Hiking

After completing the biking event on Saturday, we rested and recuperated on Sunday.

On Monday we drove down to Mammoth Lakes to hike.

We decided to hike Duck Pass (#1 on the map above).

Total mile: 10+ miles

Started: 3:20pm

Finished: 7:50pm

The trail head is at the southwest edge of the Coldwater Creek parking lot. This lot is at the top of Coldwater Creek campground at the far (southeast) end of Lake Mary. You will pass several lakes along the way. Duck Lake lies beyond and below Duck Pass; the lake cannot be seen from the pass, but continuing south a short distance gives you a fine view.

to Arrowhead Lake (1.25 miles, one way)
to Skelton Lake (1.5 miles, one way)
to Barney Lake (2.5 miles, one way)
to Duck Lake (5 miles, one way)

As we had to hike over snow and the trail was difficult to follow we actually passed Duck Lake and made it to Pika Lake.

The next day, we hiked to Shadow Lake from Agnew Meadows (3.5 miles, one way) then took the John Muir Trail back to Devil's Postpile.

Total Mile: 13+-miles

Started: 7:00am

Finished: 3:00pm

This westbound trail to Shadow Lake descends into and crosses the canyon of the San Joaquin River before climbing into the Ritter Range. The trail follows an exposed face and climbs steep switchbacks.
Shadow Lake @9:00am

Rosalie Lake @ 10:30am

We then continued onto a long, rather boring part of John Muir Trail back to Devils Postpile. Therefore, no pictures beyond this point as it was just a long 5 mile descent.

Our next challenge would be to climb Mt. Whitney. As we did not have a permit to climb Mt. Whitney we needed to see if they had any permits. The permits become available at Lone Pine Ranger Station a day before your planed hiking day. They did and we would be able to climb the mountain. Since back-packing was not an option for us and we needed to complete the hike in a day and wanted to adjust to the altitude we decided to camp out in our tent at 8,000 feet elevation just below the trail head.

Driving up to the mountain.

As you can imagine, we did not sleep well, not only because of camping out (the first time for Mrs. Dalton), but as the Rangers at the station did a good job scaring us of bears. We did hear something going on outside of our tent, but we were too afraid to see what it was.

Mt. Whitney Trail

Total Distance to hike: 22mile / 35.4km

Trail Head Elevation : 8,360 feet / 2,548m

Mt. Whitney Summit Elevation : 14,497 feet / 4,419m

Starting out at Whitney Portal at 5 AM. Sunrise along the trail.


The trail from the parking lot to Lone Pine Lake is long switchbacks with a moderate grade. At the top of these switchbacks, there is a fork and a sign. To the left one goes to Lone Pine Lake, to the right one goes to Mt Whitney. The trail from this point to Mirror Lake is relatively flat.

Heading towards Lone Pine Lake

Lone Pine Lake

After passing through the Outpost Camp (at 10,360 feet, 3.7 mi / 5.8km from trail head), and Mirror Lake (at 10,640 feet, 4.0 mi / 6.4 km from trail head), the trail starts getting steeper and runs along a creek and leads you into the camp where most back-packers stay over night to climb to the summit on the following day.

If you look to your left (past the creek), at some point you can see Consultation Lake down below. You are not far from trail camp.

The Trail Camp at 12,000 feet where we ate lunch. And a very special guest.

Time: 9:30 - 10:15am

Beyond the Trail Camp at 12,000 feet is where you are likely to feel the altitude. From the camp you head for the face of Mt Muir at 14,015". The 96 switchbacks" (there are actually more than 140, apparently) take you to the Trail Crest. The switchbacks are a mild grade, but they are very long and the altitude kicks in. Mrs. Dalton thought she reached her limit at some points along this long hard climb up, taking rests every 5 minutes to breath. Below is a picture looking up at the summit of Mt. Whitney.

At the Crest you crossover to the other side, with incredible views of the Sequoia Park wilderness. After the long hard switchbacks, what a reward it was to see the open sky and the mountain ranges continuing as far as you can see.

At the Trail Crest (13,777" / 4,199m, 8.2mi/13.2km from trail head).

Time: 12:30pm

From this point, you turn right towards Mt Whitney. The trail goes up mildly. You will see three giant spikes sticking out of the mountain on your right-hand side. When you get to its base, you still have to climb some steep switchbacks.

The elevation really took its toll on me. We still had to hike half an hour after this photo

We made it to the top !!! Time: 2:25pm -- 9 hrs 25 min after we began climbing.

As we started to head back, rain clouds were forming westward and we saw lightning.

A little break while rushing against time to get back before sunset.

Finished - Tired, but happy that we successfully completed our hike.

On July 15, 2010, we climbed Mt. Whitney!

Woke up: 4:00am

Started: 5:00am

Finished: 8:25pm
Total Distance hiked: 22 mi / 35.4km

Total amount of water consumed: 1 gallon each.