Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Daytime Day Hike Report - 10/8

I have never hiked the main trail before in autumn, so I decided to hike solo up to Trail Camp for the day. I picked up a permit at the Visitors Center just after 8 am and was on the trail at 9 am.

When I was getting ready, I noticed Doug working outside the WPS so I went over to say, "Hello." It turned out that he was in the process of boarding up the windows of the store. (They were all boarded up when I came down at 6 PM). As noted in Rubber Tips on Hiking Poles, a ranger came by and looked at the tips of my extended poles.

It was a beautiful day. I only wore a long sleeve polypropylene top most of the way. It was warm in the sun and cool in the shade. There were a lot of fall colors on the lower part of the trail, particularly at Bighorn Park/Outpost Camp. Yet there were still ice patches on the lower trail. Part of the cascades below Lone Pine Lake looked frozen and the left waterfall next to Outpost Camp looked like frozen icicles. Above Mirror Lake there were several patches of hard packed snow on parts of the trail that were in the shade. One section near Consultation Lake had only the perimeter rocks exposed.

It was nice to be able to take the time to hike the lower trail in daylight and see the fall colors. It also was great to see the reflection off of Lone Pine Lake at around 4:30 pm. I ran into somebody in the pass between the switchbacks above LPL and BP who only had a camera. He asked me about taking a picture of the summit, and I told him that he was not going to find it at Bighorn Park. He was about ready to turn back anyway (so I did not ask him if he knew that he was in the Whitney Zone).

Nice hike. I thought your report had a special mood to it that was nice to read, maybe a reflection of your easy going attitude up the mountain that gave you a better chance to appreciate your surroundings and hike. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Thanks.

It is nice to hike the trail without rushing. Unfortunately, I run into a lot of people who only want to hike the trail once and make the summit. In fact, I had several people recently say that they wanted to hike the trail, and I encouraged them to take a starter day hike to Trail Camp, since they would require less prep/training. Nonetheless, when I checked with them again, they could not set aside a date to go up, so I decided to go solo. Now I have some different looking pictures in my main trail collection.

Here are some photos from the hike.

So Rangers don't want people using the tips?

I'd never realized the tips were functional in the field. I just figured they were for keeping me from poking holes in my gear when my poles are in the car.

I was surprised when the subject came up. I assume that they do not want people to use rubber tips if there is a chance that the tips will come off the pole. If people can take the tips off the poles manually, the tips can certainly can come off the pole if caught in rocks.

Thank you for this great report. I am planning on a day hike Saturday just to Lone Pine Lake for a pick-n-ic, as Yogi Bear would say. Any suggestions on gear or anything else would be much appreciated.

I've always enjoys my trips up the MMWT in the fall, winter and very early spring with absolutely no intention of summiting more than any summit attempt in the summer.

I guess your question did not elicit a response. I don't know about the conditions on Saturday, but there was a chance of precipitation on Friday. (We had some clouds pass through and the ground was wet on Saturday morning). I assume that you did not need much gear if you only hiked up to LPL.