Day 65- June 23rd

Wow today was another super long day! We woke up at our beautiful campsite on the ridge and cooked up some oatmeal with wild blueberries and dried strawberries and cherries, (Thanks Dona!) I started with just that in case my stomach had anything to say, but no complaints!

Of course we started the day off with a climb. I swear one of these days we're going to camp at the top of a mountain just so we can start with a descent for once! My stomach felt waaaaaay better, but my energy level was still really low. We took frequent tiny breaks and climbed waaaay up high!

The scenery turned real awesome real fast. There were high meadows and ridges and snow capped peaks in the distance. 

Just before 1:00pm, we had climbed up to Chicken Spring Lake, a high alpine lake that sits almost at the top of a 12,000 ft. mountain. It was a perfect spot for lunch as the sun was nice and hot.

Taking a dip at 11,250 feet

We must've stayed there for over an hour at least. I had to warm up and regain feeling in my extremities after swimming. That water is the coldest water I've ever jumped in hands down, brrrrr!

We climbed up to 11,400 feet and when we turned the corner we were blown away. We had a perfect view of most of the peaks we would be climbing just off in the distance. I'm not sure which ones are which but there's a lot of them! 

We then started a looooong descent down a sometimes awfully rocky trail. The deep sand from the boulders and loose rocks were a recipe for disaster, and the many big step-downs were jarring on the knees, but we made it down with no falls!

There were definitely some beautiful sights along the way, so we couldn't be toooo upset with the not-so-ideal trail conditions.

Eventually we came down into a beautiful meadow area at 9,600 feet with a nice river right next to a large camping area. We decided to call it a day here. There were 5 deer nearby just picking through the lush grass for some dinner.

We learned our lesson with mosquitos near water sources, so we preemptively got into our anti-mosquito gear. Claire says I look like a beekeeper! 

Luckily there weren't too many of them. I think I only had one land on me on my hand but I got the bugger before he bit. Claire got one right in between her eyes :(

We cooked some yummy food up; garlic herb mashed potatoes and Mexican style rice. I had been slowly eating more and more all day, and my appetite was coming back in full force! 

Soon into our meal we met Oscar from Germany who started today from Cottonwood Pass, just before Chicken Spring Lake. Oscar is hiking the trail up until Yosemite. He just finished high school in Germany and is really into backpacking. He even made his own backpack and some of his other gear!

We went 17.62 miles today, climbed about 2,300 feet and then went down 2,200. I was actually surprised at how far we got, seeing that we took our time on the climb AND took a really long break at Chicken Spring Lake.

Tomorrow we'll purposefully only hike 7.5 miles and end up and the Crabtree Ranger Station, only 7.5 miles below the summit of Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the 48 contiguous United States. 

The next morning we'll leave at about 4 for the summit. Yes, 4am!! We'll climb up and back down as a day hike, leaving our tent and most items back at the Ranger Station. Suuuuuuper stoked to get some nice rest tomorrow and then summit Whitney!!

-Thanks for reading!