[pct-l] Whitney Portal to PCT

[Lonetrail at aol.com (Lonetrail@aol.com)]

Dude

Butch the previous owner of VV on his website warmed that you should remove 
your fenders from your car before going up to Edison Lake.
shagalow
Lonetrail
Whitney Portal elevation at trailhead is approx 8600'.  The first 9 
miles will take you to trailcrest, which is 13,777'.  If you decide to 
continue to the whitney summit (you'd be stupid not to continue unless 
you just can't get a permit), then that is another 2-ish miles and tops 
out at 14,497'.  After that, the trail varies between 7700ft at Lake 
Edison and 13,200' at Forrester Pass, which is approximately 20 miles 
from the whitney summit.

- The distance from the whitney portal trailhead to the pct is probably 
about 12-14 miles.  I dunno for certain, but its about 9 mile sto trail 
crest, then another few miles to the PCT.

- Good camping between whitney portal and PCT are limited to Lone Pine 
Lake at 9800' (actually, you may not be able to camp here, i forget), 
Outpost camp at about 10,300, and Trail Camp at 12,000ft and about 6 
miles from the portal.  Trail camp is also just below the infamous "99 
switchbacks".  If you are adventurous, you can also camp on the summit 
of Whitney. However, be sure the forcast is 100% clear skies for days 
in advance because the summit of whitney get sstruck by lightning all 
the time.

- If you are planning on exiting the trail at Edison Lake, are you 
familiar with the drive??  Its BRUTAL.  I forget the exact numbers, but 
it takes like 2 hrs to go 12 miles or something rediculous like that.  
There are several parts of the road that you'd swear are too narrow for 
a car to fit on and too many blind, narrow, cliff-hanging, guardrail-
less curves to count.A MUCH easier exit point is Red's Meadow about 35 
miles north of Edison Lake.

Good luck.

peace,
dude





> My son and I are section hiking the PCT from Whitney Portal to Edison
> Lake starting mid July.  My questions are: what is the starting
> elevation, how many miles to the PCT, and where would there be camping
> spots if we did only part way to the PCT on the first day, ie got a
> late morning start.  Appreciate any input.