Miles 637-652 (15 miles)
Elevation 5,271ft
It didn't rain on us!! Stoked!! :D So, that cache we went to yesterday morning, I'm glad we got there when we did because I think it was empty pretty soon after. We crossed a couple people this morning going to Yellow jacket spring (where we camped at, and where we had to dig a hole for water) because they showed up at the cache and it was empty.
It was a very mellow hike to Walker Pass, where we were going to hitch into Lake Isabella. It was windy as hell though. Oh man it was so cold because of the wind! It was windy at night where we were, and we were in a small valley. The people up on the ridge had it so much worse. :( ultimately I'm pretty grateful we ended up camping there under that tree. A majority of the hiking today was downhill which was awesome! I jogged a good portion of it, because I had to make it to the Onyx post office before 4pm to pick up my resupply package.
When we finally got to Walker Pass, there was trail magic there!! THANK YOU OKEE GIRL!! She is the angel who was providing the magic there. It was incredible!! She had 2 tents setup with coolers full of soda, lunch meat and lettuce for sandwiches, a stove, water, chips, snacks, books, fuel, and overall amazingness. I have a pic of her setup. It's too bad I only got to meet her briefly, she wasn't there when we showed up, but she drove up with Weather Carrot right as we were leaving.
I have a pic of Not So Bad demonstrating proper hitchiking techniques. Lol! He has a huge hole in the seat of his pants. Normally When I hitchhike I get a ride in less than 10 minutes. This took a little longer so we were joking that Not So Bad needs to show off the goods. Lol. Hence the reason for the pic. Ironically we got a ride shortly after, to the Onyx PO from a cool military dude in a huge van. He dropped us off at a market down the way from onyx, and we got a hitch from another cool dude with base tags on his car.
There were a lot of other hikers around, we ran into a bunch, including Pop Star, who is part 1 of my Canadian Nerd Herd whom I've been wanting to meet on trail. Stoked I finally ran into him!! He's the guy in the pic with me wearing the black jacket.
We did laundry first thing and got milkshakes from Nelda's Diner. That place is somewhat legendary to PCT hikers. They have a milkshake menu that is 2 pages long!! Last night at camp, Not So Bad and I talked about nothing but food for 1.5 hours and milkshakes were a topic frequently brought up. In fact, these milkshake were a huge motivation to get to lake Isabella faster. Lol. We both had 2 milkshakes each, and shared a bread pudding. Can you say sugar high? Haha!! I took a pic of my 2nd milkshake. It was mint chip an cherry vanilla. My first milkshake was strawberry, chocolate, banana and peanut butter. EPIC :D
Lake Isabella is an interesting town. I thought the "ky liquor store" was quite an interesting name. Lol. I took a pic of that. We had a pizza at Pizza Factory and a pitcher of Blue Moon. Yum. That place has really good pizza :). There was also a cool obituary article on an elderly regular, and I took a pic of that article because there was a quote of hers that really stood out: "When you're walking, your insides are smiling.". How beautifully appropriate in relation to what I'm doing :)
We went to a cool little dive bar later that night, the bartender's name was Rocky and she was so cool. I have a pic of her. She made some killer salsa too.
Anyhow, we had some epic adventures wandering around Lake Isabella. Nothing too productive tho. Still gotta figure out my resupply strategy in the Sierras. I'm trying to resupply as often as possible to keep my pack as light as possible. Eh, I'll figure it out tomorrow. As for now, it's nap time!!! Sometimes its nice to not have to sleep on top of pine cones, ants, and cow poop. :D
well im jealous! =P
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