We lost track of Aimee when we left Glen Pass, yesterday. They were talking about going on to the turn to Bullfrog Lake and camping. I hope we catch up with them again today so we can get a ride into Bishop. It was less than 3 miles to Kearsarge from where we camped last night. It might be hard to time it so we meet them again.
As usual, Bear and Sassy were dots. We have less than 1000’ to gain to get over the pass, but our food is almost completely gone. I, literally, choked down my last packet of oatmeal for breakfast. We also had our last 2 cups of coffee. Basically, no calories or caffeine to get us up and over. Needless to say, Bunny and I were struggling.
The lower trail, from Bullfrog Lake joined our trail about a half mile from the top of the pass. Bunny and I were sitting in the last shady spot when Aimee showed up. Her husband was behind her. He was struggling as much as we were but mainly because he hadn’t been at altitude until yesterday and we were currently at 11,000’. She told us the offer still stood if we all make it to the trailhead together. One hitch though, there’s only room for two of us.
Bunny kicked it into “granny gear” and plowed on up the final half mile. I wasn’t too far behind her when we made it to the top. Bear and Sassy were sitting and socializing with Bear doing what no one does better—trying to yogi us a ride to town from people heading out. Past experience tells me we won’t need Aimee’s help. One thing that bothered me was all the smoke on the other side of Kearsarge. People at told us it was from the Dixie Fire 300 miles to the north.
Sassy gave us a couple protein bars that she has as extras. That combined with what we have gives us two protein bars and a package of crackers to make it down. We’ve got 2500’ to lose in 4.6 miles. It’s a major front-country trailhead, so the path is good and smooth. We haven’t had showers in 12 days. Our packs are almost completely empty. It’s town day. Initiate afterburners. Bunny is gone. My hair was straight up trying to keep up with her (thinking back on it now, that probably had more to do with the 12 days since my last shower).
The trip down was a joy. We were making great time. We were full of anticipation. Bear was behind us working on finding a ride (I had no doubts about his success). But most of all, the thing that made me feel best, was passing clean people smelling of Tide pods and deodorant and watching them struggle climbing uphill.
Other people’s pain makes you feel so alive. It’s why we haven’t eliminated homelessness or poverty in our society. As long as someone else is suffering more than you, you can feel good about your life. Somewhere, in a third world country, there is an orphaned 2 year old, living in a dump that is existing only on shit to survive. This kid doesn’t realize it, but his is the worst life on earth. There is a family next to him eating spoiled food filled with maggots collected out of the dump. They can feel good about their lives while he can only dream of death. Ah, the majesty of the human race.
The nature of the trail, because of the big gain/loss of altitude, is a lot of switchbacks. Even though we were a couple hundred yards “ahead” of Bear and Sassy, they were only maybe 200’ above us at any given time. Sassy yelled down to take a break at the next shady spot. I practically had to tackle Bunny to get her to stop. Once I did, I had to hobble her to keep her stationary.
It didn’t take long for Bunny and me to eat our protein bars and crackers. As soon as we were done, Bunny was ready to go again. Sassy unleashed the Bunny and we were off. The trail passes several lakes, but actually runs along the shore of one. We agreed to regroup there. When Bear and Sassy caught up with us there, I asked Bear how the ride acquisition was going. He had spent a large portion of the hike since our last break schmoozing up a young guy that was out for a few hours swimming in the lakes on this side of the Pass. He said if we don’t find another ride by the time he makes it back to the trailhead, he’d give us a lift.
It was only 2 miles to the lot and not even 10:30. The guy had taken off down a side trail at the previous lake for another dip. Worst case, we had a safety net. Back to the races. There was no chance of stopping Bunny again before the parking lot.
Buck caught up with us just short of the parking lot. He said he’d give us that ride to town. We all dropped our packs and waited for him to go get his car. After 10 minutes, I started thinking we’d been duped, but he just had a lot to rearrange to fit 4 hikers with packs in.
The drive to Bishop was a lot further than we realized…almost 50 miles. It was over 10 miles just to get to Independence, but it had zero appeal when we saw the ice cream shop was closed. The more we talked to Buck, the more we found out we had in common. The biggest link was with Bear and the space industry. Buck was working for a company that Bear knew some of the principals from his decades at NASA.
Once we realized how much further we had to go, we offered Buck gas money or at least would buy him supper. He agreed to supper with us. We tried a pizza place, but it was closed because of Covid so we settled on burgers. Bunny and I were famished. Even so, the rest of the group held their own in the food consumption department.
We grabbed our packs out of Buck’s car and said our goodbyes. Guthook indicated a couple of hiker friendly hotels in town. We called one and they said there was space available so we started walking that way. We passed a nice looking hostel on the way. We thought we’d check it out but that it would be high priced (it looked brand new). Turns out, we are home here for a while.
EFG