Buck30 - Lowest to Highest Trail Journal - 2016

Day 7 - Mt. Whitney

We woke as usual and started up the trail to Mt. Whitney. Crazy that this
is the 2nd 10,000' climb on this short route! We did 4,000 yesterday
afternoon and had 6,500' to go. I'll admit, it was harder than I expected.
This was the least interesting part of the L2H to me even though we were
summitting the highest peak in the Lower 48. I've been up twice while
hiking the PCT and I love the Death Valley aspect of the L2H and the
Whitney thing is cool but not as exciting to me. The trail was immaculately
built and while as well graded as possible, the 6,500' climb took its toll
and I was pretty damn tired. The morning was cold, then warmer and then
coming across Trail Crest at 13,000' it was windy and cold. Lots of people
hiking the trail but not too crowded and I topped out after almost 6 hours.
It was actually warmer on top it seemed. Slaughter beat me up by 25 minutes
with her extra red blood cells from living at 9,600' at Breckenridge. She
was crusing up and pulled away long ago. Loveline was up shortly thereafter
and we got a good finishing pic.

After a nice break on top we tried to race down but it was a long 11 mile
walk and my low grade elevation/exhaustion headache ramped up from all the
downhill pounding. After a break at a lake at 12,000' and some food, water,
rest and lower elevation I felt a lot better. We got down around 5:15 and
Slaughter had gotten us a ride to town within 2 minutes. We had some great
Chinese food and then crashed at the Dow Villa with beer and a hot tub.
Tomorrow will be a long day of driving to get my car and then back to San
Diego.

The L2H was amazing!

Entry 7 of 8
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