The next day I hiked with my friends Dingo and MudD and we made this grand plan to go 25 miles so that we could summit Mt. Whitney the next day, which was Dingo's birthday. Fifteen miles in, we came to our first lake on the trail: Chicken Spring Lake. We thought we would hang out there for a little bit and then continue on. Three hours later, we decided we were just going to stay twee for the night because it was so beautiful and we just couldn't pass it up. We had a wonderful, quiet afternoon and cooked our dinner around 5:30 pm. Soon after that, about 10 other hikers showed up for the night and all began cooking their dinner. At this point, MudD, Dingo, and I were already hungry again, but we had eaten all our food for the day, so it was torturous sitting around with everyone eating their delicious dinners while we sat starving!
We had one more day to become acclimated before climbing Mt. Whitney. The past couple days had been hard and I'd had a constant headache and had gotten a bit loopy on some of the climbs. I was hoping one more day would be sufficient to get used to the altitude. From Chicken Spring Lake we hiked to Guitar Lake, which was about 5 miles away from the summit of Mt. Whitney. We decided that we wanted to be at the top for sunrise, so we all set our alarms for 2:00 am. As we hiked up the steep incline in the dark, I was thankful that I could not see the many more switchbacks that were ahead of me. I just kept on trudging. It took 3 1/2 hours to get to the summit, and I came over the crest just in time for the sunrise. It was spectacular! Here I was at 14,505 feet on the summit of the highest peak in the contiguous United States and I felt like I was on top of the world! 
It took us less than half the amount of time to hike down the mountain and when we got back to Guitar Lake at 9:30 am we decided we'd put in a few more miles for the day.
The next day was, by far, my favorite day on the trail. We went over Forester Pass, which is the highest point on the pacific Crest Trail (13,200 ft) and it was much easier than I had expected. As we came over the pass into Kings Canyon National Park it was the most beautiful landscapes I had ever seen. I was just about in tears it was so amazing. The past few days all I could think about was the block of cheese that I was going to eat when I got into Bishop, but hiking through Kings Canyon the cheese didn't even cross my mind it was so insanely beautiful.
We finally got into Bishop the next day. After 7 days on the trail, we were ready for a nice break. We went to see a movie, got yummy treats (and, yes, I did eat an entire block of cheese in one sitting), and relaxed for a day and a half.
The few days coming out of Bishop were very hard. I was anxious to get to Vermilion Valley Resort to see my mom, aunt and uncle, and cousin, who were meeting me there. Each day I was going over a pass, and it was kicking my butt. I wanted to get to VVR so badly that I even hiked 27 miles one day just so I could get there sooner! I finally got there and it was such a relief. I was so happy to see everyone and to be able to relax. We drove to my aunt and uncle's nearby cabin and I had a hot shower, a good meal, and some nice family time.
I'm almost done with the High Sierra, which will be a sad day. It has been so amazingly beautiful and fun. I'll be sure to savor every last moment of it...
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