I don’t usually write long-winded trip reports but decided this one deserved it.
I have been taking groups of friends up to Whitney once or twice a year for the past 10 years. This year was dedicated to two causes.
First, was getting my new extended family to the summit. My wife, Linda, had already been to the summit with me twice (she claims that was a pre requisite to my agreeing to marry her) and her oldest son Travis (17) did the day hike with me two years ago. So this year it was Tristan (12) and Devon’s (13) year olds turn. We also brought along a ski patroller friend Aaron (22) and Brandon (23) who had never hiked Whitney.
Second, was to bring some of my long time Office Manager’s ashes to the summit. She had worked for me over 17 years. In addition to being my right hand at the office, she had become a close friend and a surrogate mother to my two children as I raised them as a single dad. She hated to work out so our running joke was that some day I would get her in hiking shape so she could hike to the top of Whitney with me. Her consistent reply to this idea was “The only way you will ever get me to the top of Whitney is if you carry me on your back”. You can probably guess the rest.
Because of visitation issues the 12 and 13 year old were unable to do all the pre hike training and because of a new girl friend the 17 year old did not do any pre hike training. My wife, the two younger boys and myself did a short training hike at Saddleback.
Yea, the dogs went as well. The dogs just turned 9 so they have not been able to do the distance hikes they were doing 3 years ago. My Wife, Aaron and I hiked San Jacinto the next weekend
Aaron on the “diving board”
Finally, my wife, Aaron and Brandon hiked San Gorgonio via Dollar Lake Trail the following weekend. So I was not too worried about my wife, Aaron and Brandon but I was worried about the other three boys. My thought was the only way they would make it would be to get everyone up to altitude for three days prior to the hike and do some day hikes.
On Friday that plan went out the window as I was invited to attend the McCain / OBama Civil Forum at Saddleback Church the next day. So we ended up driving to the Portal early Sunday morning.
Sunday, August 17: We arrived at the Portal around 10:00 AM
set up two tents for camping the next two nights and set out on a day hike to Lone Pine Lake for some fishing and relaxing at altitude. We took a leisurely pace and got to the Lake around 3. Linda is allergic to bees, so she had me take this one
We fished for a couple of hours
and then hiked back down just in time for the last order of Doug’s famous cheese burgers. The 13 year old was game for the short cut straight down from Lone Pine Lake to the Portal so I took him on a little adventure.
Monday, August 18: We all got up early and headed over to Cottonwood Lakes for a hike up to Cottonwood Pass and a long lunch.
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This hike kept us over 10,000 for about six hours.
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We then headed back to Lone Pine for a nice carb dinner at the Pizza Factory and back to the Portal to get our packs ready for the next day. I learned a long time ago if the packs are not completely ready to go the night before you can plan on 2 –3 hours of delays getting them ready the morning of the hike when a group is involved. Luckily I have plenty of tents so I was able to leave a three man TP and a 3 man 3 season tent up at the camp site and pack separate tents for the trip. Aaron and Brandon planned to hike out on day two and would use the Portal campsite that night before driving home the next day.
Tuesday, August 19: Got up at 6 AM. Boiled some water for coffee and oatmeal. Ate breakfast and made some last minute changes to packs and had everyone on the trail at 8 AM.
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Packs weighed in at 14 pounds for Tristan, 20 pounds for Devon, 22 pounds for Travis, 28 pounds for Linda and 48 pounds for me. We were able to get all of our food (minus first day snacks and dinner into one bear canister). Temps were predicted to by mild for this trip so I had everyone bring a light weight sleeping bag and I brought a light bivy without bag and slept in my clothes I had everyone bring only one change of hiking clothes for all three days, two pair of socks, one warm base layer, light wind/water proof shell pants and jacket, wool cap and light gloves. My plan was to make Trail Camp today with Outpost Camp as an alternative if anyone was not doing well. We made Outpost Camp at 11:00
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and everyone was doing fine so we pushed on. Trailside Meadow made for another nice resting point at 3 PM. Everyone was into Trail Camp by 4:30 and we set up camp, pumped water and had dinner. We all discussed summit day and decided to get in bed by 9 PM so that we could get a 4 or 5 AM start the next morning.
Wednesday, August 20: Watch alarm went off at 3 AM and I obediently hit the snooze button until about 3:45. Since we decided on not boiling any water this morning I got everyone up, some easier than others, and we were able to hit the trail at about 5:00. Devon pointing our sunrise from the switchbacks.
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as spectacular as usual. The weather was perfect, 38 F in the morning with no wind. The 12 year old and Linda had a difficult start on the switchbacks
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but got a second wind on the backside. She had some more difficulties with fatigue and severe headache for the last mile to the summit. Everyone made it to the summit
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and seemed fine after a 45-minute rest.
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After some emotional words
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I put some of Barbara’s ashes over the summit
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and saved the rest for two of my favorite spots on the hike out. Since we all summated early it was decided that Travis, Aaron, Brandon and myself would hike down to Trail Camp and break up camp so that we could all pack up and hike out. When I reached Trail Crest I radioed back to find out how the other three were doing. Mom was fine and had sent the Devon ahead but Tristan had hit a wall. So I stayed at Trail Crest and took some photos while waiting for another report.
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I called Linda again in about 15 minutes and she reported that Tristan was not doing any better so I decided to hike back and meet them. Just before leaving my perch, the 13 year old popped into view.
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He was obviously tired as well.
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I called down to Travis at Trail Camp and told him we were going to be staying the night. Hiking back, I met mom and the youngest boy about a mile from Trail Crest. I took his pack, made sure he was drinking water and fed him some Teddy Grahams. After a few minutes he seemed to perk up and we began the journey to Trail Crest. He was able to keep a slow pace and his spirits got better. Once he was at Trail Crest and could see our camp he was much better off mentally and that seemed to translate into a much better physical output. I have always warned people that the summit is only half way there and if you have the summit as your goal and don’t leave anything physically and/or mentally left for coming down you risk crashing. Well I found out it is pretty hard communicating that concept to a 12 year old. He definitely thought it was “done” when he got to the top and was not ready for more. We met up with the Devon again at Trail Crest and all hiked back down to Trail Camp together, arriving at about 2:30. This still gave us plenty of time to hike out but not everyone was physically or mentally ready for that. So we pumped more water, ate an early dinner and talked to the boys about their accomplishment. By 7:00 everyone was ready to call it a day and we were all in the tents sleeping by 8:00.
Thursday, August 21: Woke up to a great sunrise
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and alpenglow
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heated some water up for oatmeal, coffee and breakfast bars and then went about packing camp and redistributing the pack weight to lighten Linda and Tristan’s pack a little. We all stayed together on the way out. I took the shortcut out of Outpost Camp
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which led to stream and small waterfall
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where we deposited some more of Barbara’s ashes
Travis
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Tristan
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Devon
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Linda
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Myself
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We all stopped at one more spot just past Lone Pine Lake in a meadow where I often see deer
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and deposited the rest of her ashes.
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The rest of the hike out was uneventful.
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We got to the Portal at 12:00 for the obligatory post hike photo.
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We then drove back to our Portal campsite, packed up and started home be 2:00.
Oh, I forgot it was my 1st anniversary the week before so we brought the cake along to feed to each other.
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Barbara was a cake decorator and made our wedding cake
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so we thought that would be appropriate.
This one was for you Barbara. Now I will always have a memory of you in one of my favorite places.
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The rest of the pictures are here.
http://spinefxr.smugmug.com/gallery/5795041_yL6TA#358867682_ypgn2Looking forward to the WPS hike in September.
Richard
