Day 46: mile 630.8 to Walker Pass to Lake Isabella

5.31.18. 21.3 miles.

I woke up to my alarm at 4:30 this morning and just could not wake up. It’s hard to get up early when you’re cowboy camping and it’s cold and windy. I just wanted to snuggle in my quilt! Thankfully I was warm last night and slept pretty well. I eventually got up when I heard Butters moving around in her tent and got dressed in my quilt and got everything together. We were ready to go a little after 5:30.

The sunrise was really pretty this morning. It always helps to have a pretty sunrise and pretty views during a long climb. The climb actually wasn’t too bad even though the elevation profile on guthook’s looked pretty bad. I like doing long climbs in the morning because it wakes me up and I have way more energy than later in the day.

We took out first break in the sun around 7 miles in bc it was super windy and we wanted to warm up! Also we had cell service in that spot so we stayed for a bit and tried to figure out lake Isabella plans.

What the trail looked like for most of the day

I hiked alone for the rest of the morning, mostly through a forest, before meeting back up with Butters and then Hot Mess & LOL to try to find a lunch spot. It was still super windy and also sunny, so we had a hard time finding a good protected area that was also shady. We finally found a decent rock near the trail that was a good lunch spot.

After 2 hours we got moving again, pretty slowly too since we originally had no plans to go into town. However, around a bend and at the top of a climb, we saw snow covered mountains in the distance and were whooping with joy! The Sierra is so close! We were totally reenergized and Butters was like, I want a powerade. And the rest of us also wanted ice cold powerades and shakes so we booked it down to the pass to try to get a hitch into lake Isabella!

Thankfully we were successful, and got a ride pretty quickly! I was standing at the front of our line and did not hear a car pull over behind us because of how windy it was and I was distracted trying to get my puffy out of my bag. Butters was yelling at me and eventually I heard. Lol. I hopped in the car and we were off!

We decided we’d do the cheap thing first since we didn’t anticipate going into town, and got dropped off at the RV park. I set up my tent & took a shower and then we tried to go to dinner at Nelda’s Diner, where they have the good shakes. It took forever to get a hitch, and this place is 2 miles away. We ended up walking over a mile before a kid stopped to pick us up. He told us he had just graduated and was now on his way to a grad party, and he saw his friend pick up hikers, so he decided he should too! Thank you to this guy!! He was super nice.

The diner was SUPER packed. This is definitely the place to be in this town. My food was pretty good and my shake was great and huge and I couldn’t finish it. I also realized the Warriors game was on and was able to watch the last few seconds and overtime with my phone. Go dubs! After dinner we had to figure out how to get back to the RV Park. We ended up just starting to walk back, as hitching was failing, but at the Burger King drive-thru, a woman with a hiker in her car already asked if we needed a ride and we hopped in! So nice of her to offer, and we didn’t have to walk too far! It’s annoying having to navigate towns when you’re far from all the stuff and you have no transportation. I immediately got into my tent and quilt once we got back. It’s kind of nice to be in my tent and just be able to chill and not have to get ready for hiking the next day!