My Day on Top of the United States - Mt. Whitney hike!

On August 25, 2007 at 1:10 a.m., my fiance, Elliot, myself, and our two friends Krista and David set off to hike to the top of the continental United States (lower 48).

In February Elliot put in for a permit (as required to hike) and we got it! I wasn't excited at first ...altitude, no sleep, peeing in bushes... but as time drew closer, I was getting excited.

To sum up the entire trip:

started at: 1:12 a.m. August 25th
hiked up: over 6,000 ft in elevation
ended at: 14,496.811 ft.
the hike up took: ~ 9 hours
the hike back took: ~ 5 hours (and sucked really bad...)
rested for about: ~ 1 hour total
ended at: 5:10 p.m.
no sleep for: 36 hours straight

After the hike we were all exhausted, like hallucinating exhausted. We drove down the ONE main road in all of Lone Pine to get something to eat (tell me how safe driving without sleeping for 1.5 days is...haha). We had a choice between Carl's Jr, Mc.Donalds, a couple no-name sketchy diners, and this random pizza factory. Pizza it was. Best meal! After a diet of clif bars, trail mix, and an orange for the last 16 hours, we were all hurting for some real food. If we could just keep our eyes open long enough to eat it!

Then, off to the Best Western to crash at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday evening. Sleep for 12 hours and head back home!

* we met some people on the trail that had been hiking for 16 days straight. Many people hiked from Yosemite to summit Whitney. There were tons of hiking/climbing junkies at the summit.

Great experience... wouldn't do it again. I am really glad we did it once though... now we're thinking about half dome at Yosemite and the Grand Canyon (most people tackle those before Whitney... we did the opposite!).

If you need suggestions or want to tackle Whitney yourself (or if you've done half dome or the grand canyon and want to give us tips, write me a note!!)

Here is a link to the photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10303343@N02/sets/72157601683630999//

(if the link is broken, visit the flickr website and type in blfoster for a search name)

:)

B

My Day of Rest

In an effort to break away from my computer (obviously not for 24 hours since I'm here blogging) and to prepare for the Mt. Whitney hike in 2 weeks, my fiance and I set out to do a little exploration. We wanted to go walk around Pasadena because we have never actually spent time there before. Neither of us are much of shoppers, but we enjoy walking around and people watching.

After we finished that adventure, we went for a hike in the mountains just past Pasadena. I'm not sure the name of it, but I believe we took the 213 Fwy. to the 2. Anyhow, we found a trailhead and ended up hiking about 5 miles. We've been running the sand dunes in Manhattan Beach and running a lot more recently to get ready for the 20+ miles hike coming up.

Today was so nice to get away and enjoy what being outside and being surrounded by what nature has to offer. What a great time. :)

Unrelated, Todd saw Freedom Writers! What a great movie. I encourage everyone to see it. Have a great weekend cadre. Go out and enjoy the sunshine.