Day 59 Tuesday

5.22.2018

Those clouds!!!!! Those are the clouds that hovered over us all day yesterday while in the mountains. Mostly sunny in Independence for the time that we had spent here. It’s 9:13 as I write this on the bus to Bishop. We are going to have breakfast there and catch the 1pm bus to Mammoth. I just got a message from Tyler who is currently headed back to the trail. I wish him the best and look forward to his updates via FB and Instagram. It doesn’t look pretty up there and as much of a bummer it is to not be on the trail right now, the uncertainty of the conditions of those mountain passes is what’s keeping us down here. We will figure out where to start back up again soon.

(8:57PM) We made it to Bishop around 930. We grabbed a bite to eat at the Great Basin Bakery. We had heard it was more of a local eatery than a hiker one, so when we showed up with our packs we had plenty of people ask us questions: where were we going, how was the trail, how long we’d been out, where were we from. One guy even sounded like he would have been happy to give us a ride to wherever we needed. Super nice.

We made a quick stop at Eastside Sports. Can’t keep the gear junkies out of the gear store! I bought some new snow baskets for my poles and some new chonies–since I’ve lost that much weight. After that we walked down to the KMart where the next bus to Mammoth departed from. I should mention bus fare from Independence was $6.50…. from Bishop to Mammoth it was another $7. Man, I know I fly free but the bus is cheap in these small towns. I just might be on to more adventures at that price!!!! 🙂

We made it into Mammoth just before 2pm. The mountains were encompassed in clouds for the entire drive up. We decided to grab a room at the Sierra Nevada Resort & Spa. Sounds terribly fancy but don’t you worry, it has everything we need including a central location in town, laundry, a Mammoth town shuttle stop directly across the street and not to mention Roberto’s Mexican Cantina within walking distance as well. Everything a hiker could ever need. We took the free town shuttle over to the Post Office to pick up my packages. I emptied my pack in the room knowing I had 2 boxes waiting for me. I have so much food now that I haven’t eaten anything out of my pack. I had a box sent from Vegas and the bounced box I had from Independence.

Just prior to walking over for Mexican food, the skies opened up. Torrential rain dumped for a solid 10 minutes. The clouds have yet to disperse from town and it doesn’t look like they will anytime soon. I have seen more posts about hikers waiting out the storm and/or going home and less stories about hikers going back to the trail. I know we made the right decision. I finally received a quick text from Justin who is 2 days out from Reds Meadow/Mammoth. He’s been out since the afternoon of the 11th. I can’t wait for his stories!

After dinner we were full and just outright lazy. Andrew was nice enough to get laundry started for us. So at least that was accomplished today. We had a few laughs over Dudes YouTube videos that are now online. Hikers will appreciate them. You can find them under traildude2018. His daughter posted them for him from what I understand. I knew he’d been singing along the way but this is the proof and the lyrics are comical. Again, the classic song renditions are pure humor themselves. He will post one more tomorrow he said that will include his last few days on the trail with me. I should mention he wanted my trail name to be “Buh-ta” because I stole his Country Crock Butter in Kennedy Meadows and that’s how we started talking. So when you hear the mention of “Out-of-the-Blue” that is Luc. There also a mention of Laura, Andrew and Karma. So stay tuned for that little ditty.

We’ve decided to stay here until Friday. Everything we have heard about the weather seems to be the same. More rain, more snow at higher elevations. We will keep watching forecasts, blog posts and talking with others to see what our next move will be. If you’re wondering why we wouldn’t go home for a few days instead of “hanging out” here, I have a feeling that if I went home (to Vegas) I’d fall right back into normal life and never come back to the trail. I’m not ready to quit. Neither is Laura. There’s too much of the trail ahead of us. Even if I don’t get the Sierras done this year, I’ll be happy with what I do accomplish out here. So let’s just give it a few more days and see what happens. And rest is good for the body.