Victory!!!

Monday, July 28

Day 16

Crabtree Junction to Whitney Portal

~ 15 miles

“Of course, inside each one of us is the ambition to reach the summit, to realize that you are stronger than obstacles, that it is within your power to do something uncommon and indeed impossible for most people.”

~ Anatoli Boukreev

I made it! I succeed in hiking the John Muir Trail. I am proud of myself! I am a hiker man!

Sleep did not come easy last night. It took me an over an hour to finally get to sleep. Then I kept waking up. About 1:30 a.m. I woke and heard nearby campers breaking camp. My mind begin to turn. Should I get up and start hiking? I was already awake... I got out of the tent to relieve myself and the stars were out, with no signs of clouds. I just said I would go for it. With uncertain whether for the next couple days, this might be my only chance to make it to the summit.

I quickly packed up my gear and headed out. I always like night hiking, as it seems that I am on my in my own little bubble, defined by the headlights beam. It seems to make the time go by quickly. The other thing is, it seems to help with the uphills; when my world is reduced to 20 to 30 feet ahead, they do not seem so bad or so steep.

It took me about 90 minutes to reach the Guitar Lake area; 3 miles and 800 feet of elevation gain. When I reached Guitar Lake about 3 a.m. other hikers were just beginning to get on the trail. Soon as I left the lake, the trail started to climb for real. Even in the darkness of night my legs were feeling the ascent. The headlamps in front of me, gave me an indication of the steepness of things to come. I became fixated on the highest headlamp, until I realized that it had not moved in over 50 minutes. Oops it was a star.

As I worked my way upwards, actual headlamps would flicker in and out of my vision as I continued towards Whitney Junction.  I moved slowly. Moved when I could, and rested when I needed to. About 5:15 a.m. I shut off my headlight lamp and was able to get by with the coming of the dawn. Within 15 minutes I happily reached Whitney Junction, 2,000 feet above Guitar Lake. My original thought when I first started this hike was to take my pack all the way the summit, but as I reached Trail Junction, this thought was washed free from my mind.

I grab my rain jacket, 1 liter of water, snacks, phone, camera and the wag bag and took off for the summit. The first mile or so felt like I was literally flying. Free the pack I quickly contoured the ridge towards the summit. I could see clouds drifting in through breaks in the ridgeline. The last half-mile so the trail again began to climb up the “back of Whitney. I start to feel the elevation, and started to slow.

The first sign of the summit was the metal roof of the summit hut. As soon as I set my eyes on my energy level rose, and my body became fresh again as I hurried towards the hut and the metal sign on the rocks in front of the hut, marking the end of the JMT. Once my hand reached out to touch the sign I had completed the JMT, but not the hike!

Mt Whitney 14,505'

Luckily the weather had not moved into much, so I still had a nice view from the summit. I traded taking some pictures with another party, and made sure I got a couple with the JMT Facebook group’s “flag”. I still had one picture left to take: found a small area, shelter from others as best I could and stripped-down for my highest naked person photo. Yep just had to do it! Afterwards I signed the summit register before heading back down towards the junction.  16 days of the trail. And 40 minutes on the summit.

Not two minutes after leaving the summit the weather came in. It actually began to snow for several minutes, before turning into a little drizzle, which quickly stop. The return to Trail Junction went slower as I tired and the rocks became a little slick from the rain. Once back at the junction, I grudenling put my pack back on. The feeling of that effortless flight quickly disappeared.

One last climb remained, up to Trail Crest. Only100 feet elevation gain a little over quarter mile. Once up there I begin my final descent, starting with the 99 switchback from hell. Going down though they were not too bad, though I would not want to have to come up them. My left calf started to cramp up and remained cramped until the end of the hike.

Packs at Trail Crest

Like all of the descents of the passes during this trip this one was long, about 8 miles. It went by

99 switchbacks from hell

slow. I was low on energy and I was I was only functioning on only a half a foot Probar and three shot blocks, and had already been going for close to eight hours. I came to the nice patch of grass, next to the stream where others were resting and joined. A liter of water and a bag of almonds revived me a little.

As I carried on I was ready for level trail. Not necessarily a flat trail but one where the ground was flat and not rock covered. I could not get a good steady pace or stride going out because I was constantly having to adjust the width of each step. It made me tire easily.

Eventually I caught site of the road, the first one since Reds Meadow. It gave me hope, but I still moved slowly. Each switchback brought me closer and closer to the road. A final long downhill brought me the trail’s and. My eyes teared up last 30 yards or so.  One moment my feet were in dirt, the next step found my shoes were back on asphalt and my journey came of an end. I had done it!!!

I made my way to the portal sore, where ran I into Chris from the “teacher camp”. I had actually ran into him earlier in the day as I left Trail Junction for the summit. After dropping my pack off it was into the Portal Store for that much anticipated cheeseburger. It was good, but did not live up to its reputation in my opinion (Reds burger was much better). While sitting with Chris I met two ladies who had also just finished the trail (Mary and ??, both nurses). Somehow our paths never crossed out on the trail. Mary was nice enough to drive me into town and to the Dow Villa hotel.

The Dow is a great place to land at the trail. I got a room with a private bath and quickly slipped in the shower to wash off 16 days of grime. Later using their computer I was able to get my plane reservation changed to tomorrow; the $180 change fee was cheaper than three days in a hotel rooms. I have to catch a bus at 6:15 a.m. to get to Reno by 12:30. Hopefully everything will go as smoothly on the return as it did on the way out. By this time tomorrow I will be back home. I can't wait to give Cade and Karen the biggest hug ever. I know that I will not want to ever let them go!