As we discussed our previous adventure on Mount Whitney, we grew the size of our group of people who decided to join us. The original group of 5 had discussed bringing family members on a big trip. I started planning and decided to include my family, if they would join me. Because of the hiking, camping and skiing I had been doing in the western mountains on my layovers and on a few trips we put together for time between trips. When I would be at these beautiful places, I felt that I would love to have Doreen, Caitlin and Mike be there with me. Naturally, I expected that they would love to join me. Furthermore, there was a small group of former Florida Express people who had been hired by UPS and moved to Louisville. We got together several times a year, but especially at Thanksgiving, when we all went to the home of our pal, Bobby Z and his wife, Marylynne.
From these gatherings and the stories we told at them, our potential group for 2002 grew to 15 people. Russ and wife, Susie, Jon, Lloyd's son and daughter, Snake's wife, Laurie, my friend, Darin, Bob's daughter and all my family were among the newbies.
Lloyd and I had revisited Mount San Gorgonio once again, with a better planned and executed hike and brought his daughter along. I don't remember much about that, except that I was in much better shape, could actually keep up with Lloyd and his daughter was a very fast hiker. She left us miles behind, as we once again did the South Fork Trail. We all made it up and back during the hours of daylight. I don't remember much except seeing Lloyd's daughter so far ahead of us when the trail allowed.
My family and I flew into Reno and drove south on Highway 395. I wanted to see the Eastern Sierras on that section. It was beautiful. My kids were complaining from the time we woke them up to go to the airport and essentially, never stopped for the entire trip. Teenagers. So much for feeling guilty about having all that hiking fun without them.
I decided to get to Lone Pine a couple days early, so that we could do some hikes to adjust to the high elevations. The first one was from Whitney Portal to Lone Pine Lake and back. As you may remember, that is a climb from 8,300 ft. to 10,000 ft. The next day, we drove to Horseshoe Meadow, which was at 10,000 ft. and hiked on the level for a few hours. After that, it was dinner and then to bed to get as much rest before our very early morning start on the hike to the summit.
I woke up too early and could not get back to sleep, because I kept worrying about the size of the group and hoping no one got sick or hurt.
When we arrived in Lone Pine, there was smoke from fires to our southwest, on the other side of the ridge. As we began our summit attempt in the dark, we could not smell smoke, probably because of a fortuitous shift in wind direction.
I had advised everyone to either invest in a water filter or stay close to someone who had one. Water is available on most of the trail until Trail Camp, which is at 12,000 ft. and 6.3 miles from the trailhead. From there, you have to carry enough water to go another 4.7 miles to the summit and back 4.7 to Trail Camp. One of the new hikers asked me how much water was necessary to carry for the entire hike. I advised that this was not a good plan, because water weighs about 8 lb. per gallon. Furthermore, it is impossible to estimate how much water a person would need, if you have never hiked with them and they did not know themselves. The water needed is a function of time spent hiking. I know that I tray to carry 3 quarts from Trail Camp to get up and back, but a faster hiker could carry less. I usually refilled my bottle at Outpost Camp and Trail Camp on the way up.
I don't remember what I told this guy and thought it was academic anyway. I had assumed he was smart enough not to try to carry the entire load for the entire hike, but I was wrong. Wow. There are some really inexpensive water filters out there. You could also treat your water with iodine.
Once again, I was lagging far behind. On the Switchbacks, I told Doreen to press on and make it to the summit, I probably would not make it. The poor night's sleep was making me feel fatigued.
I made it to Trail Crest and down to the junction with the John Muir Trail, about 2 miles from the summit. This is where I began to see some of the other hikers on their way down. I decided to turn back, instead of making everyone wait for me at Whitney Portal after the hike. Jon and my son, Mike, were cussing me out for talking them into doing this hike and both said they would never do anything like this again. Later, at a lower elevation, with the thicker air making him feel better, Jon came by and apologized and said he would do another trip with us sometime. Although teenage son Mike never did that, he is now following in my footsteps and hiking many of the mountains of Southern California that I hiked during my years at UPS. He finally gets it.
I started down with some of the others as Doreen was probably on the summit or just starting down. Everyone in the group had made it, except for me. I considered this a success. As I got into thicker air, it occurred to me that I should probably wait for Doreen. Some of the others told me they saw her getting close to the top as they were descending. I found a tree to lean up against and waited. I'm not sure how long I waited, but eventually, there she was and Bob was with her. He had waited for her farther up the trail.
The next morning, water boy told me I had advised him to bring too much water. He actually did try to carry all the water, it was getting heavy and he was giving it away to other people. What he neglected to tell me, was that he had begun to feel nauseated, with a headache before reaching the summit and despite my explaining that these were early symptoms of altitude sickness, could be caused by dehydration and my clear instructions to turn back if that occurred, he pressed on. That is the kind of stuff that I was worried about when I woke up in the middle of the night. Some people just can't follow instructions.
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