July 17, 2013 - Trail Camp

Title: July 17, 2013 - Trail Camp

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail

Starting location:  Guitar lake
Destination:  Whitney Portal
Actual Destination:  Trail Camp
Distance:   9.2¹
Start Time:  6:03am
End Time:  6:50pm
Travel Time:  12:47 (0.72 mph)
Moving Time: 6:52 (1.34  mph)  ¹
Elevation Rise: 3,336'  ¹
Maximum Elevation:  14,506'

Description:

Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV), from today's quiet time:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

These words seem so appropriate, so right after all which we have seen and done. May my spirit offer the same words and praise.

The Night Sky silouetted by the top of the Sierras

I woke up at 2:30 to seeing the stars dance in the heavens. Then I turned over and saw lights on the move up past us, and on up to the mountains which we will climb today. My mind must have been excited as I could not return back to sleep for more than just a few minutes. 

Morning has broken

Sherri woke up around 3:30. I asked her if she was ready to start walking? No. But neither could she go back to sleep. So we laid there, watching the stars and lights, and thinking about how cold it was outside of our sleeping bags. Finally around 4:30, we got up and got packed. Just a wonderful sunrise, on the faraway peaks-rosy, orange and light. But we will not feel the warmth for several hours as Whitney and its range will be blocking the sun.

Guitar Lake

E'gads! Our propane canister has run out of fuel. Or is it just too cold? Whichever way, I am now glad we asked for Talia's canister back at Le Conte. Her canister fired right up and we had hot oatmeal on this cold morning.

Left our campsite at 6 and started up the long trail to Trail Crest. We will be in shadows all the way to Trail Crest.  Like the Tolkien song says, The Road Goes Ever Onward. But today is our last day on the Trail. Tonight Steven will pick us up, assuming we can make it down to Whitney Portal. Showers and burgers fill my mind as we walk along.

The trail is going up is strong and the oxygen is light.  This has us stopping for breath in the cold air, but the coolness does have the positive effect of having move along. Not really sweating. Before we know it, we have climbed up 500', then a thousand. I start playing a game of saying which pass we have just topped-Glen Pass, then Pinchot, Mather, Muir, and finally, of course, Forester.

Hitchcock Lake

We rise above Hitchcock Lakes, admiring the reflections of the rocks rising from the lakes. The sun is  shining on these slopes, creating a bright spots on our climb. We stop a couple of times to take off our packs. At 9, three things happens: we come out into the light, John B from Fresno appears, and we arrive at Trail Crest. All three are welcome, even though in a little while, the first will be less so. 

Trail up the side of the mountain

At Trail Crest, which is really about 200' below the actual pass, but the JMT does not go through the pass on its way up to Whitney. After unloading some of Sherri's pack and putting the contents into mine, we take off towards Whitney, with Sherri's pack, stocked with food and water. It took us three hours go from Guitar to Trail Crest. It will take close to three hours from Trail Crest to Whitney. 

Almost to the top

The climb up is along a trail which is always rocky, sometimes a bit narrow, and is perched on a steep incline for much of the way. Today was a light traffic day. When Sherri was up here before, the line could have been at Disneyland. You add in that the Badwater to Whitney Portal run ended today, you get a fair amount of trail runners as well. One sort of skidded in front of us, after passing us. He flopped around, trying to right himself, before realizing how close to the edge he was. But for us, we took our time and was cautious.  As we approached the top, the altitude was taking its toll on us. We stopped more and more often to catch our breath. We felt relieved as we turned the corner, and started up the third of a mile incline up to the peak. Many others were stopping and breathing along the way.

Smithsonian Hut

At the top (36.57886, -118.29185), we found the Whitney hut, actually called the Smithsonian Institute Hut. It was constructed to observe a solar eclipse. In the trail registry, we saw that the Ray and Rachel had made it to the top on Monday, July 15th. It was good to see that. But we did not see an entry for Nicole.

The Top

Celebration

Also on top, we see John from Fresno, along with George, Chris and Steve from Minnesota. Sort of like a family reunion. We talk for awhile. After much trying, got to send a text with our picture. Also Spot worked as well. 

That is when things got interesting. Called up Steven. He said that Andrea was coming in from the High Sierra Trail to surprise us. She would be there Thursday night, and climb over Whitney Friday. At least that is what her schedule is. That is a big surprise. What a wonderful daughter to think of us, and want to make our lives a joy. 

This does lead to one complication-what do we do now? Go back to Guitar Lake? Go down to Lone Pine tonight? Stop someplace else? We decide to stop on the trail down. We were not up to doing the climb out of Guitar again.

We called other family members, telling them we made it to the top. Also, that we have now officially completed the JMT, It is fun doing that--also fun just saying that. Got through to all, except Andrea, of course. David does say that not all of our Spot messages got through. The Minnesota group decides to leave the party after awhile. We talk with John for awhile longer, then he heads off as well.

Gary, King of the World

 

We stay on top for a total of an hour and a half, then start coming back down. It is faster-not as much need to catch our breath. But you do feel weaker, so we do not move very fast. Also with the rocky surface we have a tendency to be careful.

Whitney from the east

We rest at Trail Crest before we start our way down in the Lone Pine direction. We will try to make Outpost Camp tonight. Did I say down? The first little bit is another 200' climb, before we start our descent. Then down we go. Down, and down, and still more down. They have re-engineered this from seven years ago. I do not know, but Sherri  remembers a different trail. But the steepness, once again causes us to be cautious, so we go slow, about a mile an hour. Seems strange that we are going at the same speed down something as up it.

Trail Camp is by the pond

Around 6:30 we get into Trail Camp.  (36.56314, -118.27943) Sherri remembers this place as being human turd infested. But it looks like the Forest Service has cleaned it up quite a bit. As tired as we are, we decide not to do another two miles down to Outpost Camp. We find a suitable place. Then on the way to get water, a better place. Dinner is cooked. We see George, Chris and Steve a little ways from us and exchange greetings. Then it is off to bed. We look at pictures and fall asleep, knowing we do not need to get up early  tomorrow.

You may have noticed, that the description from the top does not contain these jaw dropping thoughts and observations. I guess by the time we got there, it just does not match up to the rest of the journey. It is the end, and that makes it special. it is wonderful to see the mountains upon mountains, looking down on everything around us. the cold, blue lakes, the barren landscape. but there is not a specialness to the place for me, like there is around some of the other high places we have been too. Even a lowly pass like Island, I have more desire to be at. I am not saying that I wish I was not here, but that the enjoyment is in the completion of the journey, rather than in the place. Do we think we will go up there again? Probably not.

Today's JMT Lesson: It does not matter how fast you go, as long as you get there.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers	Beef Vegetable Wrap Milano Mint Chocolate Cookies	Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP, Bank Balls

 ¹The supplied figures above come from either the book John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail by Elizabeth Wenk or from topo maps. There was only partial tracks for today in my GPS. Below is the readings from today's status on the GPS. I view it as only somewhat accurate.

Distance:  9.41 miles

Elevation Rise:  1,805'

Maximum Elevation: 14,505'

On the trail up

The Windows and Mt Muir from Whitney

Trail down to Trail Camp

Marmot Heaven

July 11, 2013 - Bench Lake Ranger Station

Title: July 11, 2013 - Bench Lake Ranger Station

Hike Info:

Trail: John Muir Trail

Starting location:  Lower Palisades Lake

Destination:  Marjorie Lake

Actual Destination:  Lucky Dog Lake?/ Bench Lake Ranger Station

Distance: 10.3 miles ¹

Start Time:  8:45

End Time:  6:30

Travel Time: 9:45 (1.06 mph)

Moving Time: 6:15 (1.65 mph). 

Elevation Rise:  1,825' ¹

Maximum Elevation: 12,100'

Lower Palisades Lake

Description:

Listened to the sprinkle of rain all night on the tent. This morning, the mountains surrounding us are covered by clouds. Here at Palisades Lake, we look up at them wondering if the cloudy skies will turn to rain. A bit of a sprinkle now and then. Got up a bit later, seems like a lot later, but it is only 6:30. Still with the dampness, it stopped raining when we got up, but it is cold, making it a slow morning. We leave about 8:45, about half an hour after the Millers leave.

Upper Palisades Lake

Mather Pass is really kicking us, especially after climbing the Golden Staircase yesterday. The cold and damp while not uncomfortable, is making it harder to breath.  But Palisades Lakes really are jewels. Sherri tries to find the place where Andrea and her had camped when they did the JMT, but did not have success. They had camped at Upper Palisades Lake. We also were looking around for where the trail crew had put their camp, but they hide it pretty well.

On top of Mather Pass, looking South

We do take three breaks on our way up Mather. What a long trudge! Around 12:30 we make it to the top of Mather Pass. We have a ProBar-but no lunch, much to Sherri's dismay. We did not have enough water to guzzle with peanut butter and Nutella. But Mather does give us wonderful views, even though we are out of breath.

It is a long down, almost all the way until we reach the South Fork of the Kings River. Right before the crossing, we saw two female PCTers who greeted us by name. They had seen Ray and Rachel-we will not see them again, but we will hear from them some more. After resting, we decided  to continue up to the Bench Lake Ranger Station, then make a decision there. From the maps, the ranger station may not be at Bench Lake, but at a pond along The Trail. There is one person's blog who calls this Lucky Dog Lake, if I understand it right. Whatever it is, the setting is gorgeous.  As a note: we never did see the ranger station. We have heard that it is only a tent on a platform, but judging by other ranger stations we passed, this one may have been removed.

Walking towards Mt Ickes

We got there when the sun was getting low in the sky. A few spots are available (nobody else is here), but few inviting. We took one where the tent would fit, which turned out to be probably the worst night sleep we got on the whole trip (36.95871, -118.43672). But we ate, watched McGyver and went to sleep.

Today's JMT Lesson:  No climb above 11,000' is easy.

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Oatmeal and add-ins, such as dried peaches, strawberries, nuts, granola. Tang.	Peanut Butter and Nutella on crackers ProBar	Black Bean Soup with Tortillas	Clif Bar, Jelly Bellies, CytoMax, Propel, GORP, Bank Balls

 ¹The supplied figures above come from either the book John Muir Trail: The essential guide to hiking America's most famous trail by Elizabeth Wenk or from topo maps. There was only partial tracks for today in my GPS. Below is the readings from today's status on the GPS. I view it as only somewhat accurate.

Distance:  11.1 miles

Elevation Rise:  1,116'

Maximum Elevation: 12,100'

Sherri on the climb to Mather Pass

Upper Palisades Lake

Switch backs

Unnamed Creek

Range to east-Split Mountain

South Fork of the Kings

Mather Pass

Place: CA-Mather Pass

Mather Pass (quad)
(Long, Lat)

Description:
Stephen Tyng Mather, director of the National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior, since the establishment of the office in 1917; Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior, in charge of national parks, 1915-1917; born in San Francisco, 1867; B.Litt., University of California, 1887; LL.D., George Washington University, 1922, University of California, 1924.  From Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar

Trips:

• July 11, 2013 - JMT Trip with Sherri and Gary
• July 2007 - JMT Trip with Sherri and Andrea

Pictures:

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References:

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