HST: Day 8

High Sierra Trail: Day 8

7/17/2021

Outpost Camp - Whitney Portal

Miles hiked: 3.3 miles

Elevation gained: 10 ft (10,371 - 8,404)

Animals seen: nosey grouse, dayhikers everywhere

Elevation chart created on AllTrails.com

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I had, hands down, the best sleep on trail to date. We all crashed by 8pm and woke up to dayhikers by 7am. We took our time with a small brekkie (mango macadamia nut oatmeal and instant coffee). We talked with Charlotte, Brian and Ansel Adams before breaking down camp.

With all the dayhikers it was hard to find enough privacy for morning...evacuations. There was a log that offered some solace, until a very noisy grouse hen popped her head up and decided it was interesting enough to watch the whole show.

The guys were taking extra long with morning camp chores. My mom and Aunt Kathy were supposed to arrive at Whitney Portal between 9-10am. I ended up heading out a little after 8am so I could meet them. The trail down was mostly dirt, glorious dirt. Since we are still in the Whitney Zone (wag bags mandatory) and there were supposed to be an outhouse at the trailhead so that was very, very, very motivating.

I was cruising downhill thinking toilet, toilet, toilet, toilet.

I passed by so many dayhikers. A lot were rather tired looking for it being so early in the day and them being at the relative start of their hike. I passed by a group of natives in tribal gear. One of the ladies stopped to ask about the hike ahead. She told me they were planning on night hiking to the summit for a ceremony which sounded very cool.

I could finally see cars and flew the rest of the way down. Straight to the toilet. OMG, the best feeling.

I received a text from my Aunt Kathy that they were near the pond in the parking log. Halfway around the pond, there was my mom with Leinie! I breathed in his wirey dirt coat smell and gave my mom and aunt a smelly hug.

Handsomest trail doggo award goes to…

I dropped Yoda at the car and took Leinie to wait at the trailhead for the guys. Once they arrived and Jake got his Leinie moment, we weighed in. Yoda went from a hefty 43lb to 29.2lb! I lost 6lbs myself. Jake lost 5lb and Target lost a whomping 9lbs.

We got beers and fries from the portal store and hung out with Brian and Charlotte for a bit.

HST Class of ‘21

We headed to Lone Pine for our next meal. If you have never been to Lone Pine, it’s... rustic. I mean, I’ve seen small town Iowa, this was next level small town. Our dining options were slim. We headed to the local dining joint. They were awesome, it’s in the middle of the Mojave desert in July and they let us come in with Leinie instead of sitting on the patio. Glorious, glorious air conditioning. I made a pit stop at the bathroom to wash my hands, like really wash my hands, for the first time in over a week. It took a couple cycles of soap and rinsing for the water to not be black. I still had dirt under my fingernails.

That double bacon cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milkshake. Moment of silence, please.

Guys, angels cried over less. I pretty much licked my plate clean. Words can not describe how amazing that food tasted. Looking back, it was most likely a very mediocre burger, but after dehydrated meals and protein bars for over a week it skewed perspective a bit.

I wish I could report on the car ride back to LA. I can’t, I passed out and slept the entire ride.

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