The aim was to get out as early as we could. That would be catch the 9a bike bus up to the ski area then hop on the bus to Red Meadows and get there by 10:30. Easy peasy. The whole plan hinges on breakfast. The Breakfast Club opens at 8 and it’s only a 10 minute walk from the hotel. We’re golden.
At 8, we headed towards the Breakfast Club. When we arrived at 8:13, there were only 4 people seated but two groups totaling 10 waiting to be seated. I wasn’t hopeful. There were two people just picking up pastries at the counter waiting to get checked out. It was not a seat yourself place. One waitress, one cashier, one cook, and no organization at all. At 8:25, I said screw it when they told the first party of 4 that it would be 10 minutes before they could be seated. We’d already wasted almost a half hour with this place. We moved on to Good Day Breakfast even though we said we wouldn’t go back because of their charge policy.
The breakfast was ok, but not $70 good for 4 people. I did get my fair share of coffee, but it was clear our early start was shot. We left the restaurant a little before 9:30. Bunny and I headed for the trolly while Bear and Sassy headed for the Rite Aid for a final purchase. They made the same trolly that we were waiting for. Yada yada yada, we left the hotel at 10:20 to catch the trolly to the Village where the bike bus was just getting ready to leave. We got the last 4 seats.
We got to the ski area right at 11. The line for Reds Meadows was already long. Bear and I got tickets for the earliest shuttle we could get. That would be the 12-1 hour. What the hell? We lined up in the hopes we might get an earlier ride if there was space. It only took 3 buses before we were headed up and over to Reds at 11:30. I thought we were doing kind of decent, considering.
When we caught the bus from the trail, Bunny and I were jammed in the back of the bus, surrounded by a bunch of kids. We just couldn’t see out. Today, we had front row seats on the opposite side of the bus. We could see what we missed the first time. If I had seen what we missed on the way out, I would not have gotten back on the bus. The road is narrow, winding, and falling off the mountain in several places. There’s no guardrails. There’s 2 way traffic on a one lane road. I saw several drivers with their wheels half off the road, sweating bullets, hoping the bus wouldn’t nudge them the 1/16th of an inch it would take to roll them down the mountain.
When I was in Nepal, I rode on top of a minivan with my feet dangling over the side, and all I could hold on to was the luggage rack under me. I would sooner ride that minivan again than I would this bus. I looked at the driver to make sure he had a good thirst for life. What I saw was an old man, about 100# overweight, that had made worse life decisions than I have… We’re all going to die.
Bunny refused to give me an Ativan. I pleaded for a pot gummy…”those are for my hip pain.” I tried looking to Bear and Sassy for support. They refused to lift their eyes off of their shoes. They had seen the abyss on the way out. I focused on all the little kids on the bus. They were calm and looking around. They have never died in a big fall in a previous life. I’m sure I have. I’m also pretty certain I’ve once died in a horrible human waste accident…that might explain my fascination with proper poop handling.
Spoiler alert: we made it. The hiking began right at 12:30, only 2 hours later than planned. This was an uphill dominant section of trail, so Bear led. It had rained on us on the way up to the ski area, but we felt confident the storm clouds would be contained on that side of the ridge. Wrong.
Meteorological Bear kept an eye on the sky and kept replaying weather radar while he had signal. He kept saying we’d be fine. We’re going to walk right between the two storm cells we could see above us. The radar showed the storms heading north. For a while, it looked like we might slip through.
We made it just over 5 miles and were stopped at a stream. If we continued on, the next 3 miles would take us to over 10,000’ which had much fewer trees to protect us. While we were trying to decide what to do, we recognized the woman behind us getting water. We had met her and her brother the day we left Tuolumne Meadows. They were taking 3 weeks to hike the JMT. The brother saw us and told us to come camp by them, it wasn’t worth the risk. We had seen lightening, so we already knew Bunny’s vote—get inside at sea level.
While we watched the sky continue to grow darker, Bear and I said, maybe 10 minutes to rain. We could actually here the rain coming towards us. We ran down, threw up our tents, got all our gear, and Bunny inside before the rain started. I finished setting up the tent while Bunny started making the beds. I was going to get water, but the rain was here. I jumped in the tent just as the hail started.
The lightening and thunder were still more than 2 miles from us, but the time between flash and thunder was growing shorter. It didn’t take long until the storm was directly on top of us. Bunny had handled herself pretty well up to now. Once she got in the tent, she covered her ears and eyes and tried to burrow underneath me (just like she had taught my once brave dog, Nutiket, to do. Both of them used to lock themselves in closets during electrical storms).
We ended up dozing for about a half hour until the storm passed. Once it stopped raining, I got up, tightened up the tent, got water, prepared everything for breakfast, packed lunch for tomorrow, filtered water, and prepped for supper. When I was done with all this, Bear emerged from the tent. Sassy and Bunny were in no hurry to wake up. It took prepared meals to coax them out of their tents.
We had a pleasant supper under clear skies. This was supposed to be the day with the highest chance of rain. We stopped hiking after just 3 hours so we missed our target by 5 miles. We’re going to have to put in longer days for the next 3 days to get back on track.
We don’t have any fires or trail closures in front of us, yet. The Dixie fire has burned Belden and south for 30-40 miles which means we won’t be able to finish the trail this year. We have about 120 miles between Belden and Truckee that we were planning on doing after we made it to Walker Pass. We haven’t officially pulled the plug on that section, but we probably will when we get to Bishop. The Dixie fire is over 200,000 acres and less than 30% contained. It’s pretty doubtful the trail will get reopened this year. The PCT doesn’t want us to finish…ever.
EFG
