Last August I went form OV to the Portal. We camped at the tarn 15 minutes past Guitar Lake. We had gotten there about 11:30 and decided to make the summit bid the next day. We started to see a few people continue past us and a few that were coming back down. Then around 5:00 PM I saw a group of 5 or 6 guys coming up the trail. Each one of them were wearing shorts and a few shirtless. None of them had packs and each had a container of water in their hands. A couple had some type of upper body wear wrapped around their waists. They marched in single file past us and up the trail. We never saw nor heard them come back down the trail after dark. I wondered where they came from and what the plan was. It was pretty late in the day to start going up. As without packs it's still 2-3 hours to trail crest and another 1.5 at least to the summit. One guy was carrying a half gallon milk container that must have been filled with water. To me it looked like they were on some type of day hike but I have no idea where they could have started from. Just from the clothes or lack of, they did not appear to be traditional backpackers. I wonder where they ended up that night.
