"I had a very bad day." - Animal Style over rum and coke
Town time! Dayhike gave us the good news: we had just four miles to the campground, where we would aim to bombard some innocent dayhiker for a ride into Lone Pine. Those four miles hurt. I'm certainly not "hard" as Dayhike would say because I felt like I needed a couple days off after that 25.
But we must be using all our good karma because at the totally empty campground, we caught the first car that passed and piled in, stacking our packs and all their new gear from REI on our laps. They were two twenty-somethings training for Mount Whitney, and they had tons of hiking questions for us. They asked all about what fancy gear we were carrying, and we probably let them down when they realized that all we are really doing is walking, and no, we don't carry all the neatest gidgets and gadgets because they're damn heavy, frankly.
We couldn't believe how high we had been; the road to Lone Pine curled down the mountainside for ages. We were dropped in Lone Pine (Tremors was filmed there apparently... A fact that was given in response to a friend of ours who wrote on the PCT Facebook page that she had been walking for 8 miles down that road and was desperate for a ride... Very helpful). First things first, we stopped at a cafe for a delicious and fast lunch. Then we camped outside the hostel like homeless until the curt woman at the desk cracked the door to say actually, they're full tonight. And so were most of the motels... It was the weekend in the town at the base of Mount Whitney, and an impending storm was keeping folks from starting their treks.
[The kind folks that gave us a hitch down the mountain; Fey on the final river crossing; Golden trouts!; Fey and Animal eating tacos; The crew chowing down; Jet and Dayhike enjoying]
No problem; we booked a tiny motel room without even a bathroom that had one double bed in it and a few feet of floor space around the bed... And guess how many hikers we fit in there! SIX! And guess how many off them were gross twenty-something boys...FOUR! (Actually one was nineteen... Oy!)
Boom and Hardway did laundry for Boom, Hardway, Fey, and Genie. Meet Genie! She is a med student from Australia taking a bit of time off to hike. She wakes up around four each day and frequently comments how beautiful the scenes are or how good life is. She is a minimalist; her pack is tiny, and she doesn't even have a stove, meaning she cold soaks her food in the morning so that it is edible, but cold, by afternoon. And she certainly doesn't have any luxuries like camp shoes! The moment I met her hundreds of miles ago I felt a connection, and I can say that we have become fast friends this past week after she decided to join us for our off-roading adventure from Weldon.
That evening, all of Slow Magic convened at a local taco truck; it was BYOB, and the scenery couldn't be beat: snowy mountain peaks surrounded the tiny Western town. That night I couldn't agree with Genie more: life is good. These people make me laugh hard, feel safe, feel seen, and feel connected. I can't imagine this hike without them.
On the way home, I felt like a college kid as I dodged into the grocery to buy an entire pack of chocolate donuts just for me, and then a bunch of us hopped into the motel's hot tub, which was really just lukewarm. That night, Boom and Hardway shared the bed, and Genie and I slept on the floor because feminism.
[Sunset view from town; Sunset over the taco truck; The storm is rolling in!; Jet finding some comfy spots in the hotel lobby; Jet and Fey walking the walk]
