Day 46 8.71 miles

This morning I tried my hardest to sleep in, since I knew the Post Office didn’t open until 9:30am, big against all will, I was wide awake at 6am sharp.. I realized this morning that I had been sleeping with my feet hanging off the tiny bunk beds. It’s sounds crazy but after two nights I’m ready to be back in my sleeping bag and on my little mat! 

The three of us headed to McDonalds for some breakfast, as we didn’t want to spend too much more $$ in Lone Pine. I ate a lot of pancakes :) Checkout was at 10am which was super early we felt, and a little inconvenient as the PO and our packages wouldn’t be ready until after 9:30! Also, when in a small town of a bunch of anxious hikers waiting for a bunch of packages for multiple days over the weekend, this is what the PO on Monday looks like:

There’s another 4 people behind me lined up

I wasn’t able to pick up my packages until almost 10am, but luckily I didn’t have to wait in the line again to send back my send-home items. I received my bear can and a bunch of food from Claire and a box from mom with a bunch of food. I also received the new Altria Timps I bought from REI. (They were on sale 30% off for $97, usually $130). The SECOND pair of leggings Sarah tried to send me were lost in the oblivion of the postal world, thanks to the company that is OnTrac. 

It all worked out though, as it always does! I just went over to 2-foot adventures. They were that sweet outfitter in the awesome airstream trailer back in Warmer Springs where I bought my first Timps. They have moved up North with the hiker bubble, and will love once again to Etna, CA in a few weeks. I bought some Merino Wool Icebreakers from them, which are nice and toasty!

I went back to the hostel right at around 10am. The day was already so hot that I wanted to just stay in the A/C and pack my bear can into my bag. I left around 10:45 after seeing the cleanin ladies walk by and look in. I found a nice shaded spot on the grass right outside of the grocery store, where I was joined by Julian and Keglegs. We watched each other’s bags as we took turns going to the store to supplement our packages for the upcoming 8 day stretch!

8 days :) 90% of this is from Claire and Mom. I only bought two ramens, peanut butter, tortillas, 2 more clif bars, the tigers milk bar, and the dehydrated soup :)

Thank you Mom and Claire (and Dona) so much for sending these things!! The dehydrated food choices at the store were mainly depleted, and I don’t think I would’ve had success resupplying here in Lone Pine (with the light cook-food I wanted),  if it weren’t for you guys :) In the bear canister Claire sent my stove and a few other things, including a buff since I lost my beanie!!

Even some chocolate for Julian from Mom..

I’m actually pretty impressed that I got everything in my backpack without having everything popping out too crazy. My pack with a liter of water and all the food came out to 39 pounds!

Not too baaaaaaaad!! (Full tent (yellow bag) is now living in one side pocket, replacing one water bottle, since I’ll only need one liter at any point for the next 130 miles :) 

This is the pack of a hiker named Nemo. He has a smaller bearcan in there and it and the whole pack only weighs about 21 pounds with 5 days of food.. this is his COMPLETE Sierra pack setup... I’m jealous!

It was a little past noon and time to get a move on! Solo and Stache had planned to leave early morning but still hadn’t been able to get a ride out of town! This was definitely the hardest hitch of the trail so far, as it seemed no one was going up the random Cottonwood Pass Road, on a MONDAY afternoon, when Whitney Portal, a far more popular road and hiking trailhead, is on the same road but splits off in another direction. 

Stache and I stood on the street with our thumbs out, doing our dances and shakas, and hiker pleas. Someone finally pulled over at around 1:30pm. She said she could take 3 of us up, even though she was headed to Whitney Portal and it was about 30 miles out of her way! Stache and I had first dibs as we were doing all the hitchin’, and we were actually able to stuff Solo AND Julian and everyone’s pack in the 5 seater.. Keglegs had already been working on a ride herself, so we knew she’d be close behind.

Our ride’s name was Shelby and she was super cool. She works in Georgia on film sets and TV show sets working on props and other logistics for shooting. She’s currently working on Season 3 of Stranger Things, and just before that was working on Marvel movies, most recently Black Panther, Avengers 3 and 4, and Guardians of the Galaxy. 

It was so cool to hear some fun stories about the actors and sets in general, and how some specific things were made. Don’t worry, nothing very important was spilled, and certainly no spoilers on anything in the works! It turns out she was just driving to Whitney Portal to camp at the trailhead and do a day summit tomorrow, so taking us this far out of her way didn’t ruin her day plans. She also had a rental car and didn’t seem to mind driving more. She refused to take any money, and even gave each of us a beer!

Shelby

We waited at the trailhead for Keglegs to arrive. She was only about 10 minutes behind. Someone had pulled up at the same time Shelby did and took about 5 hikers up. On the way up we saw lots of hikers waiting for a hitch into Lone Pine from the parking lot. There were WAY less day-hikers today, and I felt bad for some of them when I imagined how long they must’ve been waiting/had to wait for a ride!

Stache trying to hang on to a world UpsideDown

Stache rocking the darn tough socks I gave him, and STILL rocking his hol-y shoes. Hey, no blisters there right? But soon to be lots of snow..


My brand new grippy shoes! (I sent the others home as they still have a few hundred miles on them, I just wanted some fresh traction for all this snow we’re headed into)

After Keglegs had arrived, and us boys drank our beers, we headed out! (and up!) Cottonwood Trail was so beautiful, we even saw some cool horses out for a hike! I was so excited to be back out on trail and full of energy that I barely stopped while going up the steep switchbacks!

Horsies

Beautiful!

Looking back down

After 3.8 miles we met back up with the PCT. (we had left the trail on Trail Pass, but started back at the same trailhead we ended at, essentially making a little loop so we got to see two different trails at the same pass. 

I absolutely love the trees out here..

Soon I came up in Chicken Spring Lake, where I had jumped in in 2016. Stache and Solo were ahead, and I had left the other two in the dust going up the pass, so I took my time taking in all the pretty view from way up above the lake. J and K stopped at the lake for a break and I continued on, oohing and aahing at everything!

Taking a dip in Chicken Spring Lake, 2016 

Today looking SE from PCT, down at Chicken Spring Lake, 11,000 elevation

View from same high ridge, looking NW

Great trees everywhere!!

Beautiful boulder fields

Meadows down below

I took a long break at a water source around 5pm, and waited for the other to catch up. They weren’t too far behind. It feels so great to not have to worry about carrying a lot of water, now that there’s water at least every 5 miles for quite a while. We cooked and ate a little bit of food there, before heading out to the next good looking campsite, a little under two miles away.

Entering Sequoia and Kings Canyon!!

View from my tent at the great campsite

Julian taught me how to simply make a beanie out of a buff. I’ll work on it, haha

Although we aren’t right next to water, there are still quite a few mosquitos hanging around, so we actually got in our tents pretty early after eating (again). We only have a little over 15 miles until we get to Guitar Lake. This is off on the Mt. Whitney Trail and we’re planning to stay there to summit Mt. Whitney early the next day, and then be able to knock out most of the approach to Forrester Pass that afternoon!!

I’m so freaking excited!!! Ahhhhhh!!! My bag is heavy but it honestly isn’t that bad, and it’ll only be getting lighter as the days go on and I nom all my food. I’m stoked now that I have leggings, as it gets real cold up here, I now have a full set of separate sleeping clothes!

Staying toasty in here!! Also, apparently the Timps are super reflective! See them in the right top corner?

Tonight we are camped just over 11,000 feet! This mixed with a “short” day tomorrow means I’m gonna sleep in and eat a lot of warm breakfast before breaking camp. I’m excited for this, and super excited for the days to come!

Thanks for reading!!