John Muir Trail: Day 5

Day 5 started early as it was going to be a long day.  It would take me to Discovery Pinnacle, then onto Mount Whitney and down to Guitar Lake.  I would end up covering 10 miles and climbing 3300 ft.

My daily progress and major trail milestones can be seen at https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD, or on Google Earth using https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cy12lzxnuvatsa/2017.07.30_JMT_Actuals.kml?dl=0.  The caltopo website is the best place to look to find the place name I use.

Day 5 elevation profile in yellow

Day 5 route in blue

I had a lot of damp things from the rain the night before including my tent and sleeping bag, so I just packed up and started walking with the idea that I would eat breakfast and dry my stuff when the sun was out.  It had stopped raining but there were still clouds around and it looked like it could rain again if the clouds came my way.

In the morning the rain had stopped but there were still threatening clouds

I made it to Upper Crabtree Lake, made breakfast and dried my things in the sun.  The weather looked like it was holding so I headed up toward Discovery Pinnacle.

The way up to Discovery Pinnacle

The terrain was a loose mix of sand and rocks.  Every step up slid back halfway.  There was a section of snow that actually made travel easier because it didn't give way when I stepped on it.

From the slope I could get a good view of Upper Crabtree Lake, where I ate breakfast, and Crabtree Pass behind it.  Now I could see that the north side of the pass was almost completely free of snow and I could probably have made it over with no trouble.  Live and learn.

Looking south west at Upper Crabtree Lake and Crabtree Pass.
I am at about 13,000 ft elevation here.

Above 13,100 ft the terrain flattened out and I could see the pile of boulders on top of this mountain that was Discovery Pinnacle.

Looking north at Discovery Pinnacle from about 13,200 ft elevation.

It seemed like it took forever but I made the top of the pinnacle by about 11:00.  I had gone 1.5 miles and climbed 1,600 ft in about 3 hours.  This was the kind of travel I enjoyed the most and I was having a blast.

Looking north toward Mount Whitney.  The summit is shrouded in clouds.

Panorama Shot from the top of Discovery Pinnacle.  Click the image to get the full panorama.

I scrambled down to the trail from Whitney Portal just before Trail Crest.  Trail Crest is typically the culmination of a hard morning for people hiking up from the Whitney Portal trail head.  For me, the hard part was over before I got there.

Looking down at Trail Crest.  To the right is the way to Whitney Portal.
To the left is the trail down to Crabtree Meadow.  Toward the top of the picture is the path to Mount Whitney.

I had been at the summit of Mount Whitney once before.  Tom Kendall and I had hiked up and down in a day from Whitney Portal over 20 years ago.  My dear friend passed away recently so this was a particularly emotional day for me.

The western slope of Mount Whitney.  The summit still covered in clouds.

Sign at the summit of Mount Whitney.  The elevation on my map is 14,505 ft and I have found several other values from
various surveys and calculations from old surveys.  The point is that it is way up there. 

The view from the top was just clouds. The guy behind me in the picture below with the dog and the flag is an army veteran who flies his flag at the top of mountains.

The stone hut was built in 1909 as a lightning shelter after the first person to die on Whitney was struck by lightning.  There are two signs inside.  One on the wooden floor says not to remove the wood floor as it is an integral part of the protection from lightning.  The second sign on the wall says that the hut provides no lightning protection at all.  I didn't stay long.

Panorama on the Summit of Whitney.  Click the image for the full panorama.

Having finally reached the summit of Whitney, the John Muir Trail portion of my trip finally began at 1:00 on day 5.

I still had a long way to go.  There were scant places to camp before I got to Guitar Lake, which was still 5 miles away.

The trail sign at the Whitney Trail junction.  Guitar Lake is in the background.

Guitar Lake was packed with people so I left the trail and followed Whitney Creek until I found a nice spot. My hunt for a secluded campsite paid off as I saw three bighorn sheep come down from Hitchcock Lakes and cross Whitney Creek. Bighorn sheep are a rare sighting in the Sierras.

Camp 5 with Mount Whitney behind.

My trip ended up being three separate trips.  These first 5 days made up the first of these trips.  The second part would last 9 days and would take me to the halfway point on the JMT, Muir Trail Ranch, where I would pick up additional food for the final part of the trip.

 Just to recap the circuitous route I had taken to get here, lets take a look at the map below.

Circuitous route to Whitney.  I probably could have gotten there faster, but it would not have been as much fun.

All pictures of Crabtree Lakes
All pictures of Discovery Pinnacle
All pictures of Mount Whitney

John Muir Trail: Day 4

From Crabtree Meadow I had two choices.  I could follow the JMT along Whitney Creek, past Guitar Lake, ascend Whitney and return the same way, or I could cross Crabtree Meadow and follow Crabtree Creek to Upper Crabtree Lake.  The first way would have to be done in one day as there are no good campsites past Guitar Lake.  The second way would put me back on my original path at Upper Crabtree Lake with only Crabtree Pass cut out.  I would be able to ascend the talus slope to Discovery Pinnacle that I had been looking forward to.

The change of plan in Miter Basin had put me behind schedule.  I was supposed to summit Whitney on day 3 and now it was going to be either day 4 or day 5 when I got to the official start of the JMT.  As I lay in my tent that night, planning the next day, I realized two things.  I had been able to pack an extra day of food, so I had started with 14 days of food instead of the planned 13, and I had a scheduled rest day at Bench Lake.  I could get back one day by skipping the rest day and could borrow the second day from the second half of the trip thanks to the extra food.  I knew that I would be able to cover more ground in the northern half, so just like that I was back on schedule and was going up Crabtree Basin.

My daily progress and major trail milestones can be seen at https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD, or on Google Earth using https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cy12lzxnuvatsa/2017.07.30_JMT_Actuals.kml?dl=0.  The caltopo website is the best place to look to find the place name I use.

Day 4 elevation profile in yellow

Day 4 route in blue

It was going to be another short, easy day to set up for the difficult day tomorrow.  I wandered down to Crabtree Meadow, then followed the trail up to the Crabtree Ranger Station looking for the trail to Crabtree Lakes.  Not seeing it, I returned to Crabtree Meadow and went off trail across Crabtree Meadow and up to Crabtree Lakes.

Crossing a meadow is not as easy as it sounds.  Meadows are not like fields of grass.  They are wet, boggy fields with streams running through them.  Crossing the meadow in this case meant walking around it, being pushed further and further out to find firm ground to walk on.

Crabtree Meadow.  Mount Whitney is the rounded mountain in the middle.
Mount Russell is the sharp peak to the left of Whitney.
Mount Hitchcock is the mountain in the foreground to the right of Whitney.

I never did find the trail below Lower Crabtree Lake.  I made my way up the canyon using a map and compass to help with directions.

Just before Lower Crabtree Lake I was taking a break, lying on the ground, when a couple and their teenage son came by.  We talked for a while before I realized that I was lying in the middle of the trail.

Lower Crabtree Lake

Probably the most scenic part of the Crabtree Lakes was the view of the Great Western Divide across the Kern River.  On the west side of the Kern the granite peaks were much darker, almost black, compared to the relatively light grey granite on the eastern side.  With the snow capped peaks and the clouds providing contrast it made for a stunning sight.

Looking back at Lower Crabtree Lake with the Great Western Divide in the background beyond the Kern River.

Middle Crabtree Lake is the gem of the three lakes.  I wandered around its shore until they became steep, then went up high looking for a campsite.

A sandy beach on the northern shore of Upper Crabtree Lake

Just before the shore got too steep for me to continue I came upon the leg bone of a large animal, maybe a deer.  There are predators in the mountains, but they hardly ever are seen or heard.

The bones from an animals leg on the shore of Upper Crabtree Lake.

I found a great area to camp.  To the east I had a view of where I was going the next day.  Mount McAdie dominated the valley that lead up to Upper Crabtree Lake.  Turn right at Mt McAdie and you go over Crabtree Pass to where I had been the day before.  Turn left at Mt McAdie and you climb a talus slope to Discovery Pinnacle.

Camp 4.  Looking east at Mount McAdie.

To the west I had a great view of the Great Western Divide.  The sun was going to set right in the middle of this picture and I was going to be able to sit in camp and just enjoy the view.  Then the rain clouds moved in.

Rain clouds moved in from the west soon after I made camp.

I cooked quickly and cleaned up.  With everything in order I crawled in my tent just as the rain started.

Watching the rain from my tent.  Looking west across the Kern River at
Triple Divide Peak (directly under the d-rings on my tent) and the Great Western Divide.

I enjoyed watching and listening to the rain until after dark.  As I lay there falling asleep, I started hearing running water, turned on a light and discovered I was camped in what had become a stream.

I packed up my sleeping bag and other things into waterproof bags and put on my rain gear.  I crawled outside, dropped my tent, dragged it out of the stream and set it back up.  I crawled back inside and dried off the best I could.  When I was satisfied that I would stay dry I brought my sleeping bag back out and went to sleep.

All pictures of Crabtree Meadow
All pictures of Crabtree Lakes

John Muir Trail: Day 3

The plan for day 3 was to check out Crabtree Pass and decide whether or not I could make it over. I didn't make it to the pass.  As I got close I had been crawling up and down boulders and ice and found myself near a frozen lake with a stream running across my path underneath ice. I was expecting it to get worse as I continued and I knew it was a long way around, so I decided at that point to turn around.  My decision ended up costing me two days, but I got to see the middle part of Rock Creek and Crabtree Lakes as a result.  All in all it worked out well.

Day 3 ended up being 16 miles with 2300 ft of elevation gain.

Be sure to use the map at https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD to see place names and such.

Day 3 elevation profile in yellow

Day 3 route in blue

I started backpacking in 2011, which was the last really wet year that we had.  I didn't go very far that year and didn't deal with any ice or snow where I was.  All of my other experience has been in relatively dry conditions in the intervening years.

Looking back at the pictures there appear to be ways up to the pass. At the time it didn't look that way.  It is easy enough to walk across the snow, but I was concerned about falling through into a lake. By the end of my trip I think I had gained enough confidence and experience navigating over snow that I think I would have gone, but on day 3 I wasn't there.

Looking up at Crabtree Pass

After my change of plan, I followed Rock Creek back through Miter Basin past the point where I had come in from Soldier Lake and scrambled down a steep rocky ravine with just a hint of a trail.  The creek and the scenery were amazing, but the traveling was slow.

Rock Creek cascades out of Miter Basin before it lands in a relatively flat valley that takes it to the Kern River.

Rock Creek falls out of Miter Basin and lands in this meadow.  When I finally got there I was happy to have a trail again and was able to cover more ground.

Rock Creek below Miter Basin

This was the first of many crossings I made.  The creek was knee deep and about 20 ft across.  It was flowing pretty good, but not as dangerous as many creeks had been in early July.  You could still get wet if you weren't paying attention.

Rock Creek Crossing

After crossing Rock Creek the trail climbs quickly toward Gyote Pass. The next six miles is dry, the only water it turned out was at Gyote Creek. Since I hadn't planned on coming this way my maps were not adequate and I loaded up 3 liters of water to make sure I had enough.  My pack was heavy as I climbed the initial 750 ft in only 0.7 miles.

The trail up from Rock Creek is steep.  Steps are built to help with climbing and with erosion.

The section between the Rock Creek crossing and Crabtree Meadow is very dry.  The ground is completely void of plants giving it a lifeless feeling in spite of the trees.  This section seemed to go on forever.  I was tired and sore and just wanted a place to camp.  Nothing appealing presented itself until I was at Crabtree Meadow.

Gyote Flat

There are several approaches to stream crossing.  The old school way is to take off your boots and wear stream crossing shoes of some sort, or no shoes at all.  Many people are opting for lightweight breathable footwear instead of boots.  These can simply be worn while crossing.  Within a mile most of the water has been squeezed and drained out.  Fifteen minutes in the sun on a rock during a break will get them to 90% dry.

Shoes and socks drying on a rock.

The seemingly endless slog through Gyote Flat thankfully ended with the descent into Crabtree Meadow.  This was the single most crowded back country camping area on the trail as it is the jumping off point to climb Mount Whitney from the west side.

Mount Whitney comes into view just as the descent from Gyote Flat to Crabtree Meadow begins.

By turning off the main trail to Whitney, I was able to find a nice quiet campsite amongst the trees.

Camp 3 near Crabtree Meadow

All pictures of Miter Basin
All pictures of Rock Creek
All pictures of Gyote Pass and Gyote Flat
All pictures of Crabtree Meadow

John Muir Trail: Day 2

The plan for day 2 was to get to the upper end of Miter Basin.  From there I could launch my ascent of Mount Whitney the following day, which was going to be a long day.  There was no place past the uppermost lake to camp so I was in no hurry.

It was a mere 4 miles with 1800 feet of elevation gain.

Be sure to use the map at https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD to see place names and such.

Day 2 elevation profile in yellow

Day 2 route in blue

Miter Basin is a beautiful valley with Rock Creek running through it.  It is named after a rock formation called the Miter.  The Miter can be seen in the picture below in the middle, in front of the high mountains.

I spent a very relaxing day meandering along Rock Creek.  For most of the day I didn't see anyone. In the afternoon I saw a group of people on the other side of the valley heading down, and I ran into a Park Ranger who had summited Mount Mallory on her day off.  She mentioned that there had been a lot of ice and snow on the north side of Crabtree Pass two week before and recommended caution.

The Lower End of Miter Basin with Rock Creek running through it.

The middle part of Miter Basin is a marshy area with several braids of Rock Creek winding through.  Some of these braids come cascading out of Sky Blue Lake toward the upper end of the basin.

The middle part of Miter Basin.

Cascades coming down from Sky Blue Lake

At least one person I passed was raving about Sky Blue Lake.  I didn't find a great place to camp so I kept going, winding my way around to get above it.

Looking back at Sky Blue Lake with Mount Langley in the background.

There are many lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and not all of them are named.  Some are not identified at all and some are labeled with an elevation. Lake 12129 is at the upper end of Miter Basin. Behind Lake 12129 is Crabtree Pass, which I intended to cross the next day.

Lake 12129 with Crabtree Pass just hidden from view behind it.

I made camp on the south side of Lake 12129 on a sandy spot amongst a pile of boulders.  I was expecting wind but had a relatively calm, if not cold, night.

Camp 2, Lake 12129

All pictures of Soldier Lake
All pictures of Miter Basin

John Muir Trail: Day 1

This summer I hiked the John Muir Trail from Mount Whitney to Yosemite Valley.  I spent 22 days on the trail and covered almost 270 miles.  It was the hike of a lifetime and an experience I will never forget.

My daily progress and major trail milestones can be seen at https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD, or on Google Earth using https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cy12lzxnuvatsa/2017.07.30_JMT_Actuals.kml?dl=0.  The caltopo website is the best place to look to find the place name I use.

The John Muir Trail plus my trail to Mount Whitney

My journey started at Cottonwood Lakes, south of Mount Whitney.  I spent 5 days exploring this area before I arrived at the 14,505 ft summit of Whitney.  This is the official start (or end) of the John Muir Trail.  Over the next 9 days I crossed 5 mountain passes, Forrester, Glenn, Pinchot, Mather and Muir, forded dozens of streams and creeks, and spent many hours watching and listening to birds, marmots, chipmunks, deer, three bighorn sheep, a bobcat, waterfalls, sunsets, stars, sunrises, the alpenglow on the sides of mountains, flowers, trees and clouds.  At Muir Trail Ranch I picked up another 11 days of food for the second half of the trip.  The second half was a completely different trip.  It had more meadows and flowers, I went through several burn areas from forest fires, one from 1992, saw Devils Postpile and Tuolumne Meadows.   The pace was easier, I was fitter and I was able to just enjoy the scenery even more than in the southern half.  It was an incredible jouney that I have struggled to present adequately here in works and images

Before I could start walking I had to get to the trailhead.  Since I was going to finish a couple hundred miles away on the other side of the range, I couldn't very well park my car at the trailhead. My friend Khoa solved this problem by generously offering to drive me to the start.  That was 10 hours on the road for him.  Thank you very much Khoa.

Khoa and I picking up my permit in Lone Pine.  Mount Whitney is just below my left hand.

I spent that night at the trailhead camp at Horseshoe Meadows.  Typical trailhead camp, crowded, loud, uninspiring.  I avoided all other developed campsites for the rest of my trip.

Camp 0, Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead Camp

Day 1 took me through Cottonwood Lakes, over New Army Pass, partway up Mount Langley and finally down to Soldier Lake.  It covered 14 miles and had 3300 ft of elevation gain.

Day 1 elevation profile in yellow

Day 1 route in blue

The first part of the day was easy.  I arrived at Long Lake, my intended campground, at about 10:00.  Having set around camp all afternoon the day before, I couldn't stand the thought of doing it again so I decided to go over New Army Pass and keep going.

New Army Pass crosses the ridge to the left of the cliff looking part in the middle.
It rises from 11,500 ft to 12,300 ft in just 1 mile.

I had intended to do a bunch of side trips during my hike, thinking that 10 miles a day was going to leave me a lot of extra time and energy.  That didn't end up being the case, but I have a long list of places to go on return trips.

My first side trip was to be up Mount Langley, one of only 14 peaks in California over 14,000 feet. This was going to be another 2,000 feet of elevation gain by the time I dropped down from the crest of New Army Pass to the trail. 

As it turned out I made it up to about 12,800 feet before I ran out of gas and turned around.  It was just as well because it was well after noon and there were thunderstorms moving it.  On top of Langley was not the best place to be with lightning.

Looking north at Mount Langley from the top of New Army Pass.

Looking back at High Lake, Long Lake, and South Fork Lakes from New Army Pass

After my aborted trip up Langley I bee lined it for camp.  It was getting late and I was tired and sore. By the time I made it to Soldier Lake I had covered 14 miles.

The trail down to Soldier Lake

To make things difficult, Soldier Lake is not marked on any map, but if you follow the track for day 1 you can see where it is, https://caltopo.com/m/DKGD.  

Camp 1, Soldier Lake

All picture of Getting There
All pictures of Cottonwood Lakes
All pictures of New Army Pass
All pictures of Soldier Lake