JMT day 15 – The last miles before Whitney

August 18 – Tyndall Creek to Whitney base on Guitar Lake

Crossing the Bighorn Plateau

It was a beautiful but short walk from Tyndall Creek to the base of Mount Whitney. We crossed the Bighorn Plateau, which was up to its name. It was flat, open and expansive, with panoramic views in all directions.

Most of the land of the day rolled with small ups and downs. We were essentially moving from the bottom of the Forestry pass to the Whitney base without great climbs in the middle. We are glad not having to address another pass.

The land was dry and like the desert, a marked contrast with the forest and the Yosemite lakes, where our walk began. We only saw a few thicket brush patches and pine pine scattered from slut tail that are found exclusively in California.

During most of the day, we walk separately: Catie on the front, Kim in the middle and I draw the back. Each of us savoring these final miles in the JMT in our own way.

A casual encounter with a ranger

On the way to Guitar Lake, we met a ranger between the ranger stations. When we asked him about the man we had found fighting to breathe the day before, he confirmed that the helicopter we had heard was sent to evacuate it. He did not share any other detail; We were glad to know that it did well.

The beauty of the guitar lake

When we approached Guitar Lake, the path became more busy. The camps were full of people who planned to meet Mount Whitney. There were other JMT through excursions, some PCT hikers who had diverted to accumulate the iconic peak and section hikers on a short trip only to climb Whitney. I chatted with hikers from places as far away as France and England.

The highlight of the day was Guitar Lake. It looked exactly like the photos I had seen: a crystalline and guitar -shaped lake surrounded by a lunar landscape. We were deeply in the rocky and sterile field of Kings Canyon with Mount Whitney dominating the horizon.

A quiet camp

We decided to walk just passing the guitar lake and found a small camp outside the hustle and bustle of the lake. We had the site for ourselves and quickly discovered why. He was just along the main path to Whitney, so we had a constant flow of people who descended from the summit at night and others who began their climbing in the early hours of the morning.

We also had some curious visitors in our camp. A couple of marmotes wandered, Hello, they seem to want to attack our food when we were not looking. They were delayed around us but they moved away as soon as we noticed them. We had been seeing marmotas from the beginning of our walk, so it was appropriate to find them again at the end.

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