John Muir Trail Day 3: The Ultimate JMT NOBO Debate- Should We Summit Mount Whitney?

Holy shit. We were eating breakfast at Rock Creek Campground when the food I’d just swallowed seemed to want to come right back up. What was I thinking? Something must have possessed my brain. My brain must be actual jello because I thought I just heard myself say OKAY (…okay?!) to summiting Mount Whitney. 

(Want to see the people, places and all-around mayhem mentioned in this post? Here’s the Instagram Reel I might regret posting…)

The Biggest Debate Every Northbound JMT Hiker Will Have

I came back into my body after dissociating for a half second to see my husband, Cliff, peering at me, waiting for an answer. We had been talking about the possibility of actually adding Mount Whitney back into our itinerary after initially deciding not to go for the summit. 

But why would we skip it? As one of the most coveted permits to obtain, I get being scandalized at the thought of skipping a chance to experience Mount Whitney, I really do. 

Our rationalization was this: We were three days into our northbound 250-mile thru-hike and, a handful of days before, had come from damn near sea level elevations where we lived. We had trained hard but nothing could make up for the fact that we didn’t train at Mount Whitney elevation levels. How tall was Mount Whitney? Oh, yes, here it is: 14,494 ft. …and once we were done with that monumental achievement, we would still need to finish the rest of our thru-hike to ultimately reach Yosemite Valley.

Saying YES to Mount Whitney and Meaning It

My brain wanted to be shocked into sputtering countless reasons (You’re slow. You have Hobbit-short legs that refuse to move much faster than the slowest of Zone 2 paces. You aren’t ready. You aren’t qualified. You won’t succeed) as to why this was a horrible idea concluding with AND ANOTHER THING? NOOOOO

And so I said yes to Mount Whitney.

Changing Plans and Moving with a Purpose

My husband and I excitedly came up with a new plan to hike to Guitar Lake, which would optimally set us up for our Mount Whitney summit attempt hike the next morning. The next morning?! Tomorrow. But first we had to get there. 

 

We broke down camp, shoving everything into our packs just a bit faster and more organized than the morning before. Hefting my backpack with a grunt, we crossed Rock Creek by way of a downed tree with gymnastic-level balance-beam skills, while silently thanking my parents for enrolling me in tumbling classes when I was a kid. Who knew they would come in handy many years later to save me from nose diving into the fast running river? 

Meeting Our First Fellow JMT Hikers

Once across, we leaned into the immediate incline that would take us up the 2.6 mile ascent to Guyot Pass. As the trail wound through a sparse, dry forest, we slowly gained 1,350-ish feet in elevation, while leapfrogging back and forth with our first group of fellow northbound JMT hikers. 

The three older men told us, in passing, that they were crossing off this particular thru-hike from their bucket lists. Strong hikers, each one, they were generous with stories of past adventures. They also asked if we would be summiting Mount Whitney and where we would be stopping to camp.

Dealing with Bad Trail Information

These conversations introduced us to our first foray of questionable information being passed from hiker to hiker making it so doubt-worthy that exactly no one should form a solid plan around it. The three fellow hikers had heard that the campground at Guitar Lake was miniscule, filled up fast and hikers everywhere would be racing to nab the last of the campsites. “We’ll be lucky if we can even find a campsite by the time we all get there this evening,” one mentioned. “If we can’t camp at Guitar Lake, our hike from Crabtree Meadows to the summit will be 9.6 miles one way.”

My husband and I stashed this bit of info away, bid them goodbye and hurriedly hiked on. Once out of earshot, I turned towards my husband and told him, in no uncertain terms, that we needed to get to Guitar Lake ASAP. He nodded and also mentioned that we were going to have to come up with some kind of a homemade WAG Bag because we had not brought any with us, seeing as we had previously decided not to summit Mount Whitney. I had an assortment of zip-style plastic bags in my pack and had no worries that we would figure that problem out…but the campsite issue? We couldn’t conjure up a campsite, no matter how resourceful we fancied ourselves to be.

We arrived at the top of Guyot Pass, sitting at 10,900 feet, and paused only long enough to celebrate the accomplishment, (Because, hello?! We’re doing this damn thing!) dig out snacks and refill our water bottles before hastily pushing on. 

Crabtree Meadows, Free WAG Bags and the Truth About Guitar Lake

Mid-afternoon found us taking the turn off of the trail and into Crabtree Meadows. We sat on a downed tree and discussed next steps. At the top of the list: track down the ranger and ask her many questions. We scarfed some snacks down and looked up to see the ranger hiking by. I looked back at my husband and we quickly decided he would stay with our food spread out in a makeshift picnic and I would talk to the Ranger.

I caught up to the Ranger as she neared the cabin-style ranger station and asked her if she had any info on campsite availability at Guitar Lake. She gave me a puzzled look and kindly said, “It’s a big area, you’ll have no problems finding a place to camp. Do you have enough food if Whitney wasn’t in your original plans? Do you have WAG Bags?” I answered that we were already hauling too much food and would not be lacking by any means. As for WAG Bags, I told her sheepishly that we did not have any but would make sure to put together enough zip-style baggies to make it work. She cringed and said, “You’ll be carrying your homemade WAG Bag a long way until you can throw it away. I have extras I can give to you. Just return them if you don’t wind up using them.” I thanked her profusely and rushed back to my husband, two WAG Bags in tow.

I thumped down on the dead tree picnic bench and smiled with relief as I told Cliff the good news of Guitar Lake, while wielding the WAG Bags in my tight fist like the prized possessions they were. We packed up, feeling excited about our plans coming together. 

Our First Steps on the John Muir Trail

We hiked out of Crabtree Meadows, and a short while later, experienced the monumental moment we’ve been waiting for since our first steps on this thru-hike: We were finally on the official John Muir Trail.

Due to our specific JMT permit, in which we started at the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead, we’d been hiking northbound for an extra 21.7 miles before ever hitting the actual legendary trail. My husband and I high fived it up and celebrated the moment with giant, grit-filled smiles (the Sierra Nevadas, am I right?!) and hiked on towards Guitar Lake.

THIS Is Why I’m Hiking the JMT 

As with every step we had taken so far on the trail, the views became exponentially more beautiful when the trail dropped down into the Guitar Lake area. Hiking along, my brain screamed THIS is why I am here. The only way to see such beauty is on two feet and here we are. I couldn’t stop smiling.

Once we had eyes on the area, I realized why the bad info we had received and, in turn, expressed to the ranger at Crabtree Meadows turned out to be so ridiculous. There were so many places to pitch a tent…and the more we looked at the rocky landscape, the more empty campsites we saw. As we followed the path along the shoreline of the lake, we found a level spot for our two-person tent and quickly set it up, impatient to drop all our gear and explore the beauty all around us.

Will Wildfire Smoke Ruin Our Mount Whitney Chances?

Early evening approached by the time we ventured around the rocks that had obscured our campsite views to the south, gifting us with sights that made our breath catch. The view stunned us for its beauty and also inspired apprehension because now we had a problem on our hands: thick wildfire smoke from the front country of Sequoia National Park had made its way north and was threatening to become a problem for every hiker that would be working hard to get to the top of Mount Whitney the very next morning.

Up to this point, we had the luxury of getting to decide whether or not to summit Mount Whitney and we had definitively decided to do so. Now, would the decision be taken away from us? 

As I stared with dread towards the south and the smoke blotting out everything in its path, I realized just how badly I wanted the experience of summiting Mount Whitney. 

I turned to walk back towards our tent, looked up towards Mount Whitney and silently thought, No matter how hard it might be, please give me this opportunity, I think I need this.

But would the Grand Old Gal of the lower 48 grant us a smoke-free passage?  I guess we would find out in the morning…

Stats for us hiker nerds

Day 3- August 19, 2024

Rock Creek Campgrounds to Guitar Lake

Mountain Pass/Summit: Guyot Pass

Elevation: 10,900’

Mileage: 8.5

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