June 17

898-907

june 18

zero miles

Mercifully our 10 miles of hiking was astonishingly easy. We only gained 200 feet of elevation during this whole stretch and much of the trail was a gently sloping downhill.

After crossing the 900 mile mark we get some cell service and I check on the results of the NBA finals and baseball games.

While walking I see an amazing amount of dead trees littering the forest. Many appear to have been there a long time. Maybe the arid climate and thin soil means that the fallen trees take longer to rot than they would up in Washington? Regardless, it seems like a massive fuel load that could lead to a raging inferno.

Mid morning we get to Red’s Meadow, a Backcountry horse packing resort that has a small cafe.

We are dismayed to find out that the road leading to this resort is shut down during week days for construction. This was our planned resupply route to the nearby town of Mammoth Lakes, CA. We find out that a few carloads of people are also stuck up here, and that there is a convoy of cars that can follow the construction workers out to exit early in the evening, when work is done for the day.

We bide our time by eating from the absurdly expensive cafe, and petting the two dachshunds of the nice father and son duo who has offered to give us a ride during the convoy.

Hours pass and we get our ride to town and book a night at the local Motel 6. We are aghast to see the winter prices of this motel, when the town is bustling during ski season:

Luckily, things are quite a bit cheaper in the off season.

Our usual town routine commences- laundry, showers, and copious amounts of food.

Since we get in so late, we don’t have time to resupply or send out our high mountain gear- so we book another night in town. Since the road back to trail is closed, we are going to have to backtrack quite a few miles and redo a portion of trail. Disgusting, but that is a problem for tomorrow.

Our zero day is spent sending our spikes and axes home, replacing my very torn pants, and resupplying at the super market.

We also eat. We eat a lot. It is very expensive, but that is also a problem for tomorrow.