High Sierra Topix

I'm about to start the High Sierra Trail, and am finalizing my plans before I take off. I'm planning to hike from Crescent Meadows to Whitney Portal, which looks like a solid 5-day hike for me, but my permit is good for 7 days. Are there any good side trips I should take since my permit will let me stay out there longer? When I did the JMT, I found that 16 miles/day is a pretty good pace for me (is the HST more brutal? Does 5 days sound too intense?). I honestly don't know what to do with myself in the backcountry if I'm not hiking all day, and I won't have a fishing pole with me this time. Any suggestions? Another option I suppose is to finish early and do a short trip out of the Owens Valley somewhere, but the person who is picking me up would want to stay in a hotel as they don't like camping.

Hi Billygoat,

Welcome to HST!
Are you comfortable with cross-country or maybe some peak bagging?
For crosscountry, 9 Lakes Basin of Wales Lake.
For peak bagging, Eagle Scout Peak and Mt. Kaweah.

you can add a few miles to your trip by instead of heading east after junction meadow towards wallace creek, continue up the kern river north to the upper kern loop trail to lake south america, around and back onto the jmt south towards tyndall creek. the lakes at the kern river basin are spectacular and just beg to be explored. the upper kern loop trail up to lake south america is faint but well marked with carins, and is easy too lose the trail though. i did the hst too this year and did this side trip and highly recommend it.