Adventure Is Out There: JMT Day 26- Shepherd Pass Trail Junction to Guitar Lake

August 10, 2014

I tried to get Daveed up earlier to get an earlier start...didn't happen :)

We climbed up to Big Horn Plateau which was barren, flat and completely exposed. Cameron and the NY Boys were camped there near a small tarn. The plateau was barren and open with no trees or bushes. We got a good glimpse of Whitney and where we were headed for the day. Up and down 1000 feet all day with really nice views, both open and within the forest. The sky was so blue today!

Yes, I took a picture of the blank sky. It was so unbelievably blue. Even some random guy who passed me on the trail commented on it!

First sign for Mt Whitney!! Woot!

Blue...

Sky!

Cameron and the NY Boys caught up to us and we hiked with them the rest of the day. We stopped for lunch at Crabtree Meadow and enjoyed each other's company. After lunch Daveed hiked with the boys to Guitar Lake, leaving me in their wake! It was good for Daveed to be able to hike with others that were more his own speed! He waited up for me once or twice and waived from the top of short set of switchbacks, keeping tabs on me and my progress. I was happy for him that he was able to get on his horse and speed on down the trail!

First good glimpse of Mt Whitney!

Big Horn Plateau, the boys camped near this tarn

Woot! Sights locked in on Whitney! (center peak)

Auto pilot set for Whitney (peak second on the left)

Timberline Lake, really really pretty!

The white rock above Timberline Lake

We arrived at Guitar Lake around 3:30 and enjoyed the last of the day's sun lounging on some private rock shelves that we found. I rounded a corner, looking for the boys, and came across them in their underwear, posing for the camera!! HAHA!! NOT what I was expecting to see! They had all just jumped into the lake! Daveed came and found us a few minutes later, stripped down to his unders and then all the boys jumped in again! :)

Here's a video of Daveed and Cameron's chilly swim in Guitar Lake, check out Daveed's amazing tan lines!!

http://youtu.be/52ltENQi82Q

Arriving at Guitar Lake, that's Daveed below chatting with some other hikers we met

The cliffs surrounding Whitney

"Why do they call it Guitar Lake?"

We hung out, did laundry and heckled the NY Boys as they tried to fly fish at bug hour...and caught nothing! We all made dinner and lounged. The NY Boys ate the last of their food which was an interesting concoction of pancake mix and olive oil....they claimed it was "tasty" but I was skeptical. We all talked about the food we were so psyched to eat once we made it to Lone Pine. The NY Boys wanted McDonalds. There was no talking them out of it. They would not stop talking about cheeseburgers and fries from McDonalds!! They were so happy that the bus stop (Eastern Sierra Transit System) was right in front of the McDonalds! :)

The boys were planning to stay up all night and hang out and play cards, then head up to the summit around 1:00 AM to catch sunrise from the summit. We were also planning to see the sunrise from the summit, but wanted to catch a few hours of sleep. A ranger told us earlier in the day that instead of the normal mid day storms forming on Whitney, that storms were to roll in around midnight tonight...which could ruin our plans for sunrise on Whitney.

We filled our water stores to the brim, as there really was not water until the other side of Whitney at Trail Camp (turns out there is a small tarn about 500 feet above Guitar Lake if you were desperate, but there is no water above that) and then headed up to a higher camp above Guitar Lake around 7:00. Several other people had the same idea as we camped near a group of about 8 people. Beautiful sunset over Guitar Lake from our camp. Tonight marks the highest elevation of camp on the trail, around 12,000 feet!

Hiking up to higher camp during alpineglow on the mountains surrounding Whitney

Sunset over Guitar Lake from near our campsite

From my trail journal: "The moon is huge and bright! We didn't need headlamps or anything to set up camp! The alarm is set for 1:30 AM for sunrise summit!!! Hopefully the weather will be OK."