As agreed, we all got going early. Sassy voluntarily got moving at 6. Bear started loudly clearing his throat around 6:30 to make sure we were awake. To speed things up, I had prepared the coffee, oatmeal, and orange Julius at dinner last night. All I had to do was boil water. Even Bunny could have finished up this morning since she claims all I do is boil water (all done while she sleeps).
All four of us were ready by 10 before 8. Even more amazing was that we were all at the top of the climb at 8. The race was on. Traditionally, (on this trip at least) we haven’t been hitting the trail until 8:45. We usually go about 3 miles before our first break around 10:30. We put in another 3 miles and have lunch around 1:30. That leaves us about 7 to finish the day sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 so we can set up camp before dark. That’s our typical 13 mile day.
That’s a problem for us today. We need to get 13 in before 5 if we want to get a hamburger from the grill at Tuolumne Meadows. We had motivation to get up early, but would that be enough to ensure we make it on time to order burgers.
After cresting the hill, we let Bunny lead because she tends to be fastest hiking downhill. We agreed to have a break at 10 to check our progress and make any necessary adjustments. When we stopped at 10, we had 5.2 miles in. We were smoking. Behold the power of beef!
The next agreed upon stop was Tuolumne Falls which was a total of 7.4 miles from our camp, leaving 5.3 miles with a half mile road walk. We have not eaten a single lunch this trip before 1. We were done with lunch and hiking before noon. Granted, our lunch was quick because we didn’t have much food left. Bunny had a pack of tuna, I had a pack of chicken, and we split a beef stick. Between breakfast, lunch, and snack, Bunny and I could not have had more than 500 calories. We also skipped all electrolytes in our drinks. We were “all in” on the burger and fries. If we ate a week like this on the trail, we would be walking zombies (if we could still walk).
Now we were in the home stretch with less than 6 total miles to go. Our goal was no later than 4, but now we faced some uphill hiking. It was time for the A team to take the lead. Bear took over pole position with me in caboose. Bear had us knock out the climbs in a 4 mile uphill section in about an hour and 45 minutes. This is phenomenal if you know how slow Bunny and I handle inclines.
We had less than 2.5 miles which was mostly level to downhill. It was hot. We were wearing sunglasses. Our hoods were up. It’s put up or shut up time. Who do we turn to? Bunny had the lead. Normally Bunny is not too food motivated, but after yesterday’s caloric scare on the first big climb, she was primed for a cheeseburger. In pilot vernacular, Bunny was a dot.
Bear claimed people were jumping off the trail as we passed them and then they would ask Bear “what’s up with the two smelly hikers flying down the trail?” He explained that we were trying to finish the PCT and that we have been out for 3 weeks, and that Bunny was not a vegetarian rabbit. There’s a cow in danger and the rabbit is taking it out. In other words, she’s a killer bunny with huge nasty teeth.
We made it to the grille a bit after 3. We needed to pick up our resupply boxes. We needed to find out about camping. We needed to make reservations for Mammoth Lakes. We needed to repair the bleeding gash Sassy had put in my leg when I slowed down unexpectedly. But all that could wait until we had burgers. Bear and I took our places in line while the lady folk found a picnic table and guarded our food. I ordered cheeseburger combos for us which included potato wedges and UNLIMITED refills on soft drinks. We had won the lottery again.
When we got our food, I was crushed. Our burgers were great. That wasn’t the problem. Bear and Sassy had gotten double burgers and bacon. It was devastating to see them get so much more food. Then Bunny proved why I love her. “If your still hungry, get another burger. Oh, and get me a twist ice cream.” She knows the way to my heart
As I was heading back to the line, Bear said “get me a twist as well.” What about Sassy. “She doesn’t want one.” Wiki Task Force, what’s wrong with that woman. Little did I know, we were facing a major crisis. Sassy had ordered a gluten free bun—very good thing. Sassy plus gluten equals bad times for trees along trail. What none of us paid attention to was the potato wedges were breaded. If she gets another gluten exposure this close to the last, she could be out of the game for days.
I came back to the table with the ice cream and Sassy was gone. Bear filled me in on the potato crisis and told me Sassy was in the bathroom. I enquired if she might induce vomiting to get rid of the gluten. “She might. I’ll check on her once I finish my ice cream.” Sassy came back from the bathroom with no obvious signs of recycled food on her clothes. She started reaching for straws. “Maybe they used rice powder in the breading.” Right!
Bear went in to check (once his ice cream was gone—creating an additional crisis by wasting ice cream will not lessen the first crisis). The first answer was they didn’t know what the breading was. The wedges come pre-breaded. Bear got a bit more persuasive and said “we ordered a gluten free bun. We have someone seriously effected by gluten we need to know (or she will paint your grille brown).” The guy went back and cut the ingredients label off a box of fries. I’ll be damned if it wasn’t rice flour and tapioca. Code brown averted!
Now all we had to do was get our resupply boxes and camping worked out. We ran into Train who was with us at Kennedy Meadows. He already had a site and told us what we needed to do to camp. Bear went to find cell signal to call about hotels in the park (no chance!). Bunny and I got our resupply box from the post office. Whoever put it together did a phenomenal job. We have everything we need. (Actually, our Trail Angel, Digit Alice, came through again. She had acquired the majority of food for us, but I put it together and mailed it because she is recovering from hip surgery. This was a group effort.)
We set up camp then returned to the store to buy salads for supper. We sat at a PICNIC TABLE in our camp (high living on the trail) and talked with Train while we ate supper. Bunny called Sarah to find out how her grand baby is doing. The baby is fine but Sarah has major morning sickness and has already declared “one is enough.”
EFG