It's not the mountains we conquer, but ourselves

It became about the journey, the other places I saw along the way, and the people I shared the experience with. We literally saw some of the most beautiful places in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.

I prefer to knock out the hardest part of the day in the dark. We watched it rise over the Great Western Divide and the Kaweah Peaks we hiked over a few days ago to the West.

My sore feet and blisters were soaked, my hair was clean, I was well rested and ready to take on the rest of the HST.

We woke up chilly to frozen socks (I had an extra pair that did not freeze) and frozen shoes. I brought toe warmers with me and did jumping jacks to warm up while making breakfast and packing up.

Our day 3 hike on the HST was arguably the most beautiful stretch on this 72 mile journey.

The Camp overlooks the Great Western Divide which we started to ascend to get to Hamilton Lake. Get the brownie, it’s an amazing treat after the last 2 mile climb. And it’s HUGE!

This was the easiest part of the hike. It was moderately level for the entire 3 miles, it was on dirty instead of rocky terrain, it was well marked and not exposed.

The 72 mile trail starts in the West from Crescent Meadows in the Sequoia National Park and runs to the East across the mountain range to the Mt. Whitney summit and down to Whitney Portal.