Day 30

Guitar Lake – Summit Mt. Whitney to Outpost Camp

I woke up at 3AM.

Looked out my tent and decided no to the sunrise. It was cold and I wanted more sleep.

I woke back up around 7. Poop. That was longer than I wanted. I stuck my head out and saw that most of the people around me had already left.

Okay.

I had a choice.

Go now, or wait until tomorrow and do a zero day at Guitar.

I started to laugh.

Full circle… my summit of Half Dome was the same.

I missed the time window I wanted to go and almost cancelled my attempt.

I would go today.

I packed up quickly and ate a bar. My bag was packed strange because I packed it the night before. It didn’t matter to me because I knew I would be repacking it at the trail turn off.

The climb was hard, but I took it slow and consistent. That’s been the theme of all of my climbs. One foot in front of the other and eventually, the elevation gain is over. This case, there was 2000 feet until I got to the turn off point, then another 2000. It helped to play the switchback game and to keep moving.

I arrived at the turn off and saw a long row of packs from people who had left earlier. No problem, I told myself. That means I get the trail mostly to myself while they are up at the summit.

A lot of the blogs and Facebook groups I am part of advises I remove my bear can from my pack and double check food. There were aggressive marmots in the area that would destroy a pack if given a reason to. I unpacked my pack and packed a smaller bag of things I wanted to have with me at the summit. Snacks, water, battery, beacon, sunscreen and an extra jacket.

Then, I began my climb to Mt. Whitney.

Technically this stretch is the last 2 official miles of the JMT.

Originally the JMT was designed to be from the summit of Half Dome to the summit of Whitney. However, the permits were too difficult for Half Dome and they moved the trail start to Happy Isles. But in my heart and head, that was the official trail. Like my climb with Half Dome, this was a marker.

I began noticing things about myself from the beginning.

Half Dome, I was mostly preoccupied with making it to the summit because I had promised Katie I would. I didn’t feel all the way prepared. The things I was noticing was about people on the trail rather than myself or the surroundings. Whitney, perhaps because it was the end… I was reflecting and trying to hold a lot of the experience.

I saw an older man frozen on the side of the trail. I got close he shouted at me, “I have a severe case of Acrophobia and you will need to get around me!”

I wasn’t sure what acrophobia was, but I could see he was scared. He was gripping the side of the wall and his poles were dangling from his wrists.

“Do you need anything?” I asked.

“No. I’ll be fine. I just need time.”

“Okay. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

I squeezed around him and kept going.

I figured that if he was still there when I started to come down … I may offer my inReach to him to text someone. I’ve definitely been in his shoes before, fine, but just need time to collect myself.

Then I started to see what may need time to collect oneself on. The trail got to extremely narrow and there was steep drop offs to jagged rocks on one side. I too would definitely be taking my time.

The people who were up for sunrise started to show up as descenders. There were a lot of them. I found myself mildly annoyed at the ones that wanted to tell me that I was doing great and to keep persevering like that had. I wondered if they were day hikers or so excited they had accomplished their goal they wanted to share with everyone. Needless, I smiled and said thank you.

This mountain is a bit of a “bragging rights” trek for a lot of people. It stands at 14,505 which makes it the tallest mountain on the continental U.S. Unlike Mt. Rainier in Washington (which is at 14,411), it isn’t a technical mountain. That is because the snow melts off of it every year and there are no glaciers or crevasses. So many people want to have Mt. Whitney in their list of accomplishments when they list the trips they have done. I was thinking how unsure I would be to do Mt. Whitney if it wasn’t the end of my JMT hike. I wasn’t sure where the ambivalence was coming from, but it was some combination of the prize aspect, the climb itself wasn’t the most beautiful and that I had to use a WAG/Blue bag for the entire time I was in the Whitney Zone (3 days of hiking).

As I hiked up, my phone stared to buzz. I didn’t have it in airplane mode and apparently there was signal up on places on the trail. That would be good. I needed to change my bus reservations to a day earlier and that would help.

What I thought the final stretch came into view. Snow.

I sighed. The reports said that Whitney was snow free. I guess they forgot to include this bit of snow or it wasn’t big enough to worry about. I got closer and decided it was the later. The snow was only for about 10 ft and there was a well worn boot track. It looked like the summit was just on the other side.

No one was coming down when I began navigating the snow. I was quickly through it when I got on the other side and realised … the summit was still 15 minutes away.

“False summit,” I thought to myself.

The good thing is I could see the observation but in the distance. I was almost there.

“Keep going! You are almost there!”

I actually laughed this time. I smiled, “thank you.”

Definitely not people who have been on the trail for a while and indoctrinated with trail etiquette. They are probably extremely excited. I mean, there is no reason why I wouldn’t keep going if I was in eye view of the summit.

In a short moment, I was at the summit register.

I’ve technically finished the JMT.

Granted I still have to get down and then get home, but the official mileage I’ve been counting.

This is it.

Wow.

I stood there letting it sink in.

“You know, there is a book inside there you can sign.”

I looked behind me at the voice.

“Oh, sorry, am I clogging up the book? “ I asked back.

“Oh no! Just wanted to make sure you knew.”

I thanked the woman and decided to sign the book quickly. It was a bit of an adjustment from the rest of the trail to be on this mountain. Then my cell phone buzzed.

Appropriate. I’m near the end of my trip and the outside world felt like it was intruding.

There was a lesson in that I needed to tease out.

The summit was huge. Big, flat rocks everywhere with lots of hikers. I saw a few familiar faces and waved.

Wasn’t exactly the experience I imagined but I shifted to be open. This hike was about me being open to listen to the Father. A posture of openness was needed.

I turned to the woman next to me and asked her to take a photo of me. She obliged and I took one of her.

I found a spot and opened my bag to eat my snacks. Checked my phone and saw I had signal. Might as well get my bus in order. I few email clicks later and my bus reservations were moved to the right day. It was a good thing that I had signal since it needed a 24 hour cancellation window.

I called Ryan and told him I was on Mt. Whitney. He congratulated me.

Then, it sounded like a lull in noise and I looked around. The amount of people had decreased.

I took that moment to breathe deeply and sit.

I didn’t take a lot of photos because it was so sunny. But I sat there for about an hour. In that time more people filtered up. Two wall climbers popped up on the face below me with full gear and racks. They had been climbing the whole morning.

I marvelled at their athletic prowess. Then, next to me a couple got engaged and I helped take a photo for them.

Ah, the summit of a popular mountain.

I got one more photo of me taken and then I decided to head down.

The trip down get fast. I didn’t notice the sketchy parts as much and in no time was at the trail junction.

Four men that I had met at Guitar Lake were there eating snacks.

“Watch out for the Marmots.”

“I wish I saw them,” I replied, “I love chubby marmots.”

“These are the fattest marmots I’ve ever seen.”

We started to talk about the marmots as I packed up my bags. They congratulated me on my completion of the JMT, hugged me and wished me well and left. I had the whole place to myself.

I decided to wait for the marmots. Even though the wise thing would be to head down and find a camp, I decided that my trip didn’t need to be rushed. Marmots bring me joy and seeing really fat ones make me smile.

I didn’t have long to wait.

Less than three minutes and a marmot popped up on the side to slink towards some cookies that had been pulled out of a bag previous. He saw me, decided I wasn’t a threat and boldly waddled right up to my foot to get to the cookies.

I thought of Keiko.

Soon another bigger marmot popped up and started to rifle through someone’s bag. I felt responsible and tried to shoo him away. He basically gave me a marmot middle finger and kept going. I pulled out my trekking pole and poked him. He stopped, looked at the trekking pole, then up at me. It was a stare down. We both got interrupted when an even bigger marmot came over the edge and chased off the cookie marmot. Then he came straight for the trekking pole marmot. He clearly had no time for me and wanted his rivals off of the trail.

I videoed, laughed the whole time, tried to defend other hikers packs through the laughter, and then them decided it was time to go down. It was around 2:30PM (later than I anticipated).

I needed to find a camping site that would set me up well to exit the trail head before 10AM. There was no real deadline except… I didn’t want to use a WAG bag again.

For non backpackers… a wag bag is required when the area you are backpacking doesn’t have enough bioactive agents in the soil to decompose the human waste deposited.

Whitney Portal, basically all rock and sand receives almost a quarter million visitors. It’s remote nature makes it hard to maintain toilets… so, the comprise is that all people with a permit have to carry a Wag bag (or a blue bag because it’s blue).

Mentally this doesn’t gross me out.

Practically, I can only use that bag once before the idea of reusing it (apparently up to 4 times is how it’s designed) makes me ewwww.

I had already used it at Guitar Lake… so my solution was to make it to the trail head before I needed to use it again. That meant getting there before 10am.

The path down from Whitney ended up being surprisingly difficult. I looked on the map and saw comments about the 99 switchbacks being horrible. I don’t know how many I did, but I know it was intense. Every step had to be watched. My brain was getting tired and I felt a headache begin.

The headache gave me pause.

Maybe I was dehydrated. I should have been drinking the whole time. I checked my water, I had a half liter left and I started with two. Okay, I was drinking. I ate snacks and food. I should be okay. I book marked how I was feeling and kept hiking down.

Eventually I found a section of snow melt and was able to filter and refill a water bottle. Maybe it was the heat.

Down.

More down.

Rocks, scree, concentrate … it was difficult but eventually I got free of the 99 switchbacks.

“That was terrible,” I thought.

Trail camp was the camp right at the base of Whitney. My headache was pretty bad, but if I camped here, I’d be in the middle of all of the people summiting. Worse, there wasn’t any real place I could get water easily.

I decided to push on.

I regretted doing that when I saw more of the same type of trail. Rocks at ankle twisting sizes, poorly maintained, lots of blue bags people left behind for someone else to pick up… I looked st my watch and saw it was nearing 5:00. I was past my 4:00PM ideal camp time and my headache was starting to demand as much attention as the rocks I was walking on.

I made a list.

Pray. Ask God for help.

I need a camp site with a water.

I need water (at least a Liter for tomorrow).

I need to find a campsite.

I have two hours before sunset.

I looked at the map.

Mirror lake had a no camping sign on the map. That meant the closest camp ground (unless I saw something better) was Outpost camp, which was 2 miles away. Could I do 2 miles of this terrain and find water before 6?

I asked my body.

She said, she would try.

As we were hiking I found myself speaking to encouragement to my body as if it were a friend.

“As soon as it’s 6, even if we aren’t at outpost camp, we will camp. I promise.”

“You tell me if we need to rest. I’ll figure out the blue bag body, it’s more important we take care of one another.”

When we hit 20 minutes left, I started to sing to myself. Partially to keep my mind off of how much I hurt, but also to sooth my body. I was meandering through desert-like terrain that reminded me of the En Gedi wilderness. I even thought I saw deer looking for water and thought of Psalm 42. I wonder if David sung to himself when he was a boy to keep his body going while he was out with the sheep.

At 13 minutes, I came to the stream that came from Mirror lake. My water filter bag is 1L. I decided to just scoop the water and keep going.

I put my pack down, scooped, repacked and headed out.

8 minutes.

I saw the back of a sign. When I got to the sign it read, “Whitney zone- permit required beyond this point.” Outpost camp should be less than .2 from this sign!

6 minutes later, I waked into Outpost Camp. 5:58PM.

I kept my promise to my body. We would camp.

I started to set up. My headache was unbearable now. While I was hiking down I began wondering if it was altitude sickness. I had gained 4K of elevation and then lost 6K in a short time period. Gains and losses at 3k is when signs start showing normally.

I decided no matter what it was, I needed to care for myself.

I didn’t feel like eating but I knew I needed to. I filtered my water and started my stove. Then, inReached Ryan to tell him I was going to go to bed early early. I saw a couple who I met on the summit. They told me that they were planning on sleeping in. I told them I was pretty wrecked and if they didn’t see me moving around by the time they were planning to leave, would they mind waking me up? I wanted someone to check on me in case something happened while I was sleeping, but I also didn’t want I raise alarm bells. I decided last minute to take two Advil. If it was a headache it would clear with that. If it was altitude sickness and I woke up with a headache, I’d know for sure.

I got into my tent and fell asleep quickly.