Lone Pine Lake

This is what Wunderground had to say about Lone Pine this morning.

A Wind Advisory remains in effect from 3 PM this afternoon to 9 PM this evening for the Sierra and Owens Valley of Inyo County.
* Winds: favorable strong downslope conditions will produce west winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph at elevations below 5000 feet. Gusts to 60 mph can be expected at elevations above 5000 feet.

Given that we wanted to hike up to Lone Pine Lake from the Whitney Portal, we were up and out and sprinting up the hill.  Actually, there was no sprinting, there was a lot of gasping for breath.  The route starts at 8,200 and the lake is at 10,777 feet. I over packed on jackets, taking two, when actually none were needed, but it's good to be prepared.  It's a nice trail, it's steep, but it's good.  The area is just stupendous.

Here is Jim, thinking about how much he does not want to put his feet in the water.

No one told me I would have to walk across logs to get there!  Fortunately the tops are flattened, but still....

Lone Pine Lake.  The white material on the ground is snow.  We had to walk through a little, but it wasn't bad.

Here is another shot of the logs of doom.  If my balance were better, I would have gotten a picture of the gaps between the logs, but I really wanted that part to be over.

These three are heading up to a hut 9 miles from the trail head.  They will over night there and then summit Mt. Whitney in the morning.  The are carrying a ton of stuff, more stuff than I can carry.

See the sun dog?  It's horizontal and in the middle of the picture.  They never seem to photograph very well.

We were off the trail at 1:40, before the big wind.  It got here at 4:00 and it's pretty strong.  Happy we are not to be above 5000 feet!
Tomorrow we are up and out for Bishop.  It's good that it's only 60 miles there because I will have to drive the truck.  The spring on the locking latch on the Blue Ox tow bar died, and we can't tow.  Blue Ox sent a new arm via Fed Ex, but it won't arrive until Wednesday at the earliest.  I am really hoping this all works out because I do NOT want to drive to Reno from Bishop.  Up down, up down, twisty corners.  Jim needs me to help him drive the RV.