Day 17 – June 23
We showed Foresters Pass who’s boss today. I was a little
afraid of the 13k elevation, but John kept reminding me it was our last pass
and we’ve done well on all of the other ones. Surely enough, Foresters just had
a few more switchbacks, and then we were at the top. We ate a heavy snack and
rested a while there- all of our stops or breaks keep getting longer and longer
as we savor the scenery and make more memories.
We descended Forester and cruised about 5 more miles to our
campsite in time for an afternoon nap & crossword. We kept daydreaming and
talking about 3 very important things:
1)
how excited we are to see our families together
(especially now that we’re engaged),
2)
wedding ideas & wished, and
3)
all of the foods we want to eat when we come out
of the Sierras.
Just one more dehydrated dinner to go!
Day 18 – June 24
We are officially going for it. We are getting up in a few
hours at 11:45pm. We hope to be at the summit of Whitney waiting for the
sunrise in the morning. We hiked 11 miles to Guitar Lake today and made it here
by 3- we relaxed, ate dinner, and pre-packed our stuff so it’s easy to get
going in the morning…aka later tonight. We are currently sitting under the
shade of a rock looking up at Whitney. She’s beautiful and we can’t wait to
finish the JMT in the morning!
Day 18.5 – June 25
Day 19 started on day 18. We woke up at 11:40pm, though we
really just tossed and turned and dozed a little from 6-11:40 with very little
uninterrupted sleep. We slept cowboy style, just in our bags on top of our mats
& tarp, but without setting up the tent. We then hiked up Mt. Whitney in
the dark using our headlamps and the moonlight (until the moon set after 30
minutes of hiking). Parts were icy; sometimes you could tell you were crossing
a steep, narrow ridge, and other times it felt like you were in a dark abyss
walking over one boulder at a time. We climbed up with our JMT friend Spencer
who we bet a few days before and who inspired us to go up at night in order to
be there for sunrise. We left at 12:15 and climbed the first 1000 feet and
about 1.8 miles in 50 minutes. By just after 1:30am, we were already at the
Mount Whitney Junction- the turnoff where many JMTers slack-pack it and proceed
the last 1.9 miles to the summit. The further we went, it became less and less
of a trail and more of a game or maze of picking your way through rocks,
boulders, gravel, and occasional snow and/or ice patches.
The adrenaline and difficulty of the climb challenged us,
and we made it to the summit at 3:18pm- just 3 hours since we left Guitar Lake.
We knew it could take an average of 3-5 hours, but we didn’t want to risk
missing sunrise and we ended up making great time. We found shelter between
rocks after signing the Register (I signed it John & Emily Sauvageau…I
swear there wasn’t room for both our current last names ;) ) and finding that
someone was already asleep inside the summit cabin. We reclined against the
rocks with our sleeping bags, mats, and all layers of warm clothing for 2 hours
until sunrise. It was absolutely breathtaking and worth the early morning climb
and the wait.
After many pictures, soaking it all in, and packing up our
things, we were still freezing and began our descent- the last of many. From
Trail Crest it was another 8.5 miles to Whitney Portal. The miles seemed to
drag on and on until the store and parking lot and car were in sight- which, of
course, was exactly where we got stopped by a ranger- the first one we had seen
since Yosemite. 15 minutes later, we strolled through the trailhead feeling
proud, accomplished, thankful, and hungry!
We drove down to Lone Pine to Mt. Whitney Restaurant and
finished off the hike just like we started it- with a hot juicy burger and a
beer. We drove about 5 hours in the afternoon to Kingman, AZ so that we could
get a head start on our stop by the Grand Canyon the next day- because life is
an adventure, and when you get to do life with your best friend and you’re both pretty adventurous, life is grand.
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