This card is from my co-workers.
Lonepine Campground Site #1. Basecamp.
Sunrise. The clouds were an ominous sign.What started out as a routine day turned out to be a hike of a lifetime. As you can plainly see from the photos, it was a nice sunny day except for the clouds at the top of Whitney. Yesterday, I got an updated weather report. A storm front was moving through. Meteorologists, BAH! What do they know!
I left my itinerary with my campground neighbors and my approximate time of return.
I struck out for the trail at around 7:00 a.m. and went up the old stock trail. I slowly paced myself past Lone Pine Lake, Outpost Camp, Mirror Lake, Trailside Meadows, Trail Camp.
At 11:45 a.m., I had reached the cables along the 99 switchbacks. All the trailrunning I have done since August did the trick. I experience no altitude sickness symptoms. No headaches and no breathing problems. I was making good time! Beyond the cables I could tell that this would be the end of the hike and it was time to head home. No sense of taking chances. Besides it was starting to snow.
I immediately went into descent mode. If I were to be snowed in, I was prepared. In my 30-pound Gregory Whitney pack, I packed my sleeping bag, bivy, Jetboil cooking system, 2 Mountain House dehydrated packages (Noodles & Chicken, Beef Stroganoff), 1 liter of water, Katadyn Hiker, Snickers, down jacket, balaclava, gloves, goggles, hunter orange cap. If I die, I die warm!
I literally ran off down the entire way doing the "recon shuffle." I got off the trail around 4:00 p.m. I did stop to take a look around to see the current conditions. It is snowing on my birthday! Yeah buddy!
My next worry was driving out of the portal area. I had snow cables, but my pickup does not come with four-wheel drive.
I got to Lone Pine campground in no time. No worries. As I made my way down along the road, I could see to the north that it was raining in the valley. As I made my way into camp, it started to rain.
Later that night, the winds had to be gusting 40 mph! It was blowing so hard that the tent was pressing against my face as if someone was sitting on the tent itself.
I took out my gear and placed it in the bed of my truck and strapped everything down. I moved my truck forward just to ensure that the tree would not get blown over. I doused the fire with and stirred it to make sure the embers were out. I place huge rocks inside the tent to keep it from blowing away.
I hunkered down in the cab of my truck for the rest of the night.
Happy Birthday, Gary!
