Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Father son 1 day, 7-23-08 quick photo summary

Well, two weeks ago it was Langley, and on the 23rd, we did Whitney. Unlike last year, this time, we did in one day.
Second trip up for jack, and third for me.

It was a great trip.

A quick summary...

Fished a little in the stream at the Portal.

[Had a bear come into our camp. (basically just passed through)...but with in 20-30 feet of our tent. Very cool to see, but makes for a bad nights sleep. This happen last year, but not as close.
sorry, best i could do...

Explored "Movie Road" and Alabama Hills/Rocks (just Awesome)




Gassed each other out in the tent.

Sorry, NO PICS

and enjoyed the beauty of Mt. Whitney.



We both concluded that the Whitney trail was the trail from hell, that ended in Paradise.

Got up at 3:10,


and hit the trail by 4 am.

Made the summit at 11:30ish..Jack beat me by 10 minutes but I was taking pics.

[img]http://www.allcoast.com/photos/data/500/109108Whitney%20Hike%2008%203484924-med.jpg[/img]
off the trail by 5:30, had a cheese burger and beer at the Portal Store (well, beers for me).
[img]http://www.allcoast.com/photos/data/500/109108Whitney%20Hike%2008%204014925-med.jpg[/img]
Snapped a quick pic with Doug,(super nice guy) headed back to camp, packed up, and was in the driveway by 11:10 pm...still wired from the hike (well i was, see pic).
[img]http://www.allcoast.com/photos/data/500/109108Whitney%20Hike%2008%204084920-med.jpg[/img]
Met and talked with a bunch of nice people while on the trail.
[img]http://www.allcoast.com/photos/data/500/109108Whitney%20Hike%2008%203734923-med.jpg[/img]
Watched a CHP helicopter take off from Trail side camp/Consultation Lake area...looking for a sick hiker who made a 911 call...I guess they never found them, and headed back.

One negative...lots of trash, toilet paper, and one USED poop bag, wide open on the switchbacks. I picked up a few bar wrappers, but the TP and poop..sorry, germ issues. Plus, all I had was a small camelpack, that was PACKED.
The first time i hiked Whitney (03). I saw no trash. 07, a few pieces..this time, pretty bad.

Anyway, thanks for reading..

[img]http://www.allcoast.com/photos/data/500/109108Whitney%20Hike%2008%204024926-med.jpg[/img]

Rock on, you two! Congrats! I love Jack's summit photo: wish I could jump like that!!

What a great day!

-L

Great pics!!! Thanks
I know it will be a little while but we are waiting for that 3 generation Whitney picture.

(Quick instructions on how to jump.)
Laura bend your legs,weight forward on your toes and push . Not that hard is it?

A nice set of pictures. If must be a wonderful memory the two of you have, sharing a summit of Mt. Whitney together.

I had a question about the picture of the mine shaft. Other pictures show the mine shaft a little more open on the top (like this one)

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1290552378061435028GwmAKK

In your picture it seems to be covered by a rusted old metal plate of some kind on the top. So you would no longer be able to look straight down into the mine shaft. Is that true?

My first trip to the mine shaft it wasn't covered at all.

Great trip, great pics! Brings back good memories of Nathan's and my 2001 trip. We weren't up for a one-day trip, so took our time and spent the night at Trail Camp, summitted the next day and hiked out the third.

Looks like Jack is about the same age as Nathan when we did Whitney (12-13), no? All I can say is keep it up...Nathan is in college now but still is willing to buddy up with me for a trip or two per year, so I guess some of the love of the hills stuck!

It looks to me like the angle of the pic is making it look like there is a metel plate on the top. If you look close, you can see light coming through the top hitting the mine(i think).

2dtrail - I think you are correct. It was always difficult to sit on top of that grating but it was fun dropping rocks down the mine shaft.

Yeah, same as when you took the pics. They put those bars/cage up in 2001 or 2002. I would guess the shaft to be about 70 -90 feet deep, based on the time it took the rocks to hit the bottom.

If I do the math correct, assuming my son has a child about the same time I had him, it would be about 24 years before my grand child would be old enough...putting me at 64 years old. Very doable IMO Lets keep our fingers crossed.


Everyone, thanks for the replies.