A Super Fun Five Day Break!!

One thing I want to mention before I write about my time off with Claire is that Julian has gotten off-trail in Mammoth. He is not injured and nothing horrible has happened. Ever since I met him at Mike’s at mile 130, he’s been talking about future plans to move out of his parents place and in with his girlfriend, leaving California and finding a cool town in Arizona like Flagstaff. The trail this year showed him that anything is possible and that he should follow his dreams. Instead of finishing the trail, and then having to work for another year to make the move, he’s decided to do it now with the money he’s saved for this trip! I’m selfishly sad but at the same time I’m also very genuinely happy for him! It’s bittersweet!

Some parting words from Julian:

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So, I had meant to make this post while I still had service, but the days I took off-trail were so fun I couldn’t find the time! After staying in Mammoth the first night, I did all my chores I had to do like laundry and resupply. Luckily, my resupply was already done since Claire had driven down a HUGE package from my mom, including food from my sister and dad! I was able to fill my bear can full for the next 5 day stretch, AND send myself the next next 5 day stretch to Sonora Pass!! Thanks family!!

We went to eat lunch at Roberto’s where we had had our last trail meal in 2016. The food was still most excellent! Claire and I had been planing on hitting some local hot springs around Mammoth. One that caught my eye was a little further away, but they had private tubs you could reserve for the night and camp at! Lucky for us, some people had cancelled on the best site on the grounds, and Claire and I were able to scoop it up last minute! 

We first headed over to Convict Lake, by suggestion of Julian. It was very very pretty and Claire and I both took dips in the freezing water!! (Claire went all the way under and I didn’t!!)

Roberto’s still delicious!!

Convict Lake

Claire taking a dip!!

Cool rock formations on the way to Benton Hot Springs


Benton Hot Springs Office

We scored with site #5!

Adding more hot straight from the spring!

(Pic from Claire)

The springs were sooooo cool! The price wasn’t bad at all, there were 11 or so handmade built tubs on a few acres. There was foliage around each for privacy from the others. Our site, #5, was truly the best of the bunch, and who knows how long it had been reserved!! The place was very clean and had a picnic table and plenty of space for the car and tent. We could’ve fit 3 vehicles/tents in there! I highly recommend Benton Hot Springs!

Our great sandwiches, also had avocado!

So sweet!

The only one downside was that since it was a very warm night, the mosquitos didn’t go away after 9pm like they usually do... they stayed up as we stayed up, and bit us ALL.... NIGHT... It was pretty bad, but the private tub was worth getting eaten alive! We DID wish we had one of those mosquito coils to burn to keep them at bay! 

My whole body looked like this... Claire had it about the same. I had over 30 on my back and shoulder area alone... 

The next day we drove down towards Bishop and highway 395. We tried to check out some old mines while trying not to break Claire’s car, went through a really cool red rock canyon, and even stopped at a neat petroglyph site!

This car is a trooper

Road trip through the desert!!

Red rocks

Finding some shade!

Driving through the canyon!

Volcano eruption petroglyphs!

We got to Bishop and hung out at a cool coffee shop called The Looney Bean Cafe. They have great, healthy food and smoothies and such! And WiFi! I was able to find a free camping area what I thought would be just a few minutes out of town. It ended up being a pretty crazy and rocky dirt road, but after some explorations and off roading, we pulled up to a nice campsite which we called home for the night!

Buttermilk Road

Our picnic table

Photo by Claire

Photo by Claire

The next day we headed back into the 100°+ Bishop. It was so hot we decided to get a couple nights in a motel. Super 8 saved the day as far as prices go! We had a lot of fun walking around the HUGE city park and feeding the ducks. We went to the Mountain Rambler Brewery to kill some time before check-in, and then bowled 5 games that night! While all of this is going on, you can safely assume I’ve been eating 4-5 meals everyday.. :)

The ducks LOVE Claire!!

Especially Monster. (We named like 5 ducks)

Mountain Rambler Brewery. We had a Sushi Go tournament! And then Claire whooped me in Skip-Bo..

Then a bowling tournament! 

The next day we went to Erick Schat’s Bakkery. It’s a really cool bakery in Bishop that’s basically been there since the town was! The place is HUGE and super busy all the time! There’s pull-apart bread, all types of loaves of breads, GREAT sandwiches, jams, jellies, candies, ANY type of pastry you can imagine, as well as a bunch of chocolates and sweet goodies! Let’s just say we went here 3 times and were 100% satisfied every time!

Schat’s slammed!

And that’s just half the pasties/chocolates! You get the point..

Yum! I ate this whole thing in one day!

Both days spent in Bishop were filled with relaxing and eating! Lots and lots of eating! I ate so much, that... well, I don’t even know I just ate SO much!! We found a sweet Chinese restaurant one of the nights that did NOT disappoint!!

Best Chinese food I’ve had in a long time! Especially the eggplant! (The Long Island Ice Tea wasn’t bad either)  ;)

Yes, I do realize that half of this blog is about food, but hey, that’s half of what I do out here!! Also, I need to be able to have hard proof that I DID actually eat a lot, when I’m 50 lbs at the Canadian border and people think I’ve been starving! 

The next day we headed back over to Mammoth to do some hiking and camping. We drove through the town down to Crystal Lake Trailhead, and decided to do a beautiful 2 mile trail up to the Mammoth Crest and back down. The hike was great! Way up high there was a lot of red cinder and it reminded me of Mauna Kea back home on the Big Island of Hawaii. As we were at the top we started getting smoked out by a fire maybe 3 or 4 miles away. I took a picture in case it hadn’t been reported yet, but it seems like it’s been smoldering for quite some time after lighting struck earlier this month..

Mammoth Crest

#model

Crazy!

Our view from the top

Fiyah!!!

Going down!

A silly Tee in a tree.. 

(Photo by Claire)

After the hike we went down into the town and to Mammoth Brewery. I had been in contact with a few people to see if any other hikers I knew were in Bishop or Mammoth. I just missed Alon by one day, but Claire and I were able to meet Smoother and Gazer at the brewery! I hadn’t seen them since ~mile 550! We also saw Ben whose trail name is now Chicken of the Sea. I haven’t seen him since Idyllwild! (Mile 150!)

Ben with a mighty flight! I forgot to take a picture of/with Smoother and Gazer...

We left the brewery just before dark and found a nice spot to camp about 10 minutes towards Lee Vining. Our plan was to camp the last night and get into Yosemite fairly early, do a small hike together, and have Claire be able to leave by noon, so she can make it up to Grants Pass tomorrow, and then to Portland the next day.

Nice spot of an OHV road

Tomorrow is my first day back on trail! It will include whatever Claire and I do in the morning, plus however far I get on the PCT. after that, it’ll be back to daily blog posts on trail! I’m feeling well rested, and really happy I got to see Claire and spend some time with her. Thanks for being patient guys, and as always:

Thanks for reading!!