Mount Whitney

For those of you who don't know, Jason is the Young Men's president in our ward. And has been going on three and a half years now. Seriously, any day now for his release. Well, at least I'm hoping, but it's not looking too good. He tries to plan these fun and adventurous activities for his young men and he thought it would be fun to hike Mt. Whitney. They went the last week of July. I guess it's the highest peak in California, over 14,000 feet. And when he told me about it I kind of laughed. I thought for sure he'd make the hike but I didn't think any of his young men would. And I was right! Poor Jason. He plans this whole trip and they don't even hike the freaking mountain. They day before they were suppose to do Whitney, they did a warm-up hike up White Mountain to get the boys acclimated to the altitude and only Jason, his other leader and one boy made it to the top of that mountain. Jason said most of the boys were out of shape and got altitude sickness. And they all agreed that they didn't want to do Mt. Whitney. So Jason and his other leader, Alan, were going to do Whitney, but Jason thought he better stay behind and keep an eye on his boys. I thought that was a wise idea. Alan still hiked it and made it back in under 12 hours which Jason was saying is pretty amazing. I just feel so bad for Jason. But there was some adventure on the trip. Bears are really bad there and the forest service makes you put your food in bear containers. And one of the boys left some power bars in his pack, so they got a little visit from a bear. Jason heard it walk by his tent and then got out and saw it ripping into one of the packs. I guess his other leader was up getting ready to do Whitney and he went to get food from the container and practically ran into this bear. Jason said he was like a foot away from it. And he said, "Hey Smokey!" and then started yelling at it and it ran off. I guess they're use to humans. Still scary though. I just feel bad that Jason didn't get to hike Whitney. Oh well, he's planning on doing it next summer and I get to go with him this time.

Here are some pictures from their adventure. The picture up above is a view from the top of White mountain.

The young men that went on the trip (Bobby, Johnny, Taylor, Brice, Kyle, Alan, and Kaleb)

Jason and Taylor at the top of White Mountain.

Here's another view from the top of White mountain. It's kind of pretty for desert climate.