Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Importance of being prepared when hiking

I just wanted to briefly remind everyone to always bring along extra food and water (or filter system) when hiking. Here's a good reason why:

On Wednesday, I was planning on doing a day hike in Yosemite from Cathedral Lakes trailhead in Touloumne Meadows ro Happy Isles on the Valley Floor. That's 21 miles. I stay overnight in a cabin in Curry Village and then go back 21 miles the next day, where my car is waiting. This is one of the best day hikes in California, beautiful scenery, well-marked trail, great vistas!

Well, I start the hike at 4:00 am at Cathedral Lakes. I smelt smoke from a fire, which I assumed was far away and didn't think much about it. I saw no smoke and everything was going fine. About 5 hours into the hike I started seeing black smoke ahead in the Half Dome region, but still felt the fire would not impede my progress. The smoke smell wasn't that obvious.

Well... at the fork of the JMT and Half Dome trail there was red tape blocking the trail and a Search and Rescue guy sitting there in a folding chair. He said, "Sorry, the trail's closed, we just evacuated Little Yosemite Camp Ground, you gotta go back."

I said, "Go back?? I started in the High Country, I've already gone 16 miles. I can't go back."

Basically he told me "tough luck" and said he would report me and my husband and I would be cited by the Ranger if we continued, and on reflection, there was no way to continue anyway with the smoke increasing. Imagine my discomfort thinking I was only 5 miles from the conclusion of my hike, when in actuality it was now 16 miles.

I had prepared enough food and water (I don't filter, I tote my water) for 21 miles. I had no choice but to retrace my steps all the way back to Cathedral Lakes for a day hike of apprx. 32 miles. They had blocked the way down from the Cloud's Rest Trail too, so I couldn't descend down to the Sunrise trailhead. I was able to get more water at the faucet at Sunrise High Camp. I was plenty beat when I reached my car and had run out of food several hours earlier. 32 miles is a punishing day when you hadn't anticipated that distance.

So it's wise to always keep in mind that situations can change when we hike and to prepare for the unexpected! I learned a valuable lesson.

Thanks for sharing. I will remember your story. Can't predict all the possibilities all the time. Glad it turned out as well as it did for you, what a long day.

Wow..the unforeseen looms its ugly head. 32 miles is quite a haul...good thing you had a head-lamp too!...(I assume..since you started at 4AM)

Thanks for sharing the story..

BeachAV8R

Good advice, thanks for sharing.

This is about as bad a situation as you can get into since there isn't anywhere else to go.

I'll bet they didn't anticipate many day-hikers coming by that way. Perhaps you could have convinced him going back put you at more risk than dealing with the smoke. At least you should have wrangled a steak dinner at Sunrise Camp out of the deal.

BTW, dehydration might be a greater risk than anything in the water (especially there). I drank freely from Sunrise Creek all along this route and lived to tell about it. That would be my emergency water plan most places.

I wonder what they'd do if there was a fire at some chokepoint on the Mt. Whitney Trail.

In all the years I've hiked, I've never really thought about fires. I figured I could see a fire before I started and simply not hike that day if danger was looming, but never envisoned something like this happening. I just heard on the news that all the hiking trails in Yosemite were closed today, Friday. When I was driving home on 395 today, the smoke from the Yosemite fires extended as far south as Crowley Lake, below Mammoth. The haze extended all the way down to Bishop.

I wonder what any thru hikers on the JMT did? They would have been booted off the trail too in Yosemite.

In addition to the value of always carrying a light (I pack a headlamp on all but very short day hikes, plus a backup small LED light on my keychain that's always available in case of civil emergency), it demonstrates the importance of carrying a detailed map, which can help to plan alternative route strategies if needed.

I found the mention of running out of food for several hours as a problem to be interesting. I usually eat one meal in the morning before hiking, and my second in the evening afterwards, with at most a small snack in between, and then only if the hike is long (over about 16 miles or so). I use this same strategy around town and find it works better for me as far as maintaining a steady weight and energy throughout the day. But everyone's body works differently, I guess.

32 miles is a long day hike and my breakfast had only been a bagel and 4 Oreo co****s. So I did feel weak the last 3-4 hours on the hike because I didn't have food. I did have plenty of those Power Gel packets and Cytomax, but I was missing the usual hiker foods like crackers, raisins and assorted junk foods.

I don't know how you go for long hikes without food, Tom, without feeling weak. I wish I could do that. You don't even eat a box of raisins on a long hike?

Well, 32 miles is a long, long day hike and I think that anyone, including myself, would want an extra meal for that effort. I presume that you were going uphill in the last miles which would have been really tiring. I myself do like a little sugar boost if I have to do some uphill in the latter part of the day.

I tend to eat dinner late most of the time, so that also tends to make more carbohydrate available for me during the middle of the next day.

I also tote my own liquid on the trail to the extent feasible, but rather than water I prefer diet sodas, with an occasional supplement of a sports drink for really difficult trips. Perhaps that curbs my appetite beacuse it feels more filling. Water is OK if nothing else is available, but I find it unsatisfying and I quickly get thirsty again for something better.

And when on a group hike (which is usually an earlier start), I forgo any eating beforehand and start eating and munchie sharing halfway up with lunch on the summit, to be sociable.

For my Whitney day hike this year, I upped my calorie carry from about 2000 to 2400 (no breakfast before hitting the trail), hoping to offset the disadvantages of having done less conditioning and less acclimation this year. And I ate it all and I vow, never again will I pig out on the trail - the effects of digesting that much carbo were worse than anything caused by the altitude.

This is interesting and I've never spent much time thinking about the effects of food when hiking. I'll be doing Whitney again next week and I am going to totally change around my breakfast in the hopes of starting off less sluggishly. In the past I've invariably eaten for breakfast 4 slices of pizza or spaghetti, or something heavy. I'm leaning towards oatmeal and a granola bar. But I get weak when I don't eat every couple of hours when hiking.

So you think eating less and less frequently when hiking speeds you up? What about light snack foods, like cheez-its, Chex mix, etc? Are you against sandwiches because the bread is heavy?

Lately I've enjoyed bringing hummus and crackers for a trail lunch. I also carry sports bars and granola bars, but they're typically sweet and don't stick with me for long. I've found dried, powdered hummus or baba ganoush in the health food section of local grocery stores. I put one serving size in a ziploc. At lunch time I add water and squish it up in the bag then scoop it up with crackers. It dries up like drywall paste, so it's not too messy. I think it has protein as well as carbs. My hiking companions have been mooching it from me, so I'm not the only one who likes it.

I did the MR in around 4:50 on 06/06, having eaten three slices of leftover Pizza Factory pizza for breakfast. (I love that I've figured out how to do this!)

I generally don't like to eat a big meal before I hike/climb, and will generally snack on energy/granola bars while on the move if I'm in a hurry. I usually carry a few more than I think that I'll need.

32 miles in a day is incredible! I'd have been on my hands and knees well before the end of the day.

Richard,
I *was* on my hands and knees at the end! I slept for the next 12 hours and was still dragging the next day. These people who thru hike the Appalachian Trail or JMT and put in 30 miles a day for weeks are incredible. I have renewed respect for all those who can pull that off, day after day.

Two reasons that I avoid eating on the trail are one, I have less problems with gas and bloating if I am able to at least partly digest it before exercising.

The second is that I like to run a calorie deficit on hike days. As many backpackers know, you don’t have to eat enough food to replace all calories expended, if your trip is not long and you have a reasonable cushion of body fat, since you can burn stored fat. (Colin Fletcher has devoted several pages to this in his Walker books and even gives calcs). During my 20s and early 30s I struggled with excess weight, and would have had a difficult time doing a Whitney day hike if I had tried. (I have the endomorphic type body, which tends to gain excess fat if fed all that it wants to eat). I finally slimmed down through an intense exercise period, in which I hiked at least 2 hours a day 4 days a week for 6 months straight, and since then I use most of my hike days for weight maintenance as well as recreation.

FIRE!
Took my kids 13 & 16yrs to Glacier PT Saturday evening to see the sunset, miscalculated by about 10 minutes and saw most of the colors from the road. But from atop GP and a vista point just before, we could see the fires, in a valley just south of Half Dome.

A large group of firefighters was just leaving GP on a break, a sightseeing tour. They looked worn and dirty and the whole lot had a smell about them, but I'm sure they enjoyed the veiw. They were smiling and joking.

At GP there was a forestry service guy talking to a small crowd about the fire, he had helpers and lots of equipment explaning the fire.

In summary, he said they put a lot of planning into this fire, they were burning an area that had not been burned in a very long time (30+ years) and was ripe for a larger uncontrolled fire down the road. Apparently it was in an area that would have connected several other areas. So their theory was to burn this small area and thus prevent a much larger out of control fire. He explained the topography and the models they used, etc to plan a small controlled burn. Yet admittedly their models were wrong, and it grew faster and biger than expected. There were gusts in the valley

More unexpectly was the amount of smoke. How they could underestimate the smoke issues in the Yosemite Vally is amazing to me. In any case, I had to walk away as the questions coming from a couple of ladies became stupider and stupider. Basically she was irrate that her vacation was ruined by the smoke and did everything to blame this one guy. "How come you couldn't plan this another week, why now?' kind of questions.

However he did explain they seemed confidant the valley was not in danger, pulled out his map of all the past fires and showed how difficult it would be for the fire to spread North into Yosemite, but did admit there were contigincy plans to evacuate the Valley. I could see from GP and the map how the fire could be easily blown towards Little Y. Valley. Having done the HD hike last month, it was interesting to show the trail to the kids from GP.

I usually don't feel hungry during strenuous hikes either, but I make an effort to nibble throughout the day. I had read that eating is important to prevent hyponatremia, or "water intoxication" (caused by sweating, drinking large amounts of water, and not eating enough to replace minerals lost through sweat.) I would never eat a large meal on the trail, but I find that snacking also helps sustain my energy level.