On our last morning we woke up, ate breakfast (Cris had leftovers from the night before), packed up, and we hit the trail. We moseyed on down to Long Lake where there were a bunch of people camped. I was glad for the relative solitude of High Lake! Then we hiked past the South Fork Lakes then across a boulder field to meet the Cottonwood Lakes again. At this point Cris finally ran out of film so he couldn’t take any more pictures :(
It was a long hike back. I swear the trail grew by a mile or two! After we hiked down out of the Cottonwood Lakes Basin it was a very long hike back… We were very glad when we reached the trailhead. Unfortunately it was then that Cris had discovered he’d left the headlights on in his car! So we found a nice guy who helped us jump start it. Then we drove down into Lone Pine.
When I got into Lone Pine I called my mom to tell her I made it out of the mountains alive. She told me my sister and brother-in-law were driving up to Bishop! And just then my sister rang. Turns out she was in Lone Pine, too! So I got to have lunch with my sister and Joe :) It was awesome as we didn’t plan it at all! We had milkshakes and burgers at the Mt. Whitney restaurant and Cris was nice enough to treat us!
Wow, I am just floored by these pictures looking back at them now... what a great trip! I'm so glad that I found a good hiking partner to be able to do it with and I hope we get to hike together again, Cris :) |
