Start point
Hidden Valley Ranch
End point
Trailcamp at Mt Whitney
Miles hiked
6.3 miles
Wilderness area
Inyo National Forest
Bighorn Park
John Muir Wilderness
The day on trail
We left Hidden Valley Ranch at 5 am. Ugh. Chuck took us in two groups, because he didn’t have enough space for everyone at once. We left much of our stuff that we didn’t need at HVR to lighten our packs, since we’d return the following day.
We started around 7am and immediately came upon an avalanche slide area. It was strewn with debris, pieces of tree, rock, and snow all over the trail. This zone persisted up a bunch of switchbacks for at least a mile of trail.
Let me tell you how I feel about John Muir, who believed Wilderness (yes, capital W-Wilderness) areas should be for whites only.
“…they seemed to have no right place in the landscape, and I was glad to see them fading out of sight down the pass.”
John Muir on the indigenous people of the Yosemite Valley.
The trail quickly turned into a slog when we hit snow. It got slushy really fast. We were dragging, sinking, and postholing. Our feet got wet through sloshy snow. Crampons gave a little purchase, but then gave way into sliding.
We found our way to a small field where we ran into The Show and Toddler Snacks who just glissaded down the wrong route. We caught up with them and got some beta, and found another small group to get beta from. Then we continued on.
We took a short break for water and snacks at a small, mostly frozen, lake.
After that Propeller lead us in some route finding to get to trail camp. It was a stunning location. It was a sea of snow with small islands of rock jutting out. These rocky outcroppings had chipmunks and marmots living on them and small sandy patches for setting up tents.
We spread out, because there weren’t tent spots close together, and set up a time and location to meet at, at 1 am.
I decided to rehydrate with a bowl of Mio electrolyte snow.
I looked at a cutey patooty chipmunk.
I then set up my tent, and tried to sleep in a sauna that turned to a freezer as soon as the sun set.
