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  1. #1
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    Horseshoe Meadow to Mt Whitney and back. You can do it in a hammock

    A few months back I started planning a trip in the high Sierras and tried to find information about if it can be done with a hammock. Not as much information about that on this forum as I would have expected. For those of you who want to know, it can be done. I went with my 19 year old twins. My daughter in a WBRR, my son in a 11 foot Dutchware wide, and I was in a 12 foot SLD wide. Trip from August 28 to Sept 2. Was supposed to go until Sept 4 and exit at Onion Valley, but we got sick and had to make some changes.

    Horseshoe Meadow is at about 10,000 feet. It is a car camping site and the trail head for Cottonwood Pass and Cottonwood Lakes. Plenty of trees. I slept there the first night before starting the hike. See photo. Hi about 70, low 36.

    Day 1: Headed up Cottonwood pass, about 11,000 feet. Started north on PCT. Stopped by Chicken Spring Lake to eat and get water. 11,200 feet. Adequate trees for hanging. Then continued up the PCT and took a right at the Siberian pass junction. One and a half miles north up the trail is Soldier Lakes. About 11,000 feet. Had all 3 hammocks up but my son kept getting worse headaches and nausea. He clearly had altitude sickness. I did not want to risk his worsening at night, so we quickly packed up and headed down the Rock Creek trail. About 1 mile down trail, we reached the next campsite at 10,500 feet. Great site with bear box and small lake. He felt much better so we set up the hammocks again. See photos. Plenty of trees. Total hiked, about 11 miles. You would be able to hang pretty much anywhere along this section. No need to go the established sites.

    Day 2: Continued down the Rock Creek Trail until it rejoined the PCT. There is a beautiful campsite along the creek at about 9,500 feet. Would be great place to hang. We then headed over Guyot pass at 10,900 feet and descended down to Crabtree meadow and continued up to Crabtree at 10,600 feet. Plenty of good sites to hang in the established campsites and along the way. About 11 miles today. Hi upper 60s, low 35. Tomorrow is the Whitney ascent. Most people go to Guitar Lake. I know you cannot hang there and decided to stay at an established camp with a bear box since we would be day hiking the next day and did not have all our food down to 1 bear can yet. We had 2 bear cans but my daughter was exiting at Whitney portal with one of them and would be spending the night at Outpost Camp (10,500 feet with plenty of trees), so she needed one of them.

    Day 3: Mt Whitney summit day. On the way up, just before Guitar Lake is Timberline Lake. They have a sign right next to the lake at an obvious spot to pitch tents that says no camping or stock grazing but just above the lake are lots of trees that have the right spacing (see photo). It is at about 11,200 feet and if I were to do it again and had adequate bear can space, I would stay there. It is only 3/4 mile below Guitar Lake and is beautiful. As we were summiting Whitney, my son was having more trouble than the last time we summited 2 years ago. At first I just figured he was not in as good hiking shape and we had put on miles getting here in just a few days. We made it to the top about an hour later than expected. At the top we smiled, celebrated, took pictures, etc. Then descended back to the junction. My daughter headed down to Whitney Portal, and my son and I headed back to Crabtree. 15 miles round trip.

    Day 4: My son woke up feeling cold and despite the sun being out was still in his long johns, down coat and beanie. We started heading back to rejoin the PCT/JMT and he had to take rest stops heading up the first 50 foot hill. At this point, I realized he is sick with a fever. Will he get worse? The day before we meet a hiker at the top of Guyot pass with a fever who looked awful. I did not think it safe to risk going over Forester Pass (13,180 feet) in 2 days. The closest way out was to go back up toward Whitney and go over to the portal. The pass in 13,500 feet and the distance 14 miles. That did not seem possible. You can't stop half way up and sleep and continue the next day. The safest thing to do was head back to Horseshoe Meadow south on the PCT. About 21 miles but the highest pass was only 11,400 feet. We hiked back over Guyot Pass to Rock Creek camp at 9500 feet. We still had 13 miles to go at the point. I was starting to feel weaker, although no fever. Neither of us had an appetite and it was difficult to eat. Most things made us nauseated. Could not eat trail mix but could eat Cliff Bars slowly. The water situation is not great on the most direct route by staying on the PCT and not going back up to Solider Lake. This meant a 9 mile stretch with no water. We decided we better hike as far as we can tonight in case we get worse since we have to go up about 2000 feet. We loaded up 7 liters of water between the two of us and slowly headed up the trail. At 6pm about 1 mile before the Siberian Pass junction we stopped at 11,000 feet and set up the hammocks. Plenty of trees to pick from. Total of 11 miles this day. Low that night was only 42 and there was no wind.

    Day 5: Got up on the trail at 6:40 am. Getting up to 11,400 feet was hard. We both felt weak. I think his fever was gone, and I never had one, but we were not eating well and we knew it, but we just could not make ourselves eat more than we were without getting more nausea. I knew we would be out today so I did not worry about it too much. If it was going to be another day, I think we would have tried to stay put for longer and force more food in. After about 2 hours, we reached the top and the rest was down hill to the exit at 9800 feet. We were out by 11:30. We drove down the hill to Lone Pine and felt hungry enough to eat at McDonalds.

    Not a great trip but not a bad trip. We did make it to the summit and learned some things. Too bad we did not get to go over Forester pass and Kearsarge lakes. While I cannot confirm that you can Hammock along that section, I am sure you can as long as you are below 11,000 feet at night.

    Bottom line for this trip report is that you can use a Hammock going to Mt Whitney.

    John IMG_2117.jpgIMG_2146.jpgIMG_2152.jpgIMG_2167.jpg

  2. #2
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    Thanks for the trip report. I am planning the JMT for next Fall but I could not find any information wether I can hammock or not.

  3. #3
    Senior Member johnspenn's Avatar
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    Sorry to hear about you and your son getting sick. It could have been worse had one or both of you gotten something more severe, so I'm glad y'all were able to deal with it as well as you did and formulate a plan to exit. Sounds like a great area to hike and hang in, thanks for sharing.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Tom18C's Avatar
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    I grew up in Ridgecrest, on the desert floor, hiked Mt. Whitney many times, I love that area. The Mountians in N. Georgia are charming, but they are not Mountians. Sorry you guys go it sick, great family time, you cannot get enough of that. Great report!
    I have slept in a hammock on every continent from -20 to +128, under direct and indirect fire, from frost to fungus except Antarticia.... But give me time... Thank you Uncle Sugar!

  5. #5
    Senior Member TrailSlug's Avatar
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    Thanks for sharing this trip with us. Show us more pictures of that beautiful area. Bummer on getting sick but you guys fought through it and made a good situation out of a bad one. This one will be talked about in the years to come. Again thanks for the information on the availability of trees and the trail details. Next time will be better.

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