​Day 66: mile 903.1 to mile 906.7 to Red’s Meadow to Mammoth Lakes

6.20.18. 3.6 miles.

We woke up very early, in the dark because we weren’t entirely sure how long the 4 miles to Reds would take us. We were hiking at 5 and it was very peaceful in the forest. We had one stream crossing where I almost crossed without getting wet, but my toes slipped in. Ugh.

We had incredible views of the Minarets though as the sun rose, and I was getting ALL the feels because I’ve been dreaming of these mountains for a long time.

We walked through some dead forest on the way to Red’s when we suddenly smelled yummy breakfast smells: bacon. We knew we were close. We got there at 6:15, after just 1 hr 15 min of hiking. We kinda go into turbo mode going to town (even with picture stops & stream crossings), and we always forget it always takes less time to hike on town day. There was a woman there doing research about cell phone use & the PCT for her master’s thesis, so I took her survey, and Hot Mess & Butters re-took the survey as they met her outside of Big Bear!

We had to wait until 7 for the little restaurant to open, and when it did we ran inside bc of how cold we were, and ate bagels & coffee until we thought the shuttle was coming (7:30). We ended up standing outside for another 45 min as the shuttle didn’t come until 8:15! We kept moving around searching for sun as it kept rising and moving. Finally, we were on our way to town.

We took the shuttle to the “adventure center” on the mountain and then another shuttle to the village and then another shuttle to town. We immediately went to breakfast at a place called the Stove bc we were starving, and my breakfast was amazing, especially the French toast. Then we went to Vons to do resupply until Sonora Pass, then we took another trolley to get to our hotel. We got there and checked-in, but our rooms weren’t ready yet, so we sat around for another 30 min before the receptionist brought us our keys. The minute we got them, we parted ways (Bye Felicia!) and went to our respective rooms. We love spending time together, but we all were happy to have alone time since we had been hanging out literally 24/7 for a week.

Once in my room, I dumped all of my gear out of my pack, threw all my dirty laundry in a bag, and hopped in the shower. Showers after a dirty week are glorious. I also watched a few hours of reality tv (Botched and the Bachelorette) while doing laundry in between. Butters and I ran into each other doing laundry dressed EXACTLY the same: hotel slippers, towel around the waist, wearing our puffys. It was pretty funny, and very Hiker trashy (with a little bit of class bc of the slippers). We decided to meet up for dinner at 7, went to the Latin Market in town, which had awesome Mexican food, then went to Rite Aid to get Talenti, and headed back to the hotel to veg more, and I fell asleep watching Shark Tank in my luscious King Bed with a million pillows. It was amazing.

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Day 67: Mammoth Lakes Zero

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Day 65: mile 883.1 to mile 903.1