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Day 13 September 10th Start - Tyndall Creek Ranger Station We all discussed last night that we should try something new. “Lets start hiking at 6:00 AM!” Great idea. So here we are hiking down the trail still groggy and with a little chip on our shoulders because we know we are only 2 days from the end of the trip. Our goal today is to get to our camp at Guitar Lake early so that we can get plenty of rest for our “summit attempt” the following day. I know “summit attempt” is a bit dramatic and may sound like its Mt Everest we were climbing. But, when you are at the base of Mt Whitney, and looking up, it looks almost impossible to hike to the top. So there. “Summit Attempt” fits. A few miles from the Crabtree Ranger Station, we ran across a couple who were on a 6 day loop of the area. Once the wife saw my roll of toilet paper in side of my pack, her eyes started to gleem. She mentioned that they somehow forgot to bring enough TP and were down to 6 squares! Before I can say anything, she offers to trade me something for it. I mentioned that I’m low on snack foods and the husband starts to go though his bear can. Out comes a small bag of macadamia nuts, 8 crackers and a small baggie of beef jerky. SCORE! And I didn’t have to yogi for it. At the intersection at Crabtree Ranger Station we notice that there is a red and green plastic bin right below the trail markers. Inside were hundreds of pre pacakage bag used to for human waste deposits. “Pooper bags” I called them. Inside these bags contained a large green bag with something that looks like kitty litter at the bottom. Also you will find a small wad of toilet paper and single pack of hand cleaner. Finally, there is a small white zip lock type of bag to carry everything out after you done your duty. At Whitney Portal there is a special receptacle to deposit your little gift bag. I used it. Worked great. Makes Sense. I hope that other people will use it too. On my last trip to Mt Whitney in 2000 you would find TP under every other rock at Guitar Lake. When we got to Guitar Lake around 3:00 PM we choose a camp site high above the lake among the rocks and close to the creek coming from Artic Lake. It was a great site with lots of flat and sandy spots for our 3 tents. All of us situated the doors of our tents to face Mt Whitney so that we can see the Whitney in the glow of the moon light and wake up to the monster in the morning. My tent is a free standing Big Agness SL2. Knowing that it was going to be a windy night, so I took extra caution and stake down my tent at several appropriate locations and even put large rocks on top of the stakes. Now, I have been through a lot of storms in my tent, but I unprepared for what was to happen next. Around midnight, some type of wind storm started to develop. No rain or hail just wind. It was like my tent was directly between 2 jet engines which were taking turns revving the engines. The poles in my tent flexed and twisted and contorted in ways I have seen. You can feel the pressure change inside the tent in between blows. At one point the wind was so strong that one corner stake pulled out even though a large rock was on top of it. I had to re-stake it in the middle of the night. I was awake anyway. No way anybody can sleep through this storm. Several times during the night the wind would completely stop. Dead stop. Then the next thing you know, without notice, it would hit the tent instantly. Wow, what a sleepless night. It wasn’t till around 4:00 AM when things started to settle down. When we woke up at 6:00 AM it was still windy and cold. No time entries in my log |
