John Muir Trail, 2007: Day 15 - Guitar Lake to Mt Whitney, and then out at Whitney Portal

It's the last day on the trail, and the biggest one as well. We got up early so we could hit the trail just before sunrise, hiking by headlamp for the first mile or so. As we climbed towards Trail Crest we got to watch the sunrise over the area - first with the light hitting Kaweah Divide, and then slowly hitting the peaks around us. The reflections in the lakes were beautiful.

Just below Trail Crest is the junction for the summit trail. We dropped our packs here and headed up with water and cameras. This last 2 mile, 1000 foot gain stretch to the summit was quite easy, especially without having packs. We got to the summit quickly and enjoyed it for a while with only a few other people around. The smoke had settled in the Owens Valley and it was like a dense fog to the east. But the views to the North, South, and West weren't obstructed.

What really blew me away wasn't the summit, but the actual summit trail. It follows the ridge, which is at times steep and narrow. Still, the trail engineers found a way to build an interesting and fun trail along it, with regular peeks through 'windows' to the east side. Some people get a little freaked out by parts of this trail, but I just thought it was a lot of fun.

After bagging the summit we had a long, long descent. From the summit it is about 11 miles back to the trailhead at Whitney Portal. But the hard part isn't the mileage, it's the 6000+ feet of altitude that is lost. This isn't a well-graded trail, either. It is steep with lots of steps, making it hard to keep a regular or fast pace. I thought we'd never get off the '97 Switchbacks', which is the steep section of trail that takes you down from Trail Crest and into the canyon/valley that leads to Whitney Portal. Yes, there are actually 97 switchbacks. No, I did not count them myself.

I had been thinking of pizza ever since the summit, so when we got back to the trailhead I ran in the store for a cold beer but no hamburger. We shared the beer while packing up the car, then drove into Lone Pine for some Pizza Factory. Mmm. After that, we drove back into Bishop and checked back in to the Ramada. We ended the trip with a dinner at Amigos, which has possibly the best Mexican food ever.

This day's stats:

• Mileage: 14.97 mi
  
• Ascending: 3319 ft
  
• Descending: 6502 ft
  
• Cumulative Mileage: 160.77 mi
  
• Cumulative Ascending: 31,888 ft
  
• Cumulative Descending: 31,965 ft