Friday, August 6th, Day 19. Somewhat brutal day today. Some days your heart just isn't into it, or should I say, the heart is into it but the head is not. Thought that the 2 or so miles to Glen Pass (11978 ft) this morning would be easy, but instead they were brutal. Long, hard, 1400 ft climb from Rae Lakes. Kept an eye out for the reputed big horn sheep that have been spotted here, but only saw some large male deer first thing out of camp.
Headed down to Vidette for a break and food assessment. Ran out of oatmeal yesterday, and I think its absence this morning hurt us. Have enough in the bear canisters to roll out of Whitney with zero calories. Climb out of Vidette (9515 ft) was loooooooong, and it seemed to really drag on forever. Sometimes it just seems like work, and hard work good, hard work fine, but first take care of head, as the man says. Day seemed to move on at a snail's pace. Camping at the Lake at 12,250 ft, hopefully will shoot over this pass without too much trouble in the AM.
Three of the young kids we met the 2nd day out are here after skipping a section and losing one hiker to a knee issue, and the Tres Penitos just showed up. Good to see part of 'our crew,' but they say that the rest (Cookie, Sunrise and Laughing Cloud) are shooting for Guitar Lake tomorrow, with a possible sunrise on Whitney Sunday morning! The idea immediately turned me off, but after hanging out with the boys for a bit, Bri and I are now tossing around the idea. We'll have to see how tomorrow treats us, as this pass today, though we've done most of it, really knocked the shit out of me, and had us a little worried about sleeping at this elevation. Either way, once this pass is behind us, Whitney is the next and last big climb, so that's good at least.
-llg