Day 56 Saturday

5.19.2018

Zero Day In Independence/Bishop

There’s good things and bad things about staying in a town where the population is 200. First off, there’s 2 gas stations, one market, one cafe — which is in the market, 4 motels and that’s about it. With that being said, the cafe was off the charts delicious. It’s called Fork in the Wild and it’s located in the Owens Valley Co-Op which is run by volunteers. Probably the best burger and pasta dish I’ve had in weeks. I’m not usually one to take photos of my food but in this case I totally should have. Not to mention, the roasted Brussel sprouts yesterday were off the charts good!

The bad thing about being here is that all the really cool gear shops were located in Bishop, some 40 minutes away. We called the shuttle service we used yesterday and paid a nice man named Keith to run us around up there. He dropped us off for breakfast at Jack’s then gave us time to rummage through the 3 gear shops which were all conveniently located on the Main Street in town.

Such great selection at each place. It’s probably a good thing we were on a time crunch as Laura and I would have dropped some serious cash there if we’d had more time. Laura found me a pair of crampons at a stellar price and I also purchased some snow gaiters to go with. They will help keep the snow out of my shoes better if we have to posthole at any point in the afternoon slush. No luck on the tips for the trekking pole, so I’ll just be a little gentle on them for the next week when I get my box from Las Vegas.

We said goodbye to Dude and Luc after the gear shops. Dude is going to take a bus north on Monday and hike the Tahoe Rim Trail for a few days before his girlfriend comes down to meet him in Reno. Luc has decided to take another zero tomorrow as he’d like to wait out some of the colder weather and let his body rest up a bit more. I’m sure we will see him back in the trail in a week or two somewhere. It always happens.

After hitting up all three gear stores, Keith took us over to Vons were we grabbed our last bit of resupply food items. Yet another trek to the store to purchase items you will hopefully want to eat 7days from now. Im going to bounce a few items to Mammoth then send some things home from there (like my MicroSpikes that I won’t be using anymore on trail).

We drove back and packed our bear cans with food for the next 120+ miles. Strider has a hanging scale so my bear can alone weighed in at 12.3 lbs. I’ll weigh my entire pack before we leave in the morning. Laura and I both have “day food” that won’t be in the bear canister tomorrow since we notoriously overfoodpack so if there’s a bear incident tomorrow it’s our fault!

Laura, Andrew and I had our 2nd meal of the day (dinner) at Fork in the Wild and shared a bottle of wine. We grabbed a few items for breakfast and then they showed me some of the info I hadn’t seen on the upcoming passes. Interesting to see photos of the places I will hike with them and to see what those places look like in heavy and light snow years. I’m pretty excited about the next week alone.

Tomorrow we will head out around 830am. The hike back up to Kearsarge Pass will be somewhat brutal with the heavy packs so wish us luck. Only doing 9 miles tomorrow but those first 4 a re the heavy grind up.

I got a very nice email from Fossil last night. Today was his Pole, Peddle, Paddle competition in Bend, OR. He said he had 3rd locked in before it even started as there were only 2 others signed up in his age division. Ha!!!! I can’t wait to hear how well he did! I sent him some photos of our time on the PCT together.

It’s past 10pm now and I’m feeling tired. Last night was the best sleep I’ve gotten in weeks. I’m hoping for another night of that.

****Heidi & Heather — It’s been DAYS without Justin! I did get a message from Fireman yesterday. Fireman is in Mammoth until Monday is then I will hopefully get a Justin update for you–unless you’ve gotten one before then.

****Last night and this morning we were all busy sharing photos between the group. I’m not one for taking videos on the trail but Andrew seems to have a knack for it. He caught some pretty cool footage on Thursday for us. Enjoy.