Thursday 9/16 12:27 AM DAY 25 11.2 miles 📍 Outpost Camp
Journal entry: Mount Whitney was the shit! Not a bad climb from Guitar Lake and I didn’t have to summit solo! We spent like 2-3 hours at the top, just talking, taking a few photos. I face-timed my fam when got to the top. Started the 99 switchbacks around 5 PM, smokey sunset, and had camped at Outpost Camp. Night hiked a bit to get here, but here and tired. Tomorrow we hitch to LP > Mammoth to get my car + REAL food 😊 Thank you JMT. Thank you.
Still Thursday 9/16 1:22 PM DAY 25 3.81 miles 📍 Whitney Portal
Journal entry #2: JMT DONE! Safely made it down to Whitney Portal, now currently waiting to hitch a ride from whoever will take us down to Lone Pine. Two girls headed to Vegas didn’t give us a ride and missed one from the driver starting JMT from Happy Isles and leaving friends car at the portal. Today felt a little rushed to get off the trail, and it’s bittersweet to be done.
Story: Wasn’t originally planning to camp after Whitney, but we were on the summit for longer than planned and didn’t start making our way down until close to 5 PM that afternoon. It wasn’t until we started the climb down from Mount Whitney, and until we reached Trail Crest that I realized my foot had been really bothering me. Blisters. Of all days; and thankfully after Mount Whitney summit, I developed blisters. Not only did I have blisters, but these blisters formed directly on the bottom of my foot.
When we reached Trail Camp I took off my shoe to see how bad it was. To my surprise, no blisters at all. Instead of blisters, it looks like I developed major hot spots or “rug burn” on the bottom of my foot. It was really red, raw, and difficult to walk. I put my sock and shoe back on, and we continued down to Outpost Camp. We lost all sunlight before reaching Outpost Camp and ended up pulling out our headlamps to look for a campsite.
The next morning, my last official day and less than 5 miles left to the ending of my JMT journey. It was bittersweet. As much as I wanted to soak in the last hours on the trail, I’m pretty sure Firefox was ready for some real food. Unsure exactly how long it would take for us to catch a hitch to Lone Pine, we packed up camp early and started the hike down to Whitney Portal.
In less than an hour, we made it down to the portal. My JMT journey was over. Now we wait for a hitch into town to start the adventure back to my car in Mammoth. After a solid hour and a half, Firefox made friends with the owner of Whitney Portal Store, and he ended up giving us a ride into town. It would be the first time I ever rid inside the back of a Sprinter or Transit van, but it was a definitely a fun ride down.
