L2H Day 6 – 10/8/16
22 miles (121 total)

Today was one of those days that feels like an entire week. We started out in the Inyo Mountains at the the top of Long John Canyon walked all the way to Whitney Portal and are sleeping in Lone Pine. Oh, and in the middle we got Mt Whitney permits, showers and a new tire for Snorkel’s car. Weee!

We left camp at 6:08am, with just a bit of twilight. The trail down Long John Canyon is actually pretty decent, but it would be tough to stay on it in the dark. Powering along in the bottom of the canyon, Snorkel and I both blew right by a big carin on the left and a row of rocks across the wash, but thankfully Naomi caught it. A nice trail led out of the canyon bottom (avoiding some big dry falls down canyon) and we enjoyed contouring for a ways before a steep scree ski back down to the bottom of the canyon. Eventually the wash turned into a 4WD road and we took this into town.

We knew we needed to get to the permit office for an 11am lottery, and we were cutting it close. So we texted Puppy to see if she could meet us with the car a couple miles out of town to ensure we made it to the permit office in time. Even better, Puppy ended up actually dropping our car off 2 miles from town! We didn’t all need to go for the permit drawing, so Snorkel and Naomi took the car while I finished the walk into town and headed to LoveNote and Burly’s house, where I got a much needed shower and change of clothes. The others returned with permits in hand, and I dropped them back at the spot they’d picked up the car so they could walk while I went off to get a new tire (with a stop of the town taco truck for all of us on the way). More success! The local auto towing and tire shop had what we needed and got us all fixed up.

Back to the house, we swapped some gear around and left to slack pack the 11 miles up from town to Whitney Portal. We finished by headlamp and were lucky to find some rock climbers leaving who kindly gave us a ride back into town. Tomorrow we’ll drive back to the Portal to finish our hike with a summit of Mt Whitney!

My feet are swollen and throbbing from all the asphalt pounding today. I also developed a blister on day 3 in a spot I’ve never in my life had a blister before: at the front of the ball of my foot where the big toe and second toe meet. This is my first long hike in shoes other than Brooks Cascadias, but the last 3 years’ versions have sucked, and my stash of old ones are gone, so I was forced into finding something new. I’m now wearing Altra Lone Peaks (like all the cool kids these days, it seems). Overall I like them, but my feet have a little adjusting to do. Oh well, only like 6000′ to go!