The Long awaited to-town-stretch

Woke up refreshed this morning, I slept very well. I called out to Jukebox and Pops: “Tomorrow it’s town-day baby!!”. All of us are psyched to get into Mammoth and to indulge in some long awaited luxuries (which for us basically are showers, food, laundry). We’d planned to do a big day today, hoping to get us as close to the location where we’d exit the the trail tomorrow. Twenty miles would leave us with 5.5 miles to hike to the Red Meadows Resort. The resort has a breakfast, lunch, dinner – diner, and there’s a shuttle bus into Mammoth Lakes which runs every 30 minutes. Time to be making our way down there.

Today was fairly clouded compared to the past few days, which was nice since it still tends to get pretty hot out here. The elevation profile taught us there 3 larger climbs to tackle today, so it would be no means be an easy twenty miles. An almost empty pack and the thoughts of Mammoth Lakes however made us book it up the hills pretty hard.

Just before 1100 we made it to the top of the first (and highest) climb of the day; Silver Pass. There was a large group (+10) of hikers gathered at the top, and we enjoyed having a short snack break and catching up and getting acquainted with some of the others. The day after Mammoth Lake a bunch of us are planning not to get back on the PCT, but to check out something special. Yosemite National Park is at our doorstep, and many of us want to take advantage of this and check out the famous Yosemite valley. Photo-op and I (plus a bunch of other hikers) will try to catch an early bus to the entrance of the park and probably camp there for 2 nights before heading back on the PCT. I am real excited to check out the iconic rock-features of Half-Dome and El Capitan!

We hiked out again and dropped back below tree-line, cruising through the valley, preparing ourselves to head back up the hills on the other side. A short snack-break on a bridge made us a living meal for hundreds of mosquito’s so no time to linger. The second climb was brutal; a couple miles of very steep switch-backs. Not wanting to give in to fatigue, Turtle and I kept hiking until we got us at mosquito-free altitude. Gritting my teeth we pushed through for 1.5 hours on the brutally steep section, without any stops. On the top of the climb I allowed myself a moments rest, pleased with the quick progress.

After a short stroll through the forested section, we arrived at a clearing and were rewarded with the most gorgeous lake and an amazing lunch-spot. Totally worth it. All of us gathered and laid in the grass with the mountain lake at our feet, discussing that moments like these made the longing for town significantly decrease. It was lovely, and felt like vacation. Even though it was a bit clouded there was a firm breeze going on, with our puffy’s on, everybody got comfortable.

As always the our break-time was not nearly as long as I would’ve liked, but to make for an easy and quick day tomorrow we had to push on. There would be the final small climb left and then it would only be downhill from there. That sounded great, but after a 105 mile stretch, up or down will be hard on your feet. Mine definitely suffered.
One mile before hitting camp there was an uplift of measure; we’d officially hiked 900 miles! Nine Hundooooo! I was there with Jukebox and Pops, and were happy to congratulated each other. One hundred short of a thousand!
We booked it downhill for the final miles into camp. I went down to the river to collect water and sadly looked at my legs which are covered in mosquito-bites. During the nights I usually go mad from the itch. I’ll be happy to be relieved of them nasty bugs for a day. Even though we’ve done the biggest day of this stretch, it’s the earliest I’ve gotten ready to get for bed (2045). Not a clue how that works. Tomorrow Mammoth Lakes, a well-deserved town-day. Can’t wait!

There you are, dancing at your altar
Beautiful Earthling,
Blessed in Kashmir
All your sound echos through the canyons
Down below they’re dreaming
Hear the sirens screaming
Another time, another world,
Girls were boys, and boys were girls,
Find the glitter, in the litter
Like a heart it’s got move,
everybody needs some room.
There’s something out there….

There’s a long straight road
Out of the cold
And we can leave it all behind…

I wanna get outside,
Baby let’s get outside,
I wanna get outside,
Outside,
Of me….

All I found, the space between the spaces
Standing in the nothing,
and time reclaims you
As the wind will beat you down,
in the wind the only sound
There’s something out there….

Outside – Foo Fighters