October 4

~13 miles

We awoke to snow on our tents, but thankfully the storm had passed and the sky was blue. We lingered awhile in camp to dry our gear, and took in the beautiful meadow which we had given far less attention to the evening before. We were blessed by a beautiful fall day in the high Sierra, a welcome reward for the previous day’s trials. And as it was Brian’s second day in the Sierra, it was terrific to show him the tremendous beauty instead of the near-whiteout obscured scenery like the day before! We dropped further in elevation to the PCT and crossed Rock Creek where I had made my first night camp while doing the JMT from Horseshoe Meadow the summer before. Once on the PCT we headed north and climbed to Guyot Pass at just under 11,000, after which we enjoyed views of the spectacular Kaweah range to the west as we headed to Crabtree Meadows. After a nice lunch break at the meadow where we sat in view of Mt Whitney, we then pushed on past picturesque Timberline Lake to camp alongside Guitar Lake at the base of Mt Whitney.