Getting Ready for the Sierras and Mt Whitney

                            Mt. Whitney (or close by, anyway!)    photo by Debbie Murray  March 2013

May 21- Story by Doug
Today is day 2 of my zeros at Kennedy Meadows. I will be leaving for the Sierras May 22^nd. It should take about 10-12 days to reach Vermillion Valley Resort. I will be going up Mt. Whitney from the west side since I will not need a permit. That would be about day 5. I chose to take another zero here because there is a big crowd leaving the same day as me, so when I go over the first big pass (Forester Pass 13,153 feet), I’ll be able to find someone to do it with, whereas I might have been all by myself before and had to do it alone. The word about Forester Pass is that there is a 6 foot, or so, ice wall that somehow we will have to get over, and since I don’t have any sort of high mountain gear, I really need to be with people that have good advice for how to attack it. I’m not doing it alone!!! Also, the day and night of the Whitney Summit is going to be a full moon, so that should be pretty fun since there will be about 5-10 or so people around that day. I am very excited about this next section and plan on taking the big pass, and the three other 12000 foot passes, as slow and safely as I need to. Also, after I do the first big pass, which is Forester, I can get on a side trail for a 7 mile hike then hitch to a Chevron and Subway where I can add a day or 3 of food if I am really running low. I don’t plan on doing that though; it’s just a safe backup. Also, by waiting a day, it lines up for that to be Memorial Day, so the hitch should be very easy. I feel very confident about this section and it should be great!
As for Kennedy Meadows, this place is great and taking an extra zero was an easy decision. I have been eating a lot of good food, drinking good beer, and hanging around a bunch of wonderful people. There is a general store that has a burger shack and is a fun hangout place. Also, there is a trail angel here, Tom, who is amazing. When the general store doesn’t have something going on, Tom makes sure us hikers are happy. Pancakes, tacos, food, beer, trailers with beds, and internet. It’s not his first rodeo in knowing how to make a hiker happy. Most of the talk has been about hiking and it seems like someone is laughing or making a joke every moment. People are constantly organizing or just staring at their food/packs in prep for the next section. There’s no wifi so this is coming from his computer, so no picture and my other journals are still unsent in my Ipod. I’ll see if I can rattle off all the people who’ve been here today and yesterday: Spitfire, Yeti, Wight, Early Bird, Whitney Houston, Crumbs, Dora, Midget, Horse, Andrew, Beanioa (maybe), Wally, Detour, Jersey, DOAF, Opa, Patches, and probably a few more I’m forgetting.
I'm leaving up for Whitney at midnight of the full moon. Then I get to watch the sunrise up there!!!

More updates when I get to VVR (after I eat, of course!!!).

http://www.maturango.org/janetmuseumpages/kennedymeadows/Kennedy_Meadows.html

http://www.edisonlake.com/ VVR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forester_Pass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70LhwSdzXME
http://hikethepct-km.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Whitney
http://www.whitneyzone.com/wc_notes.htm web cam