June 7.
Stayed in tent until 7am, then Tinkle and Cactass came to check on me. 😂
Quick breakfast, on trail around 8am. Cactass and Tinkle had already started. After finishing the climb to 11000 feet that I started yesterday, most of the trail in the morning was even or even downhill. 9 miles in at around 1130am, got new water at Death Canyon Creek. Just before the water, I caught up with Husk and Queso – also Cactass and Tinkle had just settled down.
My feet still felt good – actually during the hike in the morning, I already felt home in the boots. But I am careful… I don’t think adjusting to new boots will happen after just one day.
At lunch, we discussed the next days. Crabtree meadow will be the starting point for the Mt Whitney summit. To reach Crabtree meadow tomorrow night, we would need to do 22 miles today and about 24-25 tomorrow. An ambitious plan, considering that the day after on June 9 will be the summit with over 4000 feet climb.
We left the lunch break with the target to go to Dutch Meadow mile 743 instead of Diaz river at mile 742.
The trail offered amazing views also in the afternoon.
My feet started hurting though… Pushing the second day in a row to 20+ miles in new boots didn’t feel right. I kept playing scenarios in my head for the next days. But given the pain of my feet adjusting to new boots and the fact that I had planned with 15 miles for the Sierra, I gave up on aiming for Crabtree meadows tomorrow. With the summit planned for June 10 then, the next two days will be easier.
So when I came to Diaz river, I decided to stay, so did Tinkle and later also Husk and Queso. Cactass had already left for Dutch Meadow, but we asked some hikers to tell her about the change in plans.
The world is big 