Day 3: Guyot Creek to Guitar Lake (via Guyot Pass)
8.6 miles, 1680 ft elevation gain, 570 ft elevation loss

Today was terrific! We hooked up with the John Muir Trail and felt we were really starting to get into the meat of the trip. We had a quiet start to the day - the trail/scenery itself and it was also literally quiet. We noticed how it was silent on our hike up to Guyot Pass. We had 1.4 miles and 540 feet elevation gain through the same interesting terrain as the day before to reach the pass, which did not have views. As far as passes go, it was pretty unremarkable. It was an easy descent to Guyot Flat and we meandered along the trail to a viewpoint before descending to Crabtree Meadows. The biggest excitement was when Norah and I had stopped along the trail and were startled by a sudden, loud gust of wind that came out of nowhere and made a little dirt devil.

The rocky descent to Crabtree Meadows was pretty. The views were great with the meadows in the foreground and the big mountains in the background. We initially thought we would stop here for a break, but thought better of it because the mosquitoes were bad and all the good sitting rocks were completely covered with marmot poop. We did watch the marmots for a few minutes before moving on. We took the shortcut to the Crabtree Ranger Station, grabbed the required Wag Bags, and picked up the John Muir Trail to Guitar Lake. It was six miles to this point and we had another 2.6 miles and 1140 feet elevation gain to go. This last section of the day was the best. The basin we hiked through was beautiful with the streams, flowers, views of the mountains, and scenic Timberline Lake. When we arrived at Guitar Lake we were treated to more pretty scenery. Given its beautiful location and proximity to Mt. Whitney (it’s the last campsite for people finishing the southbound JMT), Guitar Lake is accordingly busy. Some people camp at the small lakes above Guitar Lake to get a jump on the hike out, but we felt no need given we were basing at Guitar Lake for two nights, so chose a campsite by the lake.

We arrived at Guitar Lake around two and had plenty of time to set up camp, watch the marmots, fend off the ground squirrels, read, and laze around on a gorgeous day in a gorgeous location. Steve took a plunge in the lake (brrrr!); Norah and I weren’t so brave. Steve also hiked up to Arctic Lake and Norah and I joined him later to see Guitar Lake from above. We ate and watched sunset and went to bed shortly after; we wanted to start a little earlier than usual and wanted a good night sleep. Fellow hikers with inReach told us the weather forecast sounded favorable and we were feeling good; so we were optimistic and excited about Mt. Whitney the next day.