I was cold at first last night but warmed up after awhile, I had on down vest and hood, wool cap, leggings, wool socks & down lap blanket. Stars were brilliant in the night and at some point lightening flashed across the sky over the Kaweahs.
We began hiking this morning wearing our down jackets. We were both curious about what was over the rise in the plateau, when we got there we saw a tiny round lake blue as the sky set in the wheat colored grass of the plateau.
The expanse is so pretty we just looked around breathing deep, what a lovely place. Here's a panorama.
We eventually left the plateau hiking down into the canyon of Wright Creek. Up and out of that canyon and down into Wallace Creek, not much but boulders and trees. We got water, rinsed clothing and put wet things on our packs to dry while we hiked. Up out of that canyon we hiked around another hillside to the trail junction up to Crabtree Meadow and Ranger Station. This is the gateway to Mt Whitney and to the lake where people camp to stage their summit of the mountain, Guitar Lake. I struggled with the steeper rockier sections of trail today and seemed to take forever to get anywhere. Just before Guitar Lake is Timberline Lake, a small delicate Lake with no camping signs.
but by 2:30 we got to Guitar Lake.
At 11,500' elevation it's windy and could be chilly. There are no trees here and the campsites are in the boulders, each person here should have picked up a 'wag bag' from the trail junction at Crabtree Meadow. It's a poop bag, there is no pooping at Guitar Lake or on Mt Whitney. You turn your bag in on your way out Whitney Portal for disposal. Otherwise you carry it. Since we are not leaving out Whitney Portal, I guess we carry it...
Mountains across from Whitney reflected in the cold lake surface in the morning hours above Guitar Lake.
A nice part of the trail.
Looking down on some of the lakes above Guitar Lake. 
Higher still.
There are 'windows' along the trail to the summit that sometimes the wind blasts through, this day all was calm and I could see down to Lone Pine on the valley floor. These windows look like jagged teeth from far below looking up. 
I asked someone to take my photo as I had a snack and rested. 
A selfie on top!! That's the Mt Whitney hut in the background, in a storm you should get off the Mt, not be in the hut.
I signed a register on top and thought the plaque would make me legitimate! The plaque has all the details! 14,496' whohoo!
This is what the top is like, flat rocks wind and weather worn. Expansive views and the edge right there!
The trail runs just beneath them so you can look out of themed you walk by.
Taken between the teeth, Aqua lakes in the rocks below on the highway side.
I was behind these guys going down and got a view of where the trail goes. It looks impossible but it's not too bad. 
Sky pilot cheered me up, they are tenacious, and place beauty in the most impossible spots. 
My back trail on the right and the trail going across the windows on the left, this panorama shows some of the scope of what I saw.
The sky is so blue, not a cloud in sight. Many others are here all perched in the sand between the boulders waiting to summit in the morning. We waved to Danny & Frank as they jumped into Guitar Lake to swim. Jacob must have been shaking his head, way too cold! Some folks hike up to Whitney's summit in the wee hours by headlamp to watch sunrise on top. I'm not wanting to brave the cold. We'll start up at 7. After dinner and stashing the bear cans, we are as prepared as we are able to be to hike up tomorrow.
8/8/15 Saturday 12 miles
The alarm woke us at 6 and we were hiking by 7. I have 1 1/2 liters of water, lunch & warm clothes in my pack. It's very cold and my hands are stinging and burning in my gloves. Round trip up Mt Whitney from camp is 8.5 miles and 3,000 elevation gain and then loss. The sky is crystal clear and very blue. The valley we are in is in shadow. First we skirted Guitar Lake and climbed to a rock plateau above it. There was another smaller lake up there. The trail had a stream running down it so careful placement of feet was necessary. Above that lake we skirted the base of Mt Whitney as more water ras in the trail. We were hiking with a few others by then. Soon the trail began switch backing up the base of the mountain and Peggy's foot slipped on a sand covered rock and she went down, hitting her tailbone smack on the stone. She injured herself last spring in the snow slipping on ice covered steps and this really hurts an already tender injury. She saw stars for a moment after jarring herself badly. She began walking after a hand up and went a fair way until she didn't feel good to go on, headachey and shakey she made a wise decision to go back to camp and rest. I decided that since I had a good enough start up that I would keep going by myself.
The trail got more rugged, climbing up stone steps and stepping around boulders fallen on the trail, sometimes using both hands to get by a tight place.
Mt Whitney day summiters start on the highway side and hike steeply up to the portal at about 2 miles from the summit. Then they walk the remaining 2 miles up with all other backpackers. JMT hikers can start here or end their hike here. Either way they can leave their backpacks at a small sheltered spot called Trailcrest and hike up 2 miles without backpacks on. I emptied my pack of everything but lunch, water and warm clothes so I traveled light and didn't stop at Trailcrest but did take a photo.
Just a sheltered wide spot on the trail.
Finally I am high enough to see Guitar Lake where Peggy is keeping watch over our gear.
A panorama.
I arrived at 11:15, stayed about 30 minutes looking at a big map and locating peaks, having a snack, then I started down at 11:45.
I took a photo of the windows from above, they looked like teeth.
I made it down by 3:00. I thought I'd lost my lunch and was hungry when I got back. Peggy gave me a bar of hers that was extra. Later I found lunch in a pocket that usually only holds my water bottle, I'd put it in the wrong place and couldn't find it. Doh!
We chatted a bit about the summit and her headache. She was feeling a bit better but it had been hot in the bare sunshine all day, she'd made shade with her tent and tried to keep cool. We packed up ready to go when a Ranger stopped by. I told him we were just leaving and he waved us on. We hiked another 4 miles down to 10,370' elevation to the Crabtree Meadow camp area for the night. Storm clouds began gathering. Once at Crabtree Peggy found an actual pit toilet for campers so we disposed of our wag bag contents! Hooray! Such excitement over all that. Tents got set up, dinner made, some sprinkling of rain but not much. We got dinner done & this tired girl collapsed into her bag.
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