinner. We met a group of friendly Chinese from So. California, borrowed the water filter from them, refill the water bottles. They filled us with the logistic from trail camp to summit. We exchange the information, hoping that we might be able to schedule a trip out together in the future. Chatting with other, we learned that the sunrise will be around 6AM tomorrow, we decided that we will start hiking at 4AM tomorrow.
Around 10PM, we put the Gatorade powder into 4 water bottles and went into the bag.
At 3:48AM Aug 15, Larry waked Roger and me up. I really didn't want to get out of warm sleeping bag into the chilly wind. Propelling by "Sunrise at summit", we struggle out of the tent, ate the cookies, drunk lots of Gatorade. Larry hung the D80 in his neck, put wind jacket on, zipped it half way up then secured the camera strip with a t-shirt to his back. We will carry 4 bottles of Gatorade, one each, and the 4th to be put trail crest for descending. Each of us also bring an energy bar, just in case we need to refill the energy.
At 4:15AM, 15 minutes later than planned departure time, we hit the trail. The trail is rocky, with low visibility, we didn't feel safe to jog. We walked as fast as we could, we arrived trail crest at ~5:20AM. Realizing we will be late for sunrise, we started to jog, I slipped a couple of time, then decided that it is better to walk while Larry and Roger charge ahead. The sunrise is from 6:03AM to 6:09AM, Larry made it to summit barely enough to have a glimpse of last minute. There are some spots to at the trail you see the sunrise, Roger stop at the last spot to see the entire process while I saw part of it in the 2nd to the last spots. I summit at 6:23AM.
The summit is chilly at the morning. Enjoy the beauty of summit in early morning is a privilege. There are only a few people at the summit. 4 camped at the summit last night, another group left at trail camp at 3AM arrived a little bit after us. We celebrated with each other.Took a lots of pictures. Carried 3 lbs Nikon D80 proved to be a great call!
7:08AM we start to jog down. Most of the trail between trail crest and summit is too rocky to jog, but jogging down the switch back is a great joy! We met many hikers, answer many questions, providing the most recent info about the trail. We met the So. California Chinese group again, we wished them the best and hoping to they could fulfill the summit dream.
8:30AM, Roger and I arrived Trail Camp, Larry had be waiting for us for 20 minutes or so. I couldn't believe that this is the guy couldn't even walk 2 days ago! Why did we even bait out from JMT?
We ate our bagels with pilly cream, finished the remaining water, get packed, around 10AM, we started to walk down. This time, I was the man with empty hand, no even a camera in the neck -- we put it in the backpack since no plan to taking more pictures! I put the trekking pole in my shoulder, stroller down to Whitney portal, I answered a lots "Where is your backpack?" "What happens?" "Are you ok?" questions from many surprising hikers. "I am fine, today is my lucky day!" I am enjoying the every minute to answer the questions!
Before noon, we reached Doug's store, order the burger and beer. Leaving portal at 1PM, returning the rental car and had authenticated Mexico dinner at Fresno. Got home at bay area before 10PM.
