Monday, July 12

Monday, July 12
Today we drive to Lee Vining and find a hotel for Sally to stay at once she leaves the van at Tuolumne after dropping me off at Road's End for the high route. Then down to Mammoth to check out the bargains at "The Castaway", the local thrift shop run by the nurses at the town hospital. I find a nice baseball mitt for three dollars and Sally finds some nice tops and some dinner plates for her math classroom. We skip town and head further south to Bishop, with visions of cherry turnovers at Schat's Bakery. It is a supreme show of willpower to walk out of Schat's with only two turnovers, although I do put in an order for eight to be picked up the next afternoon.
We pop across the street to go swimming at the public pool only to find it closed on Mondays. The lady at the visitor's center suggests the hot bath and mineral pool 7 miles out of town, Keough's Resort. In the brochure it looks quite elegant. When we walk in we discover a well maintained cement pool with clap board walls built around it. It looked like it was constructed in the 40's. Although it was old and not at all glamorous, the water was great. We both felt clean, mineralized and refreshed after an hour and a half of soaking and swimming.
A quick stop at the Von's for some last minute items, then out of town and up the hill to South Lake. Bishop sits at about 4000'. South Lake is at 9,700'. The distance is 22 miles. This makes for a continuously steep and long road. It was 99 degrees when we left Bishop. Also, there was a strong head wind. Sounds like a recipe for VW Van disaster? It was. About 5 miles out of town the oil light and oil pressure buzzer blinked on, even with fairly high rpms. Sally was driving at the time, and handed the wheel to me, not wanting to be the one that blew the engine. This hill is steep. Now, you might not notice in a "normal" car, but I had to stay in second gear at 28 mph to make it up. The oil light and buzzer plipped on again a few more times, but I nursed it along to the end of the road at South Lake. Whew! Did that engine smell hot! The temp gauge was a little above normal, but seemed reasonable consider the outside temps.
Anyway, we found a place to camp and I started packing Gary's, Andy's and my food into my Kelty frame pack. The idea was to have me freight it in to Dusy Basin for a food drop for us to pick up after week one of the hike. I got all the food (3 people for 11 days-99 meals plus snacks) all into 4 bear cans, loaded them onto my pack, added some personal items like food, rain gear etc and put it on the scale. 75 pounds! I was not expecting it to weigh that much. I put the pack on. I Iove that old Kelty. You load 75 pounds on your back and it feels comfortable. I walked about a quarter mile to the campground entrance to see how it felt. Still felt great. But. Wait a minute. Hold on a second. Let's think this thru. I am to go by myself, climb 2000' over eight miles thru a 12,000' pass with this thing on my back and then return, all in the same day? Three days before the start of a 200 mile trek I have been planning for nine months? Ego or common sense? If I injure myself performing this food cache it will knock me out of the trip. But, when I was young I wouldn't hesitate to do this. I'm now 56. Knees get sore. Recover time is longer. Hmmmm. Sally sees me standing outside the van, the monster on my back, contemplating my future. To her credit, she did not chirp in with an opinion, but let me wrestle with my ego versus reality conflict.
In the waning light I set the pack on the picnic table, stepped inside the van and decided Gary, Andy and I would hike out to get the food rather than me risking lugging it over the pass. Sally heartily agrees with this decision.
A late, quick spaghetti dinner, and it is off to sleep.