To Guitar Lake, In Site of Mt Whitney

Frosty Ground Near Our Campsite

 No early rise today, should be an easier day, our strategy was to pass Crabtree Meadows where a lot of hikers go, that would put us closer to Mt Whitney for the next day, then an easy hike out to complete the journey, as well as giving more time on the peak.

We're at a fairly high camp, our highest yet (that's gonna be every night now) and it's frosty in the am, there's grass by the ponds behind us covered in ice and it's cold in the woods minus sunshine.

Gloves and hat go on, all the little campsite chores now take much longer, just getting the stove to light isn't easy in this kinda weather, one reason I gave up really cold weather backpacking. We keep running out into patches of sunshine through the trees to warm up a bit. The campsite is empty, the brother and sister crew hauled out early.

We come to Bighorn Plateau fairly quickly, a wide flat area that looks like a great place to camp, other hikers had mentioned it, we were too tired to make it. It looks like the Scottish Moors might look in my imagination, I think of Wuthering Heights, it's a broad rolling expanse with heather growing. We roll along the flat for a while, then a short climb and down to the High Sierra Trail junction, there are a few hikers around, including a couple we'd seen the day before going up Forester Pass, wonder how they got in front of us, must hike long hours.

Buddha shows up, he seems to appear outa nowhere, though he was in front, we chat for a bit, he leaves out before us but we see him again at a creek crossing getting water, it looks like a good place for lunch so we look for a place to sit with easy access to the water, the other side of the creek initially looks good, it's soft and boggy and covered in mule poop though, we go upstream a bit to get water and find a big downed tree nearby to sit and cook on, hopefully away from the aggressive, food grabbing chipmunks.

We've got tons of soups left so get a full pot of water and chuck 3 in to make a huge lunch dish, tastes amazing and spiced up with some cayenne, go wash in the stream after lunch to freshen up and recharge. The PCT branches off from the JMT a few miles up the trail, it's not much of junction, think we were expecting something a bit more spectacular or something, not worth dawdling over, it's on to Crabtree Meadows.

The Brother and Sister team from last night are there, it's the last place you can go poop in the woods, from now on gotta carry the nasty stuff out, there's a box with kits called Wag bags for hikers to poop in, ugh. We end up having to use them anyway because the ground is too hard and rocky to dig a cat hole. It's a bit of a contradiction anyway because there's mule poop everywhere, no Wag bags for those guys.

It's a nice easy coast through the meadows, we make a quick stop before the beginning of the climb up to Guitar Lake to rest and calorie up a bit, the young Bro-Sis team pass by as we're stopped. Feeling tired and sluggish at first, I can hear some hikers coming up behind us and they're moving fast, they pass just as a North bounder passes as well and we stop to talk about Mt Whitney and how amazing it is.

Feeling better now energy level is recovering as afternoon blues pass by, we can see 2 hikers ahead moving slowly and they look vaguely familiar, think we've seen them before somewhere. It's close to Guitar Lake and we wanna get a nice spot if we can.

Chilly at 11.5K', with Guitar Lake in the Background

As we approach the lake there's a inflow stream with a few folks stopped, including the Bro-Sis team, looking to our right we can see some potentially nice campsites so we make a beeline for them, no need to dilly dally.

The two women we'd passed just a little while ago come up to join their group that's close by, and we recognize one of the group, a mid-westerner with a strong accent, she's the friendly one and comes over to chat for a bit, they do about the same mileage that we do by hiking longer hours, they're generally out before we are.

After set up, the next chore is water, don't like the look of the lake because of all the signs of mules around, Buddha had commented on the water at the lake and said it wasn't good and the trail crosses the stream above the lake, so follow it upstream a bit, it's spring fed so upstream should be great water, fill up everything so won't need to take water again.

We take a late afternoon stroll by the lake, it doesn't look much like a guitar from these angles, gotta be higher up and look down on it, the next day it will better reveal itself. There's a beautiful view back into the valley we just hiked up from, a completely different angle and we have more time to look and enjoy the late afternoon light.

Brilliant Colours In The Late Afternoon Sun

There's a tent just down from us with no one about, a woman comes back to occupy, she describes herself as "Bavarian", interesting it's not German. She camped here and then day hiked up and back to Mt Whitney, she points up to a far ridge and explains that the trail is up there, you just can't see it from here, we were wondering where the trail and the mountain were, nothing looks obvious from here. The Bro-Sis team pass by and stop to exchange greetings on their way to look for a campsite just as we hoe into our Pad Thai.