JMT 205.8
Miles hiked today: 11
Total miles: 229.3
Site elevation: 11,495’
The day started sublime enough but it sure ended with a bang. As we write this now we are sitting in our tent listening to a major thunderstorm and watching it hail. Yes hail! We are at Guitar Lake just below Mt Whitney. It is about 4:20 pm. We got set up just in time before the sky really opened up. It’s kind of cool listening to the thunder bouncing of the mountains.
Now back to this morning. We got our usual start around 7:35 am or so. After we left camp we did a little climbing until we got to Bighorn Plateau – a big open high desert area that looks like a moonscape. See pic below.
After about 4 miles we rock-hopped across Wright Creek and Wallace Creek. Since we are now experts, the crossings were no big deal.
We then came to the PCT/JMT intersection. The Pacific Crest Trail splits and continues south to the Mexican border.
3.5 miles more to Guitar Lake and once again we are racing against the weather. This place is solid rock so we tied the tent to boulders and tossed our gear inside just as the heavy rain started.
Tomorrow is summit day and the conclusion of our official JMT hike. But after we summit we still have 10.7 miles downhill to Whitney Portal.
Once again cozy in our tent listening to the weather.
It is now 5:15 and one side of the tent has sun and the other has hail. Yes it’s hailing again and this time the hail is bigger.
It’s 6:25 and the rain let up just enough to go to the bathroom and get water boiling. But not long enough for us to eat. It started hailing really hard again so we ate dinner in the tent. The rain and hail can stop any second now…just saying.
⁃ Jeff and Ellen
Journeys with Jeff and Ellen 