October 2

~10 miles, 4,500’ gain

After a large breakfast at the nearby Alabama Hills Cafe, we put on the packs and walked across Lone Pine and then up Whitney Portal Road a ways until we headed up a trail along the road into the Alabama Hills, film location for 100’s of western movies. After about 6 miles we reached the outflow of Tuttle Creek, and we headed upward from high desert into pine forest as we climbed into Tuttle Creek Canyon, eventually reaching an old stone ashram. As we climbed we could see the gathering storm hitting the Inyo’s and the Sierra. We stayed relatively dry, but the storm was projected to hit the following day. The ashram was perched on a steep mountainside, and we made camp inside. As the roof wasn’t fully intact, some of our team set up tents, while a couple of us, like myself, cowboy camped under more complete roof. We ended the day with a large fire in the ashram’s fireplace.