Day 52 - back on the trail

A resupply story:
In the desert, this was a pretty straightforward thing. The trail would intersect a road. You would then stick out your thumb and hitch a ride to the nearest town.
In the Sierras, there are no roads nearby. So, for today, a big Thanks to the boy scout troop that gave us a ride from Lone Pine to Independence and also gave us apples and carrots to munch on.

Then a big Thanks to a JMT hiker that goes by Mango who gave us a ride from Independence up the canyon to the trail head. He also gave us some big donuts to enjoy during the ride.

From there, we set out on a nine mile hike over a crazy tall mountain in order to arrive back at the PCT with another 6-7 days' worth of food. During this hike, there were spectacular views with beautiful waterfalls and mountain lakes, but still a significant effort to get back on trail.

With all that, today was a fantastic day. The zero day yesterday is just what I needed. We climbed over that crazy big mountain in almost the same time it took to come down it last Friday. I'm ready for the next few days of adventure.

Side note: The John Muir Trail (JMT) starts at Mt Whitney and overlaps the PCT for the next 160 miles. The JMT is a very popular trail and is hard to get a permit to hike. We are now seeing more hikers on the trail. The JMT hikers are the fresh, cleaner, and sometimes more tired looking ones. 😃

Side note #2: Slider hasn't had the chance to sleep in a real bed since way back in Bear Lake. He is staying in town for an extra day or two to enjoy the comfort. We will be pressing ahead without him for now but expect to continue to cross paths in the future. Tramp and I are still hiking together and make a pretty good team. We hike about the same speed and have a similar approach to things.Read more