T minus 10 days.
Weather looks good so far, but still a bit early to rely on long range forecasts.
Got a parking space in LP and ride to Horseshoe meadows lined up.
Going to need a new hiking stick. My 'warmup hike' at Hetch Hetchy over the 4th weekend cost me my current stick. Tripped and used it to break my fall. I was okay. The stick wasn't.
But probably helped avoid injuring me, so I'll enshrine it.
Anyone know of a good place to buy a good quality wood hiking stick in Lone Pine? (not the portal) Might be able to find one locally in the bay area this weekend, but just in case I need to get one in LP before my hike, it'd be good to know ahead of time.
BTW, my warmup hike was HH to Behive, to Lake Vernon to Racheria Falls back to HH. Kind of the classic hike at HH, but I've never done it (just day hikes around HH), so it was a great hike.
And with my Horseshoe to Langely to Whitney hike coming up, I'm starting to wonder if my planned route is the most visually scenic.
Basically, I was planning on Cottonwood Lakes to NAP or OAP on day 1. Summit Langley on day 2. Then make my way west to Solider Lakes, Army Pass Trail, the PCT and up to the JMT and Guitar Lake over the next 2-3 days. Then hit Whitney from the West before descending to the Portal.
I have the time to do that, but also looking at Harvey's route below and some other routes that go up past the Miter, Crabtree Pass, then either Crabtree Meadow and the JMT or the more direct path (although more complicated) to Trail Crest.
Those look like they might be more visually spectacular than sticking to the PCT/JMT roundabout route. It just seems the PCT goes around some interesting mountains, but going the other way takes me up and around a lot of peaks and lakes.
Of course, they are not as well traveled and probably not clear cut paths.
Any advice?
Anyone done both routes and can say which one was the better hike?
