Day 55 Friday

5.18.2018

off Trail PCT miles 6.4This mornings wake-up wasn’t near as early as yesterday, nor near as cold. Yet we planned to be hiking by 6am to beat the sun one more day. The views along the Kearsarge Pass trail were stunning again. Our hike was 2 miles up and 4.4 down to the trailhead. The first 1.5 wasn’t all that terrible, it was the last half mile that felt like it went on forever. We were on top of Kearsarge by 730. Such a beautiful way to watch the sunrise amongst the mountain lakes.

There wasn’t much for snow on the upside and less snow than we expected on the downside so today’s miles were much easier than we all had expected. There was only one segment of Trail where we used our ice axes for a little extra security.

Once at the bottom of the trail head, only half of us had phone service. Karma and Luc scored a ride with a random group of people who had gone for a drive to the mountains this morning and Andrew was able to arrange a ride through a shuttle service for the 4 of us left. Kurt picked us up about an hour later. Nice, retired man. We chatted all the way down the hill as I found out he was a retired pilot from US Airways and the Air Force. He drove us to the Post Office to pick up our resupply packages and then dropped us off at the Williamson Motel.

Since Laura and Andrew had already prearranged this stay I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I just go with the flow but this place is pretty darn cute! Strider (the owner) hikes the JMT every year. She’s got quite the resume of life achievements herself. She’s an awesome trail angel as she has specific hiker packages for her motel, complete with laundry, shuttle rides and a welcoming beer. She even gives out necklaces handmade from a friend of hers to all the lady hikers. Super sweet.

The rest of the day from then in was pretty chill. Laura and Andrew worked on mileage and resupply strategies for the next week. There are several days of passes and river crossing coming up. I was planning on 7 days to Mammoth from here, but 8 actually sounds a lot better.

I was able to catch up on all these blog posts and chat with my Pops. I’m sorry if I caused anyone alarm as I couldn’t update the blog while I was in the mountains. I always have the tracking on my Garmin during the day, so as long as the dot is moving, I’m doing alright.

Tomorrow we will get a ride into Bishop. Just a few things need for the food resupply. Hoping to find a decent gear store there to fix my trekking pole and buy those crampons. Other than that…. just another town day. It’s nice to be out of the cold for a bit. I should mention, yesterday was probably the first day all week that when we set up camp it wasn’t uncomfortable. We were actually able to sit and have dinner together before we went to sleep. Just strange that now that we’re in town, it was 80 degrees here in Independence.