Day 5: Guitar Lake to Forester Pass Basin
13.2 miles, 2220 ft elevation gain, 1810 ft elevation loss

Norah did a great job hiking Mt. Whitney the day before and we had a 13 mile day today, so we let her sleep in a little bit to keep her happy (she is NOT a morning person!). Once we got going we descended the 2.6 miles back to Crabtree Meadows and continued north on the JMT. This was one of the few days where we didn’t have a pass, although the up and down of today’s hike would still net us 2,220 feet elevation gain over the day. From Crabtree we ascended to an unnamed height, descended to Warner Creek, the climbed back up to the Bighorn Plateau; around six miles. The mosquitoes at Warner Creek were annoying, so we opted out of a break and continued up to the Bighorn Plateau for a break there. Interesting terrain on the plateau and nice views. In another 2.8 miles we descended to Tyndall Creek, a common campsite on the JMT. At this point we had already done 11.2 miles and were certainly feeling it, but felt we had a few more miles left in us to hike towards Forester Pass and find a campsite in the basin above treeline; avoiding the mosquitoes and obtaining some great campsite views, as well as gaining a few miles for our hike the next day (our longest of the trip). I estimate we hiked around two miles and 1000 feet elevation gain to find a campsite around 11,880 feet - our highest campsite of the trip. It was a longer day, but certainly worth it. We loved our campsite and had enough time to set up camp, eat, and chat with fellow hikers who hiked down from Forester Pass before watching a pretty sunset (actually had some clouds, so it was a more dynamic sunset than our previous days).