So my Whitney adventure wasn't at Mt. Whitney at all, though I left from the same location. I went to the permit office....no whitney permits available. But I had a backup plan for the Meysan Lake trail. I had heard that the Meysan lake trail is beautiful, but somewhat more strenuous than the whitney trail. Even though it doesn't go as high as whitney.
This proved to be true. The valley is much more steep on both sides. This means there are a lot more switchbacks. Switchbacks tend to be a grind, but I was taking my time and just enjoying being alone. The whitney trail is often referred to as a backcountry highway during the summer. Whitney will have as many as 160 hikers on the trail at any given time. So you are never really alone at whitney. However, with all the people drawn to whitney, nobody uses the Meysan trail that shares the whitney portal as a starting point.
About an hour into the hike I saw four dayhikers coming down. They mentioned that there were two other dayhikers who would be coming down later in the evening. Other than the two further up the trail, they assured me that there were no others on the trail.
After another two hours I saw another group of five hikers coming up behind me. They were going at a very fast pace. When they got within two switchbacks of me a very attractive russian woman at the back of the pack yelled up and said "Are you Jorj X McKie?"....I was somewhat shocked and replied "yes.....???". She then said "I know you!". The number of russians who I know is pretty small. The number of attractive russian women hikers who I know is pretty close to absolute zero...so i was intrigued. She then said "you live in Tarzana, right?".....I was really racking my brain at this point....again, I said "yes.....?" She then started laughing "you dropped your permit, do you want it back?". They caught up to me..gave me my permit and we chatted a bit. I could see that they were being eaten by mosquitos. Finally one of them asked, "Do you have any mosquito repellent?". Anybody who knows me, knows that I have pretty much everything I will need wherever I go. So I got them all slathered up and they moved on. Unfortunately they moved very fast. Their uphill speed was about the same as my downhill speed. The problem arose because last week there were monsoonal rains in the eastern sierra and there were extreme flash floods. The trail had been washed out in numerous places. Most of the time it is no big deal...you just have to find where the trail picks up again and make your way to it. But it some places, the trail wasn't so obvious. There were several places where I had to spend 30 minutes just trying to find the trail. This is really just a pain in the ass, not dangerous. There are really only three ways to go...up, down the way I came or straight down to the valley below. So choosing directions was tedious, but not a big deal.
I finally got to a point where it was dark and I would walk for 5 minutes and then take at least 5 minutes to find the route. Then I saw some headlamps coming down the hill. Instead of trying to find the trail, I waited and watched the two hikers descend so I could go up their path. They said that there were a couple of more washed out sections, but after the sandy switchbacks it was pretty clear.
Looking down the sandy switchbacks
After a while I got pretty hungry. I was hoping to get to camp to eat, but finally my legs were getting weaker and I said to myself..."If I am not there within one more switchback, i am sitting down and eating dinner".....I got to one more switchback and I wasn't at my destination...Grass Lakes, so I sat down and ate. Then I started up again and within three minutes I saw the tents of the Russian Hikers.....I was there.
Set up camp and went to bed.....
Woke up around 7am...noticed how beautiful Grass Lakes is...
And then went about making breakfast and had the russkies take my photo
They headed up to Mt Le Conte, which is the peak right above my head. They were true mountain climbers instead of hikers. I was only going to Meysan Lake, about one mile further up the trail. On the way up to Meysan Lake, I saw Camp Lake which is small, but incredibly beautiful.
And then on up to Meysan Lake which is directly over the ridge behind Camp Lake. Unfortunately, I didn't take a very good photo of Meysan lake. The sun was bright and I had my sunglasses on, so I didn't see that I was cutting off the edges.
After Meysan Lake, I headed back down to camp, had a big lunch and then started packing up camp. I hit the trail at 2pm and had an uneventful trip down. The trail washouts were much easier to pick up in the daylight, though there were a few places where it took a few minutes to find the trail again. I reached the trailhead at 5:30pm and then had to walk another 30 minutes through the summer cabin and camp grounds to reach my car. I was pretty hungry so I headed to the Portal Store (I had to drive up the hill to get there) and had a big juicy cheese burger. After chatting with two other solo hikers (one man, one woman), i decided to get going. As i was still in my dirty clothes, I decided to do a quick change in my car. I changed into a nice clean t-shirt and got my clean shorts ready...I had unbuttoned and unzipped my pants and started to pull them down when I see a car pull up behind me, thus blocking my exit. Damn! I'm not going to be able to change. Then I notice that the car says "Inyo County Sheriff"....well, at least he didn't catch me with my business hanging out....close call. So I decided to let him know I am leaving, so he should move his car....I turned the key and started the car up. He gets out and comes directly to the driver's side window. I open the window and he says "do you know Smoothsail?".......and the rest is history.
One note about GPS....outside of the issues with solar flares, in valleys that are narrow and have steep sides, it is difficult for all of the overhead satellites to have a clear view. Therefore often the actual location will be close approximations. Add some trees to the equation and sometimes the signal will be completely blocked.
But it was certainly wonderful to get to a location where I truly was alone. Except for the difficulty of the trail, Meysan lake is a much better back country experience.
Photos here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/tfdietz/MeysanLakeAugust56# |
