Just finished up a 14 day hike from Happy Isles to Whitney 3 days ago. Tons of fun. This really is some of the most incredible land I've seen in the country. Even though rangers said it was the most popular weekend to start (2nd week July) we didn't really bump into an unreasonable amount of folks. Probably equal amount PCTers and equal amount men and women hiking.

I brought a digital thermometer and the temps seemed to be between 30-50 at night (mostly between 9000 and 10500') and mid 80s to low 90s during the day. Best camp was hands down Big Horn Plateau- the drainage out of the pond there was dry and had no flowers so you can walk it to the water and find barren/sandy camp sites.

Water was pretty much everywhere after Tuolumne Meadows. Mosquitoes were borderline unbearable every night/day but 4 days- most everyone was hiking with bug nets and clothes they couldn't bite through. Hopefully should be going down with the snow melt. Only had to cross about 20 feet of snow on Donahue, Glen, and Whitney. Construction is a problem at Whitney portal- a hitch took us an hour to do 11 miles and I've been told there can be waits of up to 3 hours for equipment coming through. The hostel in Lone Pine is great and only $34 a night if you don't mind bunk bed sleeping with a couple other folks and then you can take the ESTA bus in the morning.

Honestly, our pace was fast but I tend to just like moving along. If given the opportunity again I would love to have a zero day at Rae Lakes or Virginia Lake. This is mostly because I would want to fish the tons of trout.

Also, Suntan lotion and down jacket were pretty much mandatory. I applied 2 times a day to my face and used a bandana and I still got pretty badly sunburned.