Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Photographing the mileage markers

A couple of days ago, the 8 Mile Marker was 14 paces uphill from switchback #94. I guess that's 42 feet, give or take a foot or two. Close enough?

By the way, the lighting was the best ever for a picture of the 97 switchbacks from Mt. Muir. I'll post it later.

Bob, your link to the mileage markers no longer appears to work, which is unfortunate. I think it is an interesting resource.

If there is a new link, it'd be great if you could post it.

Sorry, Ken. That link was to an album on the defunct Club Photo, and showed pictures of all the markers I know about. I of course still have the pictures on my computer at home, and may get the energy someday to upload them to Flickr.

Again, sorry.

No problem, Bob. Glad to hear that the documentation exists, and will not slip again to only memory.

I didn't even know that these existed. I would love to see pictures if you ever get them uploaded.

Bob R, thanks for the information.

I will re-do my map of the 97 switchbacks and send you the file.

Since I am a numbers guy, bear with me on the rest:

Bob R's 14 paces places the 8-mile marker at 8.11 miles from the trailhead (due to the re-routing of the Main Trail years ago), and its elevation is about 13,225 feet above sea level.

The latitude would be 33.55933 degrees north and 118.28813 degrees west (WGS84 datum).

The UTM coordinates would be at Northing 3714040.2 and Easting 380429.16 for Zone 11S.

Funny to read BobR's comments from '05 about the Forest Service having a "hissy fit" at the suggestion of touching up these signs. I talked to them about the same thing this past June with the same results. I find it interseting that the FS has no problem posting control type signs on the trail or at Trail Camp, I noticed new ones up all over the trail this year, but God forbid that one should even think about touching up those that already exist. I guess nothing's changes since '05!

Mile-markers 7 and 8 are on the 97 switchbacks. Mile Marker-7 is above switchback #41 and Mile Marker-8 is above switchback #94.

Thanks to Bob Rockwell, I re-positioned Mile Marker-8 on my map:



You can see a full version HERE.

I didn't realize there was so much interest in this. So, look here.

Thanks for taking the time to upload those for us! I was quite curious, having just been up there and not seeing any of them (but didn't know to look). Next time I'll keep a better eye out for them.

The uploading time was nothing. I had to first search all of my albums--some 150 Whitney basin climbs over the last five years--looking for pictures with the right captions. 'Course, the computer helped, but then I had to handpick the best shots.

thank you for taking the time to do this. i appreciate it.

Thanks for posting these...nice to know where to look for them, if I think about it. I think I remember seeing one on my first trip, but not sure which.

Thanks, Bob. To think that I have walked by those markers a number of times...maybe I noticed one or two of them in the past but just forgot about them.