- Today’s Miles: 0
- Total Miles on Trip: 63.2
Kevin and I sleep as late as we have all trip, getting out of the tent at 6:40 A.M. There was no bear last night, although Kevin tries to convince me he got up in the middle of the night to scare one away. “You really didn’t hear me shouting at it last night?” Kevin asks, eyes wide. I believe him for a second but then he grins and gives it away.
I order us coffees from the restaurant/cafe at Red’s and we wait for Coach Knight and his wife Julie to arrive. They are letting us stay the night at their condo in Mammoth and we are going to grab an early breakfast with them.
Coach Knight and Julie show up and we order breakfast burritos and pancakes. We catch up and tell them how our trip has been so far. Coach Knight is an avid backpacker and hiker himself, and tells us a couple of stories of his own from when he did the JMT.
As we finish breakfast, we drive into the town of Mammoth. I’ve only been to Mammoth once and forgot how many stores and shops there are. Kevin needs a replacement valve for his hydration pack and I need to resupply for our next four-day section. We get to the condo and are shown showers, laundry, and two lovely beds.
After lounging around for a few hours, Kevin and I head out under dark storm clouds to take care of our errands. As we are walking to food, we see two of the PCT hikers that we met in Red’s Meadow this morning. They’ve also apparently decided to take a zero and are staying at a hostel in town. They are, of course, carrying their packs and still in dirty hiking clothes. It’s not hard to see how one could mistake them as homeless, and I wonder if they are often treated under this assumption during town days.
We arrive at Vons, where I will be resupplying and Kevin plans to “add more calories”. I buy instant oatmeal, trail mix, granola bars, four frozen burritos, a block of cheese, and a couple of other small things. I’ve heard from another backpacker frozen burritos make great trail food as you let them thaw out in the bottom of your pack throughout the day. And then allegedly they will get cold again at night. I don’t know about my decision to buy four of them though- will a now frozen burrito still be good in four days? Only one way to find out…
Right when we arrive back at the condo with our groceries, the clouds break and rain pours down. It’s soon accompanied by loud claps of thunder. We laugh at how lucky we are- the first storm we’ve seen on the trip comes on our zero day. Go figure. Coach Knight has offered to take anything back that we won’t be using on our trip and I rummage through my pack. I end up sending back my micro spikes (PCTers we have crossed said they aren’t needed), rain pack cover (I’m carrying an umbrella), rain pants, sock liners, and a fanny pack. I also wonder about the weight of the book I’ve been reading on the trip, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. But I don’t seriously consider sending it back as it has been too good of a read thus far.
With face masks in hand, we leave Coach Knight and Julie’s condo at 7:00 P.M. to go to a nearby Mexican place. Every other table in the restaurant is empty and we order beers as we wait for seating. After a 45 minute wait, we head upstairs to a booth. The carne asada burrito I get is the size of my arm and the Mexican beer washes it down nicely. Exercise hard and eat to satisfaction right? I try to soak in the food and company, knowing we have a lot of trail left on the trip. It feels like a different world though, sitting here, in the restaurant booth. Long dusty days filled with nothing but walking, eating trail food, and sleeping in a tent? I can’t tell if that sounds amazing or if I want to stay where I am, eating burritos and drinking beer in this restaurant booth forever. But I suppose it doesn’t really matter- tomorrow Kevin and I will be hiking again and the world will continue to spin.
