Camping at Horseshoe Meadows

Before hiking up Mt. Whitney, I spent one night at Horseshoe Meadows camping and hiking. This place is south of Whitney and at an elevation of 10,000 feet. You drive near the camp sites. I arrived around 3:30 and set my tent up away from the noisy teenagers. My tent is just big enough for one tall person and not much else, but it weighs less than 3 lbs with the rain fly and poles.

I started my hike up a trail towards Cottonwood pass, but only had two hours before I wanted to be back to warm up dinner. I made the big mistake of wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. There were a million mosquitoes and I left the deet in my car. What a mistake. I got bit on my arms, legs and neck about 30 times. I had to cut my hike short and run back to camp, but the bugs followed me! Luckily there were few mosquitoes at the camp site, so I was able to cook my dinner in peace.

Before going to bed, at 8:30, I put all my food in the bear canister near the traihead (the one near me was broken - or also people proof). I had trouble falling asleep, wondering if a bear was going to paw my tent during the night. I had to get up several times during the night to empty my bladder, and each time I shined my light 360 degrees around looking for bears. There were none. I finally got up around 8:00 AM and packed my stuff into the car. Not much else to do here alone so I headed down the mountain.

I believe that staying at 10,000 feet for the night really helped me acclimate to the altitude. However, it is kind of boring camping alone, so I don't know if I would do this again.