Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board The Rest Of The Story...JMT '24

I needed to pick up my pickup, so I headed over Mammoth Pass on the 29th of September...
Covered MP to Red's...
It was smokey, so the photos aren't worth showing...

I headed back to Yosemite on 10.01 for the TM to HI hike...
Here are a few photos:





The burn scars really bothered me...
And, the trail got really crowded as I approached Half Dome...



Flow was low enough that people were walking down to the drop-off...



At the End/Start of the JMT.


On the way home, I dropped off the motorcycle at Mammoth with the intention of finishing off the North Lake/Piute Canyon To Mammoth Pass Section that remained...it sat there for about 10 days before I decided I'd better go pick it up...(I really did like Piute Canyon...) My guesstimate is that I came up about 40 miles shy of the Full JMT...

Interntion, going forward, is to do more long-range hiking (instead of cycling) over the Winter to see if I can get to the point where 15+ miles isn't so painful (seriously hated how I felt at the end of a bunch of these days...)
One thing that did work for me was going up a size of the Hoka's...was worried about blistering with a bigger "boot," but it didn't happen...
(I experimented with a "real boot," but that didn't help and the weight was definitely a negative...)
The GoLite worked for 3- sections, but the heavier Gregory, with more weight, was needed on the longer ones...

Richard,

Thanks for sharing. You certainly covered many miles at the end of the Season.

Tack on the remaining miles of the JMT early next Summer.

Good luck on your training this Winter.

Jim

Good season Richard, and from miles to Portal burgers, you accomplish new milestones. Have you totalled the number of burgers eaten this past season?

On a side note, it's nice to see you in a grey beard. Welcome to the group, the old geezer’s group that is.

For me, I ended with 213 miles of day hiking this year. I miss the backcountry, maybe next year.

Paul

Jim, I'm still trying to find the motivation to do the JMT in a single 15 day push...thanks.

Paul, Thanks for all the burgers...I don't know the count but a guess would be 5...plus the Red's burger that really hit the spot too...


I did my usual TP/CP loop yesterday. Inyo Fire was up just past the gate...I had seen smoke while approaching Lubken...they were still there when I rode down in the evening, but all signs of fire were gone...The upper gate at Lavender (sp?) was open and there was a front loader just up from the gate...

There is absolutely no snow yet...2 vehicles when I arrived and none when I headed home...

Here are a few photos showing the conditions:


The slow moving streams were frozen.



Trail Pass.



Cottonwood Pass.



CP Trail stream crossing.

I was up there two weeks ago, I hiked with the grand kids, ages 5 and 7. We did Trail Pass to Mulkey and made it into a loop. The youngsters beat me to Trail Pass...no excuses. They're in better shape than I.

The day after the kids left, I did Cottonwood Pass to Chicken Springs and then South on the PCT to Trail Pass. I saw no one, and the parking lot only had 3 cars in it, including mine. Pretty lonely hiking.

What was interesting is that prior to this hike I was up there for 3 days of hiking two weeks earlier. No trees down. But apparently between the two hikes there was a major windstorm. One tree on the trail approaching Trail Pass. The tree was lengthwise, not perpendicular to the trail. The tree occupies some 5o or more feet on the trail.

The second tree was on the PCT, a rather large, 4-foot diameter monster perpendicular to the trail. Some good trail work come Spring,

Hey, Richard, good to hear that the road is still open. And for Inyo Road conditions, it would be nice if they gave updates, at least when the anticipated Portal Road might be completed.

Oh well....keep us informed.

I assume the store is closed since the water must be turned off. I spoke with Emily (camp host) prior to Halloween and they were closing down the week before.

Finally, I noticed tha the lower campground, Lone Pine Campground had trailers and such parked there when I dove by. Finally opened.

Richard, do you have any upcoming hikes?

Paul

I was up at the Portal today...hiked up to Trail Camp...more in the '24 Thread later...
It was packed...even lots of vehicles down in the Overflow...
Campgrouds are closed...
WPS is boarded up...

The rest of the year (conditions depending) is going to be focused on Whitney...I'll be back up on Tuesday if the storm rolling thru on Monday is a weak as I'm hearing it will be...

If I go back up to HM, I may bring a chainsaw...hate to think about having to climb over those trees until next summer...