Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Campsites between Chick sprgs lk and rock creek

I am leading a group of Scouts in August from Cottonwood to Whitney and back. We plan to camp at Horseshoe Meadow Saturday night and Sunday begin our trek with the plan to camp at Chicken Spring Lake or beyond. We want day one to be short due to altitude and the heaviest packs of the trek. We are also concerned of camping at CSL due to the altitude of 11,200 feet when Rock Creek is 9600. We are thinking that we might just want to take a long break at CSL with the idea of cooking an early dinner then putting in 3-4 miles in the late afternoon/early evening (depending on weather) so as to get more miles under our feet and sleep at a lower altitude. We would be tanking up on water but given that we wouldn't have to cook that evening that wouldn't be such an issue. We don't want to kill the Scouts so we will not be going all the way to Rock Creek. What does the collective on this board suggest in terms of places to camp 2-4 miles north of Chicken Spring Lake?

Thanks for your assistance.

By the way we have a permit for 8 days but we hope to make it to Guitar Lake in three days, climb Whitney on Day four and then hike out the 22.4 miles over 2 or 2 1/2 days. The eight day permit is to allow for any needed layover days or weather.

There is only one location with water. About ~3 miles past CSL, the trail goes around a cirque under Cirque Peak. At that point on the map, the trail is heading due west, before it cuts north again.

On the map, just before you get there, it shows a small lakelet to the right of the trail (I've never been able to find the lake, BTW), however, to the left, there is a brook, with considerable flat spots for camping, and plentiful clean water.

Last time I was there, at the place to leave the trail, there was a cut off log that had "water" and an arrow pointing left carved into it.

This spot is not hard to find, but you have to know it is there.

One of my "special spots", treat it well......

There is a decent campsite at the junction of the Cottonwood Pass Trail and the trail coming down from New Army Pass. But at that point, you might as well go to Rock Creek, or to a really nice spot just below Soldier Lake. When I took a scout troop on that route in 2007, we had no problem getting to that spot just below Soldier Lake on the first day, and we live at 300' so the elevation was new to the scouts, too. Just take them on some warmup hikes at elevation to see how they do.

When in August are you going? Is this for the 100th anniversary of BSA? I will be taking a scout troop from Onion Valley to Portal during the first week of August.

Ken - Do you mean this spot?

Thanks, Our permit is from the 8th to the 13th. Half of us went to Philmont last year.

There are two good spots at Rock Creek for a large group. Coming from CSL there is one just before you cross the creek on the right and one just past the creek on your left. At Soldier Lake there is one good spot on a pennisular to the right of the trail. But this is a popular spot. Have a great time.

I led our scout troop on a 50-miler that way in early August one year. I just want to give warning that we found NO water between Chicken Spring Lake and the area in the trees just before leading to the Rock Creek area. The area mentioned in a previous post was completely dry. We ended up going all the way to Soldier Lake to camp. So fill up those water bottles at Chicken Spring Lake as this can be a long stretch with no water.

lambertiana, can't be sure anymore, but it sure looks likely.

This being a high snow year, I'd expect the water to be running later than usual. I believe my last trip was in August of a normal snow year.

thanks this is quite helpful. Since we won't be cooking an evening meal at this camp, we plan on carrying the normal amount of water one would need from Chicken Spring Lake to Rock Creek. A three mile hike to this spot after an early dinner at the lake sounds very doable and it gets us to a lower elevation to sleep on the first night

That spot is the same elevation as Chicken Spring Lake. To go lower you have to go further. On our trip we went to a spot a little below Soldier Lake (turn left at the junction to Soldier Lake and go down the trail a few hundred yards) at about 10,800'. And a little further down you can camp at a really nice spot at about 10,400', it has great tent sites and a fantastic view:


But if you are really intent on getting much lower, you are better off staying on the direct route to Rock Creek instead of cutting over toward Soldier Lake, it is a little shorter that way. We slept at Horseshoe Meadow the night before we started, and we did not have any problems with elevation the first day. Only one scout had any problems during the whole trip - he got mild AMS on summit day and lost his breakfast just as we were taking pictures on the summit.