Monday the 20th I waited around in Old Station all morning for my package. Finally after lunch I called the post office just to make sure it was coming and the lady said she had it but wasn’t planning on delivering it till the next day. I asked if I could come get it and she said sure, but then asked where I was and I told her at the store in town and she said she would bring it down their around 2 pm if I’d wait. I told her that’s be great and settled back in to wait. I hung out with some other hikers that had made it into town and learned that Uphill (formerly RJ) had hiked through that morning. I met an older guy that was section hiking south and we talked for a while: then just before 2 I walked to the store and stood out front until I saw an SUV with US mail pull up and I walked over and the lady handed me my box. I took it around back to a picnic table and opened it. There was so much food! I was ecstatic and stuck as much as I could in my pack. I realized there was no way it would all fit and I didn’t have anybody to give it to so I put as much as I could in my pack and then left the rest in a box on a bench in front of the gas station hoping some hiker would wander by and pick it up. It was nearly 3 pm and I was finally ready to hike out. I made sure I had full water bottles as the next section was notoriously dry and picked up my now ridiculously heavy pack. With all the food and water I could barely carry it but I got it on my back back and hiked out. It was a blazing hot afternoon and I was heading out to walk around the Hat creek rim which was famous for being hot, exposed and waterless. I would have to do over 16 miles that afternoon to make it to the 500 gallon water tank which was basically halfway across the dry section
When I made it to the Donner ski ranch on the 9th of July I found Best Buy and RJ already there. They had hiked in earlier in the afternoon. I ate my grilled chicken sandwich and enjoyed their company. They had planned on going into town , Truckee, but the road in was closed and it wasn’t possible to hitchhike there without a lot of trouble. This was going to be a problem since I had no choice but to go into town since I desperately needed shoes. Mine had only lasted 29 days before falling apart. But I didn’t have to worry about it till morning. The ski ranch had a bunk room and I got a bed laundry and a shower for 30 dollars. Rj and Best Buy were staying there as well. As we tried to sleep the workers that lived upstairs decided to have a party and their loud music kept us awake for a while but eventually they quietened and we slept.
The 10th of July I had officially been on trail for 1 month. I had hiked through Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite national parks and loads of wildernesses and national forests I had crossed the high Sierras and climbed Mount Whitney I had made it five hundred and one point three miles. I had taken 3 days off and was averaging 16.7 miles a day. I would have to do better to make the Canadian border before snowfall. It was still just over 1500 miles to the border and then another 652 across the desert to do the part I had skipped at the beginning I still had over two thousand one hundred and fifty two miles to hike. Wow that’s crazy. I try not to think of the overall numbers too often and just focus on making daily miles . They’re just too big. When I finish this trail I’ll have over 8,000 trail miles hiked on the Triple Crown that’s hard to fathom. But for the day I had other worries I needed shoes and the road to town was closed. Looking at the map I realized I was going to have to hitch out the other way away from town and get to Interstate 80 and then try to hitch down the interstate to Truckee. It was a plan. I was up at 5 as usual and RJ was up as well he soon got Beat Buy out of bed they were hiking out early as they had to be in Sierra City before noon on Saturday (the next day) to pick up resupply boxes. They were soon out the door and on their way. I was going stir crazy wanting to get my day started but it was too early for traffic. At 7 I was out by the road hoping for a car. None came by for a quite a while but a little before 8 a nice lady stopped and asked what I was doing. I told her I had to get to Truckee f to buy shoes. She said “the roads closed” I agreed and explained I was trying to hitch out to the interstate so I could get in from there. She told me that was a solid plan and offered to take me to the on ramp at I-80. I got in and off we went she drove me to the interstate dropped me off and headed on her way. I sat up on the on ramp and was quickly scooped up by another lady heading into Truckee where she worked at the DMV. By 830 I was in town. I found the gear store but it didn’t open till 10 so I walked around till I found Wild Cherries Coffee shop. It was a great place and I got coffee and a breakfast sandwich and hung out there using the WiFi’s to upload pics from my phone for my blog. Soon enough it was time to walk back over to the outfitter and I was there when it opened. I told the clerk I needed shoes and she asked “thru-hiker?” I confirmed her suspicion and she asked my size and then went and brought me a pair of altra lone peaks . Apparently I wasn’t the first hiker she had sold shoes to. I bought the shoes and a new pair of shades to replace my broken ones thanked her and left. I walked back to Wild Cherries and had a sandwich for lunch. After lunch I started trying to find a way back to the trail. I heard a rumor from the teller that the road crew had knocked off for the weekend and opened the road till Monday but no one knew it was open so there wasn’t any traffic. I resorted to ordering a Lyft to drive me back to the ski ranch the road was open now and 20 minutes later I was back on trail with my new shoes and shades.
So I left y’all at Kennedy Meadows North on the 3rd of July. It was a day to hang out with other hikers. Emily and the newly named Spontaneous, RJ and Best Buy until he hiked out. I had steak for dinner took a shower with the provided horse shampoo in the stalls behind the laundry room and once the workers had finished their work for the day, washing all the bedding from the rooms, I did laundry.The place was super crowded. After sundown I took a stroll with spontaneous and his wife and there were people sleeping in cars at every possible pullout. Hikers were still milling about; there was almost an air off desperation to celebrate the 4th in the face of lockdown. People were asking where trailheads were so they could hike out into the dark after driving all day. The beaches had been closed, planned festivities canceled, days before the holiday. The freedom to celebrate freedom curtailed at every turn. So they came to the mountains some experiencing life without cell signal for the very first time. They bought gear and headed to the wild: determined in the face of pandemics and shutdowns: fireworks were banned but the spark of liberty was ignited, they would celebrate their Independence Day!
I spent the rest of the 26th at Motel 6 in Mammoth Lakes. I ordered Dominos delivery to the room and I used the pizza box to mail home my microspikes and ice axe since it’s not snowy enough to need them anymore. There was a bunch of other hikers staying there in a big group all in one room and several others scattered about, so I hung out with them for a bit but mostly just kept to myself. Saturday the 27th I rested and worked on the blog; not really doing much of anything.
So Friday the 19th I took the bus to Bishop. I got off and walked to the Hostel California and got a bunk in the dorm for 2 nights at 25 bucks a piece. It’s kind of a hold over from the hippy days lots of folks just chilling around not a bad spot for the price. I dropped my pack and walked to a nearby laundromat and washed my only set of clothes, I carry of a pair of swim trunks and a tshirt to wear in town while I do laundry.
Ok so I should have done this before the last post but better late than never. So intro:
(also the app I use to publish this has been changed and it won’t let me load pics on it so I managed to add some on the online site but they’re all at the bottom for some reason (sorry) Continue reading “Mountains Mountains all Around”
Well 2020 has been an interesting year: due to circumstances, I’m a bit late hitting the Pacific Crest Trail. But I made it. Since it’s so late in the year I won’t have time to start at Mexico and make it to Canada before the snow closes the trail so I decided to start at mile 652, Walkers Pass, which is just before the Sierras and the high part of the trail. From there hopefully I’ll be able to make it Canada before snowfall and then find a way back down to Walker pass where I started and then finish the 652 miles across the desert to Mexico and the Triple Crown.
2020 has arrived! And so it’s time to round out 2019 and look towards the future. It was a year for the books. My first skydive; 2 ultraruns, a couple of marathons, a bunch of 5ks, 10ks, 15ks, some other ks, Biscayne, Everglades, Dry Tortugas, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, and Glacier National Parks; manatees, crocodiles, tree snails, moose, mountain goats,and grizzly bears, plus a thru-hike of the 3,014 mile Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada, and that’s just the highlights. Continue reading “ANOTHER YEAR GONE BY”
