Skip to main content

Day 171 - JMT Guitar Lake

Wow, was it cold this morning. After waking up and eating breakfast, we packed up quickly and found this scenic sunspot to warm our bones. We had a short eight mile hike to Guitar Lake today,  the last viable campsite before the five mile hike to the 14,505 foot-high Mount Whitney summit. 

We stopped at this lovely meadow and looked for bears. We only saw deer but were able to enjoy the incredible peace of the far mountain range. Steady hiker traffic, the most of the entire trip, including one group of twelve elder hikers, passed us as we rested, and jumped!

Views of Mount Whitney finally came into view at Timberline Lake, a quaint lake where camping was unfortunately forbidden. We passed a group of twenty Taiwanese hikers. 

The summit of Mount Whitney looked heavily defended when viewed from below. We were going to wake up tomorrow at 230am and hike up to the summit for sunrise-on-the-top-of-the-world*. The thought of this dark task was a bit foreboding. 

We made it to Guitar Lake by lunchtime and looked for an unexposed campsite amid the treeless, 11,500 foot high terrain. We found a great campsite with large boulders on three sides and a foot tall wall of stacked rocks on the fourth side, located just above Guitar Lake at the last water before Whitney. The view of the guitar-shaped lake and the mountain range beyond was epic, truly epic. 

We met three super-cool hikers at Guitar Lake: accountant/climber Sky and programmer/adventurer Meresh from San Francisco and musician Jess from Montana. We passed the lazy afternoon by swimming in the ice cold tarn, journaling, eating as much remaining food as possible to cut weight, and exchanging stories. We ate dinner as a group as the sun went down. 

Jess played his soulful folk music as the sun slowly faded on our last night in the High Sierra. Two other couples came over, hearing the sweet music, and began to dance. 

It was, in a word, perfection. 

Labels:

Comments

  1. sharery dairSeptember 4, 2016 at 5:26 AM

    Rocky Mountain National Park wants to do something about it. In lieu with this, the National Park Service together with the. rocky mountain air

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 96 - Banff Cirque Peak

OMG Canada.  Today was my favorite day. The climb to Cirque Peak started with a lovely hike to Helen Lake, climbing quickly at the start but then gently roaming on the backside of the valley, above tree line and with views south to infinity. I made it quickly to the lake then continued on the trail to Dolomite Pass, scrambling on top of the ridge beyond Helen Lake.  My destination : Once on top of the ridge (above my head), I hiked around another lake and up the sandy right side of Cirque Peak, following the route picture from the scramble guide. I eventually made it to a snowbank at the crest of the upper ridge.  I figured walking below the snowbank to the nose would be safer for me with little snow experience, but I saw old steps cut up the near-vertical snowbank and I decided to go for it.  Kicking steps with my right then left foot then propelling my hiking poles right then left deep in the snow above, I inched my way up a snow wall, keeping three solid contact p...
2 comments
Read more

Day 62 - Colorado National Monument

Established as a national monument early in 1911, Colorado NM is known for its high canyon "rim road" and sandstone spires of Monument Canyon.  The canyons of west Colorado are pretty--as they have more green trees and shrubs than the more famous Utah canyons. This gives them a more alive feeling, although the sandstone spires were formed many thousands of years ago by erosion.  Rim Rock road curves up the the top of the canyon cliff, goes through several round tunnels and is lined with scenic viewpoints. The best views were in he Monument Canyon section, and included in sequence, the Coke Ovens, The Kissing Couple (behind my head), and the most famous of all: Independence Monument, the tall spire in pic 3 and viewed from the side in pic 4.  The original promoter and caretaker of the park, John Otto, was the first person to climb Independence Monument and now it's a climbing right of passage. Every July 4 climbers ascend and mount an American flag at the summit. Fun! ...
2 comments
Read more

Day 48 - Dead Horse Point

Cowboys used to corral horses beyond the narrow neck of this high point overlooking the Colorado River.  They would then fence them in and when they returned take the strongest horses and leave the weaker ones to die without water at this to-be-named Dead Horse Point State Park. Terrible name and story, great views.  500 feet higher in elevation than the just-across-the-canyon Canyonlands Island in the Sky, Dead Horse Point does have a must-see view of the mighty Colorado and vast canyons behind. I arrived mid-afternoon and hiked the east rim trail a mile and a half to the far point, meandered along the west rim a bit and then hiked back along the road.  Knowing sunset time was special in this canyon country, I decided to wait a bit for the sun to fall. I drove this time to the far point, then walked around in search of the best vantage point.  Before the sun actually set, I drove on, first to a full closeby campground and then on an hour to Moab, to the campground f...
2 comments
Read more