The coffee shop we were planning on was closed today, so we headed to the nearest diner we could find. We had breakfast at Jack’s. Any reservations we had about the place went out the window when we saw our waitress’ name—Sierra. Bunny and I carbed up pretty heavily while Bear and Sassy began the process of weaning themselves from the habit of eating anything/everything within reach. Honestly, this is one of the joys of thru-hiking…the ability to eat anything you want and not worry about gaining weight. When you walk 8-10 hours a day carrying a 30+ pound pack, the bigger challenge is getting enough calories, not too many.
After breakfast, Bunny and I still needed to finish packing, so we headed back to our room while Bear and Sassy went to Enterprise to pick up the car. A few minutes later, we heard a knock on our door. It was Sassy. She said they were 13th on the waitlist for only 1 available car. She decided to come back and let Bear do what Bear does—wear them down until he wins and then convince them they’ve won. I have faith in a higher power…”the Power of the Bear.”
The counter agent tried to tell Bear there was next to zero chance that he would get the car and he might as well leave. If I’d have been there on hearing this, I’d have said there was less than zero chance the counter guy was keeping his wallet. Bear said he’d stick around a bit just to be sure. He didn’t ask about the car again. Instead, he began the glacial force approach and started talking.
The first name on the waitlist called in to say he didn’t need the car. Bear didn’t say anything about the car. Instead, he started asking the counter guy about his family. He said his dad worked on rockets—Bear worked at NASA for over 40 years. Big connection made! The guy asked why he needed the car so bad. Bear explained he needed to get home to teach a course in a new program he had developed. “What are you doing out here?” “We’re hiking on the PCT and just finished up over 400 miles this year.” “You sleep on the ground?” “Yes, we even have trail names…I’m Bear.” “WTF, you’re Bear?” He rolled up his sleeve and showed Bear his tattoo of a bear.
In the mean time, we had asked for an extension on our checkout time to give us some flexibility. Bear drove up in the only available car east of the Sierra in California. It was a later start than we had planned on, but we started hiking at noon. We didn’t have to resort to Bunny crying to get a ride to the trailhead. I felt a bit guilty passing a female solo hiker on the drive up from Independence, but there wasn’t enough room for another hiker.
We (Bunny and me) haven’t hiked by ourselves since…the last time Bear and Sassy ditched us. Come to think of it, that was just last year in Northern California. Generally speaking, Bear and Sassy are our most reliable hiking partners. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s California that’s the destabilizing influence on them. We said our goodbyes at the trailhead, planning to see them in about a month to go hiking in Maine with Sassy.
We threw our packs on and started the uphill trudge. Bunny’s pack was more than either of us wanted her to carry. It was 31#, but we had no choice with 10 days of food. Mine was well over 40# and took my breath away when I lifted it.
It didn’t take us long to meet 3 college friends from CO doing a loop to Mt Whitney. They managed to get permits at the last minute which we’ve heard is nearly impossible to do. I took advantage of every opportunity to drop my pack and talk. It took us almost 3 1/2 hours to make it to the pass, but stayed with the college friends most of the way. They were fresh and took a lot of breaks. We dropped our packs 3 times, all guilt free.
The downhill section, although easier and faster, got Bunny’s hip inflamed. We took 2 more breaks with packs off and cut our daily goal down. Since this is a high use area, there are bear boxes to store food in. We set our sights on the first campsite with bear box. When we finally got there, we had 6 bags of food and trash in addition to the bear canister to store. Hopefully, we are carrying way more food than we need, but we may decide to go shorter days. Bunny did get rid of 5 1/2# on way out of Bishop. Bear took us to the Post Office to mail the extra stuff home.
We had a lovely campsite all to ourselves. There was a beautiful creek running nearby for our water source. We also took advantage and soaked our feet a bit (AFTER getting drinking water). Tomorrow is going to be an all uphill day, so I welcome the opportunity to get 2 meals out of our packs before starting again. We will be heading over Forester Pass, the highest point on the PCT at over 13,000 feet. With the extra weight I’m carrying and Bunny’s bad hip, we should both be equal in (not to) the task.
EFG