I figured about 10-12 miles a day would it.  240/11 ~ 21 days.  I could do that.  I had been practicing.  I hiked about 900 miles in a year training.  This worked about to be about 30-40 miles a week (3-4 ten miles days).  No problem.  It took me about 4-5 hours to hike 10 miles.  Heck, I would have time to sit on a rock at the end of the day, meditate, swim in a lake, take in the air, and recover for tomorrow.

My naive plan – The planned route

 

Camp Location	Night	Miles Covered	Cumulative	Peaks, Passess, points of interest
Cotton Wood Lakes	1	6.3	6.3
Rock Creek Camp?	2	8.2	14.5	New Army Pass
Crabtree Ranger Station	3	8.1	22.6	Guyot Pass
above guitar lake	4	9.9	32.5	Mt Whitney
Tyndall Frog Ponds	5	11.8	44.3
Bullfrog lake junction	6	11.2	55.5	Forester Pass
Cut down to Onion Valley camp at arrowhead or charlotte depending on energy	7	9	64.5	Resupply 4.5 miles to Onion Valley 9 miles round trip + hitch to town
Sawmill Pass Junction	8	15.3	79.8	glenn pass
past taboose trail	9	8.4	88.2	pinchot pass
Dusy fork bridge	11	19.9	108.1	mather pass
McClure meadow	13	18.3	126.4	muir pass
Muir Trail Ranch	14	10.1	136.5	resupply
bear ridge junction	15	14	150.5	seldon pass
squaw lake	16	15.1	165.6	silver pass
deer creek	17	13.4	179
after beck lake jcn	18	9.1	188.1	Resupply Postpile, reds meadow
ruby lake	19	12	200.1
Marie lakes jnct (3.04)	20	10.5	210.6	island pass,donahue pass
Tuolome Meadows	21	10.6	221.2	If this is closed go to sunrise high Sierra Camp or cathedral lakes
Merced Lake jcnt	22	14.7	235.9
Backpackers Camp (Happy Isles – By North Pines)	23	8.1	244

 

In reality, I woke up before dawn and hike until sundown.  Here was the actual trip (I guess I wasn’t too far off)

Campsite	Night	Miles Covered	Cumulative	Notables	Elevation+	Elevation-
Horse Shoe Meadow	1	0	0
High Lake	2	9	9	Failed New Army Pass	1543	0
Near Chicken Springs	3	15	24	Bristlecone Forest Cottonwood pass	1657	2000
Near Crabtree Ranger St.	4	17.2	41.2	Bristlecone Forest, Guyot Pass, first major crossings	1835	1025
Sandy Meadow	5	12	53.2	Failed Whitney attempt	2300	2300
Rock Outcrop near forrester	6	11.3	64.5	First Major snow field / Tyndall creek	1970	540
South of bull frog	7	9.4	73.9	Forrester Pass	1753	3813
South flower lake	8	12	85.9	Resupply (Kersarge pass)	3800	3600
Middle Rae Lake	9	10	95.9	Glenn Pass	2020	2400
West of Twin Lakes	10	10	105.9		2108	1908
1-2 miles south Mather at treeline	11	8	113.9	Pinochet Pass / South Fork Kings	2460	2060
Leconte Canyon Near Middle Fork Junction	12	12	125.9	Mather Pass/ Golden Staircase	1100	3600
Star Camp	13	9.3	135.2		2760	435
McClure Meadow	14	12	147.2	Muir Pass	1200	2350
MTR North junction	15	14.3	161.5		600	1850
South of Bear Creek Jct	16	12.2	173.7	Seldon Pass	2500	1820
South of Silver Pass curve	17	11	184.7		2500	1980
North of Duck Lake Junction	18	15	199.7	Silver Pass/Tully Hole ascent	2625	2245
Just above Johnson Meadow	19	15	214.7		1060	2380
Thousand Island Lake	20	13.3	228	Garnet Lake Peak/Shadow Lake	3400	1500
Upper Lylle canyon/Rafferty Creek	21	14	242	Island Pass / Donhaue Pass	1641	2781
Long Meadow near jct	22	14.1	256.1	Cathedral Pass	1170	670
Happy Isle	23	19.5	275.6	Half Dome	2100	7420

Total Gain: 44102 feet

Total Down: 48677 feet

The story:

 

Chapter 1: Day 1-5 (Starting out – Horseshoe Meadows – Crabtree)

Chapter 2: Day 6-8 (Whitney to Kesarge to Flower Lake)

Chapter 3: Day 9 (Kesarge Pass, Glenn Pass, Middle Rae Lake)

Chapter 4: Day 10 (Rae Lakes – Sawmill Pass)

Day 16-18 (Seldon Pass to Silver Pass)

Day 20 (Johnston Lake to Thousand Island Lake)