Lone Pine Lake was about 2.8 miles into our climb. We started at 8,365' elevation at Whitney Portal. The plan was to get to Trail Camp the first day; 12,040' elevation, 6.3 miles of climbing. I don't know what to say except that I loved it! There was forest, there were a few meadows, there were waterfalls and lakes, there were massive granite mountains all around us and plenteous wildflowers. I followed my plan - stay hydrated, stay fueled, stay happy! And I was happy - every step of the way. Thankful to be there, thankful for the beauty that surrounded us, thankful for my hiking companions, thankful to be enjoying it!
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| Lone Pine Lake from above |
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| Waterfall |
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| just a cool dead tree |
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| Mirror Lake |
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| Steve, Lynne and Scott |
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| above timberline |
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| Trailside Meadow |
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| Shooting Stars - some of my favorite flowers! |
The 6.3 miles to Trail Camp took us a little longer than we had thought it would but no matter, there was no rush! We made it there about 3:00, happily shed our packs, set up camp, rested a bit, and did some exploring.
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| How's that for a room with a view? |
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| Trail Lake, campsites to the left, looking towards the trail to the top! |
Getting to camp at 3 means you have plenty of time to do nothing until bedtime. And since sleeping on the ground isn't always the most comfortable thing, you don't really want bedtime to be too early. On the other hand, the sun goes down early and it gets cold. We filtered water to refill our water bottles. We visited with Jill and her son Brendan who had made a summit bid that day. Cut short by the smoke in the air which triggered Brendan's asthma. Big disappointment there! We had dinner while there was still light. This consisted of boiling water and dumping it into foil packets of freeze dried food. We had some sweet and sour pork, teriyaki beef, and I think some sort of chicken. Not that bad really, especially after hiking all day. Dessert was licorice and peanut m&ms. You could do worse!
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| Lynne, Steve, Scott, and me by the boys tent |
After wandering off through the rocks to find a suitable potty stop (yeah, no facilities up there!) we zipped ourselves into our tents for the night. I had a good sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and adequate clothing and so was actually fairly comfortable. It was still early - 8:00 maybe - so Lynne and I amused ourselves with my notebook and pencil playing Scripture Mastery Pictionary. Yes, we are scripture nerds. It was actually very fun and we came up with some pretty clever things. By about 9:30 I was really tired and we called it a night. I slept great! For about 4 hours. And then it seemed like I just lightly dozed the rest of the night. I wasn't really cold or uncomfortable, just not sleeping. Probably a bit anxious to be up and climbing the next day, probably some of it just that I was sleeping in a tent (or attempting to) and some of it just the altitude. 12,000' is not a comfortable sleeping altitude for most people.
But the night finally passed and it was time to get up and get moving! To be continued. Again.
