Skipping Around - Saturday, June 28

Somehow when I imagined hiking the PCT I thought it would be a march from Mexico to Canada, unbroken, one continuous hike with food drops, but a linear progression from one border to the next. In our case, it is obvious that imagination and reality are not matching up. We skipped 140 miles of desert. We had to skip closed areas that were burned. And in the interest of expediency I just skipped another 40 miles of trail.

I woke at my camp below Duck Lake to find a very cold morning. No frost, but very chilly. I had 11 miles to cover to reach the horse packing station at Reds Meadow. They also have a small store and cafe.

Along the 11 miles Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort looms overhead and with it cell towers and service. I called Sally and talked as I walked, catching up on her situation and sharing stories. Also, on this stretch of trail I passed the 900 mile mark. 900 miles from Mexico via the trail. I have walked about 700 of it.

I had made up my mind I was not going to hike the 40 miles from Red's Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows as I had already hiked it five times in my past visits to Yosemite and I needed the time to get to Lake Tahoe before my scheduled flight on July 8. It is about 180 miles from Reds Meadow to Hwy 50 at South Lake Tahoe. With 9 days left that is too far and cutting it too close to my flight. So I determined to hitch hike from Mammoth Lakes to Tuolumne, thereby shortening the distance to 140 miles. Still a long way to hike in 9 days, but more doable.

I caught the shuttle bus from Reds Meadow to Mammoth, then the bike shuttle to the village and finally the trolley to town. There I stopped at the Base Camp Cafe for a chopped salad with chicken, walked to the bakery next door for 2 cherry turnovers and a pull apart cake for Brian and Guy our favorite campground rangers at Tuolumne Meadows campground, then an It's It ice cream sandwich at the quickie mart, some new insoles and felt markers at Rite Aide and a Big Mac at McDonalds for dinner on the trail.

With the felt marker I wrote on my Tyvek ground tarp "Lee Vining" "Yosemite" and "PCT Hiker" and stood on the highway out of town, pack on my back holding my sign with my thumb out. It took about 5-10 minutes before a woman that works at the bakery and lives in Lee Vining picked me up. We had a nice conversation on the ride and then she dropped me at the turn off up to the park.

I folded my Tyvek so only the Yosemite showed and positioned myself up the road so I could get the people leaving the Mobile Mart.

It took about 15 minutes before a hiking guide that works in the meadows picked me up. We swapped hiking and adventure stories on the drive up the hill. She dropped me at the store. "Badass", "Fancy Pants" and "Landfill" along with 10 other PCT hikers were at the picnic tables outside the store. I said hi, then left my pack and walked over to the campground entrance booth to give Brian and Guy the pull apart bread. We talked for about 20 minutes and caught up on the latest news before I excused myself to return to my pack. I made a quick purchase of a few items at the store to assure I had enough food for my 9 days, then bid those I knew goodbye and headed down the trail. It was about 3:30 and I wanted to get another 6.2 miles under my belt by getting to Glen Aulen, a beautiful
site on the Tuolumne River, before dark. The trail parallels the river as it cascades westward so it was beautifully lit by the afternoon sun as I strolled by.

I made it with plenty of time to spare. Because it was a Saturday night there were tons of hikers. A nice lady pointed out a site available with a view of the river below that promised to be breezy, keeping the few mosquitoes about at bay.

A community campfire was started and I joined the other hikers to share stories and talk.

I excused myself after about an hour and retired to my Tyvek and quilt for the night. Tomorrow I hope to get 20 miles in, which should deposit me at Smedberg Lake, mile 969. Hwy 50 is at milepost 1093, that's124 miles to go. If all goes according to plan I will be at:

Mile 989 Monday night
Mile 1009 Tuesday night
Mile 1029 Wednesday Night
Mile 1049 Thursday Night
Mile 1069 Friday night
Mile 1089 Saturday night and on the road Sunday, hitching into Reno for a shower. Two nights in a hotel and a flight out Tuesday at 1:45 for home.

So much for the unbroken walk from Mexico to Canada.