Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Dayhiking Whitney

There are only two real forks on the first half of the trail. The first one is the Mountaineers Route just before the crossing of the North Fork Lone Pine Creek. You want to cross the creek and ignore the unmarked route above the cut log. The second fork is at the top of the first 24 John Muir Wilderness switchbacks and it goes to Lone Pine Lake. It is backward fork so it should be obvious not to take it plus there is a sign there.

Fred

Determining the best time to start your ascent is a compromise. You want to start early enough that you minimize the chance of afternoon storms interfering with your trip, but you don't wan tto leave so early that you are fatigued and miserable at the start. (On some routes you might also want to consider the condition of the snow which can be easier to climb in the morning than the afternoon, but at this time of year it is not a factor on the main trail.) Assuming that you hike at an average pace, I would reccommend a start time of 4:00 AM plus or minus an hour. If you tend to do well with early morning wakeups, the afternoon weather may be stormy, or you hike slower than average then I would try to leave earlier. If you hike fast, the weather is expected to not be an issue, and you can sleep well the night before then leave later.

The lower part of the trail is the section you are most likely to be hiking in the dark, either in the early morning or later in the evening, is very easy to follow. While there are a few minor trails that spur from the main trail, they see so much less travel that most people may not even notice them. It is relatively easy to follow the trail with a low power headlamp or even by starlight. If you've not much experience with a headlamp I suggest a small training hike or walking around your house at night to make sure that the light beam is bright enough for you.

I'm sure you'll have a great trip.

Hi Gatormom: It sounds like this is your first trip to Mt. Whitney. I summited on 7-3. Before the trip, I was just like you, worry that I would get lost. I bought a topo map from REI but I found out it is not needed. The trail is VERY CLEAR . The entire trail was built with bigger rocks on bothsides and the trees are marked with "i" along the trail. Do not worry, just enjoy the hike. A lot of my friends want to go after they saw the pictures.

Hi Ray,

Congratulations for your summit! Yes, this is our first attempt for whitney. We live in Florida, it's flat here.I do some running, but my husband don't. Thanks for your tip. How often was there a "i" on the tree?

Trees only go up to treeline, which is just above Mirror Lake. But even so, you won't need "i" markings on trees to follow the trail. IMHO, with a couple of minor exceptions, the Main Trail is about as easy to keep track of as a city sidewalk.

CaT