Trail Sherpa

I was asked by Tim at Trail Sherpa if I wanted to be interviewed as a part of his #hike2020 series about my recent hike to Mount Whitney, as well hiking in San Diego in general. The interview was conducted using hash tags in Twitter, which ended up being pretty interesting and encouraged audience participation. Tim is a great interviewer and I thought he asked some great questions. I was his second interview in the series, with Pamela Wilton, of the 8 Thousand Kilometer Challenge being the first.

Read the interview at Trail Sherpa if you get a chance.

It’s been over a week since I’ve been back from the Sierras as I am writing this. I’d hate to wax poetical, but the landscapes that the PD and I hiked and scrambled through have permeated my thoughts, resonating within me each time I close my eyes.

Days of Hiking: 3
Total Miles: 33.42
Total Elevation Gain: 7,473 ’

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Mount Whitney from the Lone Pine Visitor Center

The PD and I left San Diego Thursday at 4AM. Due to getting some work done and preparing for the trip, I was able to get to bed at 3AM. So, on one hour’s sleep, we avoided most of the traffic through Riverside and San Bernardino and were speeding over the rolling landscape of the 395 by the time the sun rose.

At almost exactly 8AM, we arrived at the southern end of Lone Pine. We stopped by the visitor center to pick up our permits and ask some questions about snow in the passes. The extremely helpful people at the center let us know that people had gone through all the passes on our route (New Army Pass, Crabtree Pass (we would question this one later), and the route up to Mount Whitney Summit Trail), and that all was clear. There would be no need for any special gear.

We had rented a bear canister at REI here in San Diego, so we didn’t need to rent one at the Visitor Center. It was slightly more expensive this way, but it was nice to be able to make sure all the food we needed was going to fit within the confines of the canister.