Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Muir Trail Ranch to Whitney. Kearsarge reprovision

Harvey,

Thanks for updating us on your hike last summer(2008). From the time your party reached Silver Pass to your exit, it sounds as if you had quite an adventure. If I recall correctly, in some other thread last year you discussed an experience with hypothermia. Was this it? In any case, as Mountaintrailrunner notes, "Mr Murphy is always lurking around the corner."

Just as an example of how conditions and fortunes can change in the backcountry, my daughter and I went over Silver Pass August 14 last year (2008). It was a warm and clear day. A few hundred yards south of the pass we came upon a tent pitched on the JMT and attended by several people. As we passed, a gentleman sporting a coat and tie offered me a beer and my daughter a soft drink. Obviously we accepted the drinks. As we sat by the tent and enjoyed the company of our gracious hosts, they served us unlimited quantities of hot dogs.

Such was our meeting last summer on Siver Pass with the group known as the TRAIL ANGELS. Every summer they spend a few days at a point along the JMT and provide an appreciated meal to wary hikers. We carried out the aluminium cans. My empty can of Pabst Blue Ribbon is sitting next to my computer as I write this short anecdote. It reminds me of a more pleasant experience at Silver Pass than your party had.

Hope you have better luck next summer.

Jim

yup - that's the weather that gave us 6" of hail (it looked like winter had arrived) just below Donohue pass on July 12 I think, putting me and my kids into tent and emergency blankets (first time ever I used these things!). Brutal stuff, but we dried out every moring until this system left the area about 5 days later. Hey, we may have found some of your food at MTR - there was some real yummy shredded beef and tortillas we could not pass up :-)

The Trail Angels story reminds me of a similar story someone told me recently. There was a U.S. congressman from California (whose name escapes me just now -- I think last name started with D) who would spend some summer vacation time at Muir Trail Ranch. A favorite pastime of his was to pack a case of champagne out to the Paiute Creek bridge on the JMT, and spend the day treating hikers to a glass of bubbly.

I did the JMT last summer and had a friend met us at the two small lakes before Bull Frog Lake. She brought us a resupply for our last few days. We had a back up plan if we did not met during our planned time. It was day 20 for us and we arrived at 11:30am at our location. She showed up right on time at 1:00pm. By 2:00pm we were off to Vidette Meadow.

We missed the Trail Angels, as we went over Silver pass very early in the morning. We did met an Angel carring a 12 pack up to Silver pass. Oh well, may be I will catch them when I do it again in 2010. Good luck and have fun.

Yes, it was July 12. Here is my trail story for that day, written up later:

July 12 – A 6:30 start for me by myself on Bear Ridge and Bear Creek day. Go while it is cool. Despite the 2,000 ft climb, the switchbacks are far softer, shadier and pleasant than expected. Uh-oh, does that means something else is waiting for us at the top? What will it be? There was a famous British explorer who once said that indefinite conditions were trying, but that either positive or negative events cheered him. He can still be found in the Antarctic. We will find our own positive and negative ‘events’ today. Weather adds to the mystique of the mountains.

I walk some with Bob, a medium-lightweight backpacker. Reid and I did it that way last year on Lamarck Col and it is much better. Brought too much stuff this time, but it all revolves around weighty bear canisters to protect the food on a multiday route. As usual, we are not eating as much as we bring. 1500 cal is all I need or want per day. There is no hunger, no dreaming for a phantom meal. Jesse and I both will lose ten pounds on this trip. He and Carole catch up with me on the trail despite my thirty-minute head start. See, they are still doing well! Jesse’s toe blisters give concern, though. So do clouds, building earlier and earlier each day. It is a forewarning from the powers of darkness.

I realize that I had placed my Marmot rainpants in the inside of the pack this morning, not in the accessible outside pocket near the raincoat. I count on being lucky and not needing them. Dumb. Second dumb is not stopping before the obvious storm to dig them out. So I just march along with only my raincoat and hood and pack cover in place. Todds follow suit. Sorry to mislead them. At first, the hail is dry and bounces off the ground and off of us. Pretty. Then it turns to sleet. Nasty, nasty stuff. Lots of it. At this late point, stopping to open my pack to retrieve my rainpants will be counterproductive. Everything will get soaked. And what about that extra plastic bag to doubly-protect everything else when the pack soaks through? Clemmie reminded me, didn’t she? The storm intensifies. One need not be in the Greater Ranges to die of hypothermia. I have read too many stories of people who sit down for a minute that becomes an eternity. Keep going.

I am not exaggerating to say that 4 inches of slush is streaming down the trail. The Canadian river analogy. And I am getting cold. Sleet chills my legs. My wet shorts wick the water way too high. Then we come to the first of two stream crossings. Not big, maybe only 20 feet wide and knee deep, but I envision a mountain flash flood at any moment. First impression: Get out of here. Keep going. Don’t stop. I cannot see wasting time searching for a dangerous sleet-soaked log to cross over on. And sleet-coated rocks, if found, don’t sound any better. The option of crossing in sandals requires time to remove and replace boots and socks, more time to be bent over, and more time to be sleet-exposed. I’m not so sure I call for a vote, but announce to the others that I am just going to charge through, boots and all. After all, PCT-thruhikers have to do this in early season when there are long, deep, slushy snowfields and cold, high-running streams where sandals just won’t do. That’s why they take four pairs of socks. Me, too. Rule: one to wear, one wet and wrung out, one drying, one spare. All wool. No cotton.

First stream crossed. Carole and Jesse follow in same fashion. I speed up, breathing forcefully to maintain a faster and faster pace. I look back every now and then to be sure Carole is in sight, and hopefully Jesse behind her. There is an old saying about “I don’t mind fighting my way out of a mess, but I’ll be damned if I will fight myself into one”. Uh, in reverse order, we have both ends of this saying, but I count on adversity to bring out the best in us. So I keep repeating to myself out loud, “don’t slow down, don’t slow down.” It is well known that hypothermia victims’ biggest problem is their brain and decision-making. I want to be sure that my brain stays warm. I simply must use my muscles to do that. “Don’t slow down.” This works well enough without invoking Divine Intervention like Remi and I did in Argentina. Next comes another similar stream. Same method. Ninety minutes of hail and sleet. Keep moving. The ground is completely white. Keep moving. Keep moving. Keep moving.

We pass a tent set up nearly on the trail. If we have Plan A, someone else has Plan B. Not far beyond that, the terrain changes. The ground is still cold and white, but there are low slabs of stone that look like a drier stopping point. The storm has eased. So do we. Tyler passes by with Plan C. He was the solo hiker we met several days ago. Plan C is don’t stop at all. He goes on, yelling back to us that we are just short of the main Bear Creek crossing. Much bigger. No discussion needed, no way we want to do that today. Shelter is our first order of business. Carole and I both notice difficulty with our cold, stiff hands while setting up the tents. I remind Jesse that we should all quiz each other for a while, making sure we sound normal-thinking in the cold. Again, it’s the brain thing. As I set up my tent, I remember to stoke the furnace, mine that is. Leftover M&Ms and peanuts dance in my hand. I can’t hold them still and some fly off before I can gobble them down. They are still good from the ground up. My tent is now assembled, and even though there is a ground cloth under it on the sleet, it will be cold in there changing clothes while sitting on a wet sleeping pad (my old pack cover had leaked). Fortunately, Jesse lets me borrow his dry mat. He waits patiently while Carole is like me, inside a tent, changing into dry clothes. But I also know that we have stopped hiking so clothes alone might not be enough to keep us warm. Thermoregulation is a dicey proposition when one is wet, tired, stopped at 10,000 feet, and the sun not shining. So it is Boy Scout time - get a fire going. Ian taught me well. There are usually some tiny dead twigs for tender that can be found protected under evergreen trees. If not, you can split wet ones to find dry wood on the inside. Jesse and I join forces in the collection. Now for the real test – strike just one match as if your life depends on it. Scoutmasters training test. Can we do it? Okay, we cheat, I use three at once. We pile it on. A small bonfire. Carole is laughing and running for her camera. She sees that Jesse and I drape our socks and undies on sticks over the fire. Life at its’ best. Just the essentials. Best day of the trip!

A wan sun helps. Wet clothes, boots and socks are off. Walking around barefoot on the cold slabs, I forget that I have neoprene socks that I could put on. Mother and daughter, Jan and Ellen, come over to us. They were the ones who set up the nearby tent (plan B) but had broken a pole in their storm-driven haste. Nice tent, too. High-grade North Face. Ellie’s idea is to use two of her angle-iron shaped tent stakes as splints. With my copious supply of ankle tape they are back in business. This is Jan’s second attempt on the JMT, last year solo, now this year with her teenage daughter. A true bonding experience it would seem. I certainly felt that way during my times here with Seth and Reid.

Dinner. All I need is an ounce of fuel, a small pan for boiling water, a plastic cup, and a spoon. I gulp down instant grits and cocoa. A hot meal and sleep after today’s toil is perhaps like coming into port after a stormy sea. We had that today but on land. I lie in the tent thinking of everything and thinking of nothing. After all, tomorrow is…another day.

For us to keep going and cross Donohue Pass during the storm would have been rather dangerous with lightning everywhere, so we stayed a few hundred feet north of the pass and did the best we could to prevent hypothermia. This weather came in without warning - clouds, a few rain drops, then kablammo... Others we met later on were just as surprised by it, but their timing was a bit better, being lower down when it all started.

Scary stuff when the lips of your kids are turning blue and you can't do much more than cower together and hope for the weather to stop. While in the hastily set up tent we were counting down to our cut-off time when we had to get going to get to a lower elevation before dark, all the while making conversation to see if everyone was still responsive and alert. The idea was that if things got worse, we'd pack up immediately and get moving, even though the trail next to us had turned into a small waterfall, with nothing but deep slushy hail to step on.



The amazing thing is that only hours after this at our night campsite just south of the pass, the kids were the first to say that we'd keep going - how much worse could it get? Not our best day of the trip, but definitely the most memorable. The 10,800 foot night that followed was cold - my sleeping bag was pretty much soaked, so all I had was the foil. Kids were good, their sleeping bags stayed dry.

Mr. Lankford, sorry to hear you got washed out of your trip. That was a pretty good monsoon this summer. It triggered those mudslides down south on the eastside. I was out and about during that period too and witnessed some fairly impressive rain, hail and snow.

But I'm still curious about your plan for reprovisions. Were you going to carry the whole load from MTR or had you figured out a way to resupply between there and Whitney?

Fish - believe me, we did a postmortem on our decision to keep going, asked others what they would have done, etc. I've had a lot of experience in cold weather camping and mountaineering, but still this was a continued learning experience.

On the trail, there were the three different choices made by the solo guy, the two woman group, and our 3-person group. Your choice sounds like the right one for your situation, weather, kids, etc.

ep - we planned to carry it all south of MTR. It was too much hassle trying to get a packer to answer, commit when they did answer, etc. I think they get frustrated with us hikers when we set up things far in advance and then change our minds.

Harvey

Hi:

Just to reemphasize, please don't leave food caches in NPS bear boxes. They'll definitely be confiscated and hauled back to the ranger station. They take up space that hikers need for their food. Also, more important to the local ranger, less than half of them are picked up. This means they become trash and the ranger has to haul them back (usually 10 - 20 lbs at a time) to the ranger station then somehow packed out. In a season, I've hauled over 150 pounds of crap out of the boxes that's abandoned. Aaaaarrrggghhhh!

And while I'm here, the same goes for "extra" food that people leave. It's almost never taken, gets chewed by mice and makes a real mess that, once again, your kindly ranger has to clean up.

If you can get ahold of them, the Onion Valley Pack Station will bring your stuff either to Charlotte, where they're allowed to drop it for you no more than a couple of days ahead of time, or meet them on the trail (not a great idea -- too many variables). They're only at the pack station when they have an actual trip going, so it wouldn't work to have a cache sent there without it being packed in.

Last year, I was pretty sure (???) the USFS was allowing people to leave caches in the Onion bear boxes, but I can see that getting out of hand and shut down (there's a bunch of boxes in the parking lot so people get the food out of their vehicles).

Good luck with your decision.

George

Thank you, George! That is new information ...at least first time I have heard it.  I have sometimes wondered if there was any possibility of the USFS allowing packers to make drops at the Charlotte Lake ranger station.  It makes a great resupply option for a number of hikers.

Charlotte Lake is only about a mile off the JMT (and not much elevation change), and there is a steep short cut (unmaintained old trail) one can take up to the (northbound) JMT from the ranger station.

I wonder if PCT hikers are aware of this option, and I wonder what the Onion Valley packers would charge for the resupply.

Steve et al:

I don't know the cost, but it's a couple of hundred. I would think people could use the board here to coordinate drops. It might be best if it looked like it came from one person... .

The reason the packer is allowed to drop a short-term cache is because he agrees to come back and get it if no one picks it up (as well as whatever the party leaves from their trip) and he takes out all the garbage the ranger has accumulated. And, not to complicate it, but it's at the discretion of the ranger -- it happens that packers sometimes don't meet their end of the bargain, and the ranger will yank permission. That's been awhile though, so everything should be good this year.

In a normal year, horses can't cross Kearsarge until mid-July, so most of the PCT hikers are gone by then, but I would think the Onion boxes (if that is, in fact, true) would be a good option.

Hope that helps.

g.

I asked this before - need to know:

Is it possible to pay the pack station at the Onion Valley road end to store food until pickup? I plan on doing a Muir Trail yo-yo this summer and need to get two caches in south of Muir Trail Ranch. Kearsarge pass is about the right distance from MTR for a suply on the way southbound to Whitney, turn around on the summit, get back to Kearsarge pass again, grab the second cache that will get us back to Muir Trail Ranch.

Got my two kids with me again (the yo-you was their idea...), and given their age, I have to carry most of the food for all of us, so no way to go with one depot at the end of the trial, plus I'd rather not drop from Whitney to the Portal just to resupply and turn around to go back up...

Any other ideas of how to do this? Paying packers is not an option - on trips this long you're bound to miss the scheduled pickup date. Note we are from out of state, so there's nobody we can tap into to meet us on the trail for a resupply at a better location such as Taboose Pass, Baxter Pass, or Dusy Basin, etc...

> Is it possible to pay the pack station at the Onion Valley road end to store food until pickup?

George D wrote four posts above:
> They're only at the pack station when they have an actual trip going, so it wouldn't work to have a cache sent there without it being packed in.

thanks, missed that.

bummer... in '88 they actually lived up there for the summer. I hiked down there, knocked on the door, said hi to mom and the kids, grabbed my food and hiked back in. I assume there is no other permanent residence in that area around the campground?

That leaves this question, which probably only a ranger can answer: What if we resupply at the Portal and re-enter the same day? Would a permit issued in Yosemite for a yo-yo allow us to do that?

> What if we resupply at the Portal and re-enter the same day? Would a permit issued in Yosemite for a yo-yo allow us to do that?

I emailed that question to the INF people, but since it is the first day of lottery processing, I can't be sure when or if we might get an answer.

thanks, looking forward to an answer. If the Portal resupply is legit, I'll have to get another Bearikade canister...

Otherwise, I guess I can see if Bob Ennis can shuttle up my food to Onion Valley road end. Not a budget solution, but the food would be there provided our cell phone works somewhere around Glen Pass. If timed well, it would save quite a bit of time over the the Whitney Portal decent/ascent option.

I should have written this above: I have seen before that leaving the trail for a short time for a resupply is allowed. I think it may be that you must spend the night within the wilderness area.

In the email, I asked how long a person was allowed to leave the trail before they would be required to get a new permit -- whether it be a number of hours or even overnight.

This same issue was bugging me wondering about if it would be a problem going down to Whitney Portal and then the next day head back up, and thankfully my stop in the ranger station on Sunday got me the answer, when you exit the wilderness you have 24 hours to re-enter or a new permit will be required so it's not a problem.

sweet - that's good to know, and while I dread the hike down from Whitney to the Portal only to grab a burger and turn around with a full backpack, it takes out the uncertainty of potential permit problems and pretty much allows us to do the hike as planned even if we cannot find another reliable method to resupply between MTR and the Portal. It'll be quite a load in the pack to haul up the mountain, on the other hand, after 200+ miles on the JMT the climb back up should be "just another pass"

24 hours, eh? maybe some R&R in Lone Pine may not be a bad call at that stage... have to keep that in mind in case there's some rebellion among my young hikers.

I would suggest carrying it rather than paying for packers or taking detour. But you should seriously focus on ultralite concept. In 2007, I carried 65-70# pack out of MTR (to Portal) with 11days worth of food and ultimately descended MR (not recommended for the light hearted especially with battered footsies). Anyway, I learnt my lesson carrying such a heavy weight on JMT with beaten up ankles & feet that took approx 3mths to recover. So, I returned in 2008 ultralite (well at least 'lighter') carrying 55# pack out of whitney and hiked northbound to MTR in 8 days and onto Yosemite in 15days without serious body damage. Ultralite is the only way to go and mentally convince yourself that once over Forester, it is all downhill.......!