2022 Mt. Whitney Day 7: Crabtree Meadow To High Desert

 Distance:  11.11 Miles/17.88 Km

Time: 8 hours

Elevation Gain: 2169 ft/661 m

Today was (as one can imagine) a slightly more relaxed rising day after yesterday's festivities:  by the time we were up and going post oatmeal breakfast, it was almost 0830.  Our night had been disturbed by the next round of hikers getting up and out early to scale Mt. Whitney; we had the camp largely to ourselves as we packed up and headed out.  Packs were definitely lighter at this point as the food filling the bear cans was now filled with trash.

Our ultimate goal this day was not so much a place as a campsite that had been used by our guide's as a midway point between where we started and where we would end the hike.  As a result the pace was measured but not urgent as we first made our way downhill and almost level to a meadow.

From here we began a long, steady climb to Guyot Pass (around 12,000 ft; not nearly the direct climb the Colby Pass was). The scenery changed again back to the rocks and the sequoias that we had seen two days ago.

If I had to characterize this day's hike, it would be "flow".  There was just a sense of being and moving in the world around us:  not too quickly, not too intensely, just moving on and through.  In a way, this is what I suppose people begin to feel when they have hiked for many more days than we did:  the world truly does fall away, and all there is the sky and the earth and surroundings and the trail.

We took an extended lunch break at Rock Creek, sharing another charcuterie of string cheese, crackers, dried figs, and turkey jerky.  This was by far the longest lunch that we ever took; in retrospect I am not sure if it was unintentional on the part of our guides or if it was planned both for timing and rest purposes.

A hike of about 40 minutes brought us to the stream below; this was the last place we would have to get water before mid-morning tomorrow.  We filled up bottles and the larger dirty water containers and headed on up.

The last part of the day was spent in another uphill climb:  certainly not the most difficult one of the hike, but a long extended push for the day.  No rain interfered to interrupt the hike, but once again we found ourselves stretched out and I, again, was hiking on my own through a world of sand and sequoias.

The silence here was again impressive, as were the trees that just seemed to be in isolated stands.  The idea of desert in the midst of the High Sierras was something that had never occurred to me before; my previous experiences were much more tree and brush laden.

On and on I hiked for almost two hours until, in the distance, I could hear celebration.  I was close!  Another half mile or so revealed about half the party there ahead of me - suddenly, we had simply arrived.  To cheers and clanging hiking poles, I half jogged the last 100 feet.

High Desert Camp (below) was simply that:  high, and a desert.

We waited around and cheered as each member cleared the final hill over the next hour or so.  Then it was off to set up camp as our guides began to prepared the evening meal.

Dinner tonight was packaged Korean ramen; I would argue by far that it was the best meal of the trip.  We sat around on the sand as the Ramen passed around and around (another benefit is that it is rather plentiful when it gets water mixed in).  In some ways I think the reality of this being the last night was pressing in on all of us as we finished dinner and prepared for bed:  on one hand looking forward to the benefits of civilization like showers and clean clothes, on the other hand dreading the fact that "the world" was a short hike away.

Perhaps in a token of acknowledgement, the sunset on the mountains that evening was especially beautiful.