Trip Report

August 9-17, 1997 - Long Term

This trip was long and hard.  We did a total of 53 miles.  The first day we left Onion Valley and went over Kearsarge Pass to Kearsarge Lake to finish 7 miles.  The first day is always the hardest day.  We met Hummer today and he is finishing the Pacific Crest Trail with 1,700 miles.  Last night a bear came into our camp and got a can of Butter Buds ripped it open and left leaving the Butter Buds.  The next day we went to Center Basin Jct. and saw Hummer leaving.  The next day I was the trail boss and we hiked toward Forester Pass with an elevation of 13,200ft.  On the way, we stopped and found deer.  Matt, Kyle and I took off our packs and sneaked toward the deer and took pictures of them.  Then we hiked over a glacier and stopped at Forester Pass.  Then we hiked down the other side and a Scout from another troop broke his wrist.  We were lucky because a Ranger was following us.  We waited for instructions to leave and hiked to Tyndall Creek.  The next day we got back on the trail and hiked to Wallace Creek.  There we had our first hail storm that lasted 10 minutes.  The day after that we hiked to Guitar Lake.  We saw Mt.  Whitney and Mt. Muir.  Today Kyle caught his first Golden Trout. The next day was our rest day.  Mr. Tyloch caught 6 trout, Kyle caught 3, and Matt caught 4 and returned 3. Then we had another hailstorm only this one lasted 45 minutes.  Everyone got out of their tents after the hailstorm stopped and started to cook dinner.  We found Hummer again and he was hiking to Whitney Portal and we congratulated him on finishing his long hike.  For dinner we ate fish and other food.  The next day we left Guitar Lake and hiked to Trail Jct.  We took off our packs and hiked to Mt. Whitney Summit.  Kyle, Matt, and I were the first ones to the top in order.  We stayed up there for about an hour.  We were lucky there was a bathroom there.  We took pictures, collected rocks, and left.  When we got back to Trail Jct. we hiked to Trail Camp on the way we went down the 97 switchbacks.  At Trail Camp there were marmots, chipmunks, and birds.  That night we had the best vegetables, Mixed Vegetables from Alpine Foods.  The next day we went to Whitney Portal and went home after 53 miles.

Reported by:      Marc O.

mmmmmm!!!

Golden Trout!

We met "Hummer" on the trail the first day.  This man is incredible.  Hummer had just completed the entire PCT (1700+ miles) from the Northern California border to the Mexican border.  He completed the last 23 miles of his journey on this outing.  From all of Troop 610 - Congratulations on your incredible journey!!!!