A week later, and I'm just now getting to this part. I made my annual summit attempt last weekend, as a solo since my partner bailed out the previous week. June is the earliest I have ever gone up to Whitney, usually I choose late July for the trek. I left SoCal at 6pm on Thursday evening for my reserved spot #30 at Lone Pine Campground and immediately ran into a traffic problem on the 15. So it was a long drive, I stopped at Kramer Junction for some food and finally reached Lone Pine at 11pm. Then I found a big trailer in my camping spot, but fortunately the host had just moved me a little down the road to #37 (which is actually a better spot). Too tired to do anything, I just crashed in the back of the truck sometime around midnight. Definitely a cool breeze most of the night, it woke me up a couple of times. I also noticed a lot more stars, one of those things you forget about while living in the cities.
Friday morning, I got up early with the sun and set up camp and then went out to the Alabama Hills for some Stupid Ranger Tricks (my truck). Then I headed to the Ranger Station to pick up my permit. At 8:15am there were already 20 cars in the parking lot! Anyway, took just one of my two paid-for passes and headed up the highway to Independence with the idea of going up to Onion Valley for a day of acclimatizing. Usually I go to Horseshoe Meadows but since I was by myself I figured I would try something different. What a neat drive - right on the edge of some steep cliffsides, and nice scenery as you go up the canyon. I hiked a ways up the trail towards Robinson Lake, just enough to find a little streamside place to sit around and get some reading done. So I hung out for most of the day, only seeing one other person on that trail. On the way down, I stepped on a rock and wrenched my knee just about two minutes from the trailhead - giving me some concern for the next day too. But it didn't seem serious and I walked around the parking area/campground for a while and everything felt OK. So back to Lone Pine and a pasta dinner at the Pizza Factory - try to get some carbs in although I've probably got enough reserves built up still (6'2", 200lb). I set my watch alarm for 3:33 in order to get on the trail by 4:30, but I figured if I woke up I would just get started. At 2:40 I poked my head out the tent and saw a couple of cars on the road up to the Portal, but I fell off into a doze again. Woke up at about 3:15, so I got myself started. Made up a bagel with peanut butter and honey for lunch, also a half of one for breakfast along with some hot chocolate and a Naked Juice Red Machine.
Got a nice parking spot, and hit the trail officially at 4:17am. There was a pretty big crowd there, people getting their last bathroom visits. I thought about it, but figured it would be another few hours before I needed to go. The moon was already behind the mountains, so headlamps were required for some of the trail, but certainly not the open long switchbacks. It's always a great sight to watch the sun rise over the Lone Pine area, so I paused for plenty of pictures. I could see two long strings of lights below me, a couple of large groups (8 and 10 people) also coming up the trail. Usually I stop every hour for a little rest, but this time I went all the way to the Lone Pine Lake sign, where I sat for a five-minute break. The first of these big groups passed me then, and we would play catchup with each other all day. My plan was to have some food at Outpost Camp, but there were a lot of people milling around so I walked on through and then stopped just above Mirror Lake. You can really see the mirror effect early in the morning when there isn't any wind. I was eating one of my Clif bars and chatted with a couple of guys trying to make a backpack summit with a same-night stay at Trail Camp. Of course, just after hitting the trail again Mr WAG called so I had to find a secluded spot with a nice view - fortunately about 50 yards off the trail so not too many traffic concerns. Since I was still a little worried about my knee I was trying to walk slow, and I took my time up to Trailside Meadow, arriving there at about 7:40. I filled my spare bottle and then topped off the Camelbak there, and also had a bottle of powdered Gatorade. Note: a 35mm film canister makes about the right mix for a 1-litre bottle. I hung around there for about 15 minutes, allowing my undershirt and overshirt to dry out some. I hate putting the pack on again when the shirt is still damp! I made it to Trail Camp (missed the Solar Toilet roof indicator of how close it was) and took a real break. Lunch of the bagel, another bottle of gatorade but this time I treated the water from the pond. That's the only water I ever think about treating - just too much stuff floating around in there, along with the campers wading in the afternoons. Anyway, I fended off a single marmot for a while and then left about 9:10 for the switchbacks. My knee had only given me a couple of little warning flashes, so I thought everything was still good, and just had a Gu gel while on the way up. I made it to Trail Crest at 11:20, stopped again at the John Muir Trail junction for part of a Snickers bar (ooh, the rest is still in my Camelbak!) and mentally psyched myself up for the longest two miles on the trail. That back side is tiring, because so little of it is actually trail. I've decided I don't like stairs, which is most of that section. Whew, after a lot of walking I finally saw the summit hut and reached the top at 1:15. I had a planned turnaround time of 1:30 so that I could make it back to the portal in time for a burger, so I thought I would just spend a few minutes up there. Of course a couple of guys had to make their cell phone calls ("Guess where I am") - I think it should be limited to one if any. But then I'm not a cell phone owner, I don't have that high an opinion of my own importance. I got to talking to some folks and listening to the happy birthday singing to Rachel and Chris (coincidentally the same day) and changed my socks, and all of a sudden it was 2 o-clock and I missed my plan. Well, you all know that it's really hard to make time on the hike to Trail Crest because of the terrain and the uphill parts but I did my best. I have a long stride so I can cover a lot of ground on the hardpack areas but the big feet don't let me scramble too well. Still, I had that burger and beer in mind, so that was inspiring.
I walked right through Trail Camp because I didn't think I could afford the time, and kept on moving until I was totally out of gas at Outpost Camp. I sat on the log and just hung my head down because I figured I missed out on my goal. Then I remembered that Gu and thought this was the big caffeine crash - since I rarely have any it really affects me. I knew the kitchen closed at 7:30 and it was just about 6:00, so I thought "well if you can make it here in two hours it should be possible to make it down in less than that, right...". I was a little hungry so I had a couple nibbles of an apricot Clif bar - that got me moving again, and I really hustled down from there. I looked at Mr Magellan a couple of times and had my speed on the section below the lake nearing 4mph so I thought I might just make it. I passed the John Muir Wilderness sign at 6:58 and hit the trailhead at 7:14 for a total time of just about 15 hours. And I got the best burger reward too!
Thoughts:
I was struck by the lack of water everywhere on the mountain. So many spots on the trail that are usually wet are now totally dry, and it's still very early in the season. That's not good news for us water users in SoCal, we all need to conserve.
The deodorant doesn't work. I put the bag into the ziplock, into another bag and then inside both of the pant legs from my zip-offs and every time the wind shifted I was reminded about carrying this *&^$% around for 12 hours. And the depository at the portal needs to be bigger or emptied more frequently.
There's nothing better than a fresh pair of socks at the summit.
I picked up a couple dozen pieces of trash, from Lifesavers wrappers to a Crystal Geyser bottle on the switchbacks.
This board has some great contributors and is an invaluable resource for this hike.
