July 30

Rock Creek to Guitar Lake – 9.9 Miles

With 14,505’ Mount Whitney the first big objective, acclimation was still primary in my mind, so I limited this day to getting to the base of Mount Whitney at Guitar Lake, above the timberline at 11,480’. By camping here, I was hoping to acclimate more and to be positioned for an early morning climb the next day. After climbing to Guyot Pass and descending the north side, after just a few miles I was looking down at Crabtree Meadows, and further distant, Mt Whitney and the surrounding mountains.

Knowing the Mt Whitney leg would be an “out and back”, I opted to take another trail through the meadow and up along Crabtree Creek which the trail crossed several times before it rejoined the JMT above the meadow. From here the trail passes aptly named Timberline Lake as it climbs to Guitar Lake where I set up camp in the early afternoon. Shortly after setting up camp, the weather turned from sun to storm, and a thunderstorm boomed over the area for a couple of hours. I rested in my tent sheltered from the storm while hearing other hikers scrambling to set up tents. After the storm relented, I emerged from my tent to discover several new neighbors, all shaken a bit by the storm. I was already immersed in the High Sierra.