White Mountain
Hike Review:
The White Mountain Road is exactly what it sounds like. It’s an off road trail that leads to the summit of White Mountain.
The 4x4 road is either on packed dirt or rock fragments.
There is zero shade the entire road.
The first few miles are pretty easy, but the last mile or so is a series of steep switch backs.
What I Learned:
I am now at the fitness level where I can hike almost without thinking about the previous day’s hike. I think it was pretty cool that I completed this hike at a very fast pace, even though I had summitted a 13k mountain the day before.
Media Consumed:
The Korean War—finished!
So You Want to Talk About Race
Friends Made:
Although there were numerous kind hikers, I made a special connection with a fellow hiker named Kevin. He first passed me on the way up as he was booking it up the mountain. I said something to the effect that he was super fast, and he displayed his humility by stating that he had started off at the Bancroft station, and so, he hadn’t needed to walk the extra miles. I told him that I’d see him at the summit. When I got to the summit, we struck up a conversation and it turned out that we had lots of similar interests. We both loved hiking, cycling, and rafting; he also used a m42 adapter to use Super Takumar lens on his camera! We ended up hiking down the mountain together and he even gave me a present when we got to the Bancroft facility. A piece of lightning glass! It’s a glass that gets formed when lightning strikes the earth and the super heated sand turns into black/green glass! We also traded instagram handles, so I hope to hike with him in the future.
What Happened?
15.1 miles, 7 hrs 7 mins, 3430 ft of ascent
I wanted to acclimate some more to higher elevations, so I headed off to White Mountain, which I only knew about due to an instagram post from Venkat. It’s a peak that is above 14k feet, which makes it a perfect hike before attempting Mount Whitney.
I wanted to not repeat the mistakes from the previous day, so instead of hiking on an empty stomach, I first cooked myself a piece of toast and an egg. I then drove almost an hour to the trailhead, which required many miles of driving on a rutted dirt road. What stood out on the drive over was that there was a huge amount of smoke preventing a view of the Sierras to the west.
I parked my car and started hiking. Maybe it was the breakfast, but I hiked at great speed the first few miles and felt strong, before succumbing to fatigue and slowing down on the uphills. I definitely slowed down even more on the switchbacks up to the summit, but I still ended up passing half a dozen people, which I felt good about.
On the way down with Kevin, we made great time as Kevin is a fast hiker and I was able to keep up with him on the downhill and flat parts. We ran into two different parties who ended up requesting help. One couple with a dog was about 2.5 miles from the Barcroft station and their dog had an issue where it could only walk a few feet before needing to rest. They had attempted to carry the dog, but being that it was a medium/large dog, they could only manage a few feet. Kevin told them that even though he was a surveyor, he wasn’t sure if he could have permission to drive his car on the road, but that he would ask. And for some reason if he couldn’t he would relay their position to the rangers to see if they could help. We then gave them some extra food in case the rescue would take a while. The second party were these two ladies who were about a quarter mile or half a mile from the Barcroft station where one of the ladies fell on to her knee. I happened to see it, and I knew that it wasn’t good based on how much force her knee seemed to take. When we caught up to the ladies, we asked if they needed help and they said they did. Kevin told them that he would see what he could do, and we headed off to the station.
Kevin and I talked and he said that he thought his Rav4 could make it up to both parties, even though he didn’t have 4x4, and I told him that if he couldn’t, I could drive my car up as the road was something my car could handle. When we got to the research station, we spoke to two folks there, who stated that Kevin could drive up there, but only if we didn’t tell anyone about it. So with a wink, Kevin drove up the trail. I waited at the research station until I could see that his car indeed could make it up. As he was picking up the ladies, I started hiking again.
He passed me with both ladies sitting in his passenger seat (his car was totally full). I then expected him to drive back, but a different truck came back, which I then guessed was a ranger that Kevin had run into who was going to drive to the couple with the dog.
I made it back to the car, had a short conversation with some hikers who were lounging around at the trailhead to confirm that the ladies got out safely, and drove off to see if I could find a Vietnamese restaurant. On the way out of Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, I ran into Kevin who was giving a hitchhiker a ride. I confirmed what had happened, said my goodbyes to him again, and drove down the mountain.