Day 66, Get to Mammoth, Fast

You never know who you are going to meet on the trail.
June 25

Mile 888 to Reds Meadows mile 906

Hiked 18 miles by noon ;)

I wake to my 3:45am alarm. I boil the water for my breakfast and pour it into the ziplock bag with oatmeal and place it aside. Start packing up my sleeping bag and. I notice there is a hole swarm of skeeters between the screen of my tent and the rain fly still hanging out from last night. Great so I have those pricks to deal with haha. I'm super excited to that I'm going to be in town soon with a beer in hand. I have my carrot for the day. My motivation to go hard for the next 18 miles.

After my skeeter killing spree I finish packing up and start heading down the trail at 5:23am. I love the mornings so much it's the best time to hike.

I got the 1300ft of climbing out of the way really quick. I feel like I'm flying up the hills. and I have one more climb small 700 ft climb to do and it's mostly down hill after that.









Virginia lake.









Virginia lake from the other side. I came upon a guy camped right here, and this was his view. Such a great campsite. The guy was SeaLegs. I met SeaLegs just before Tehachapi. He said that I just missed Burning boots and J-bird. I have seen them many times at pretty much every town. I talked with SeaLegs for a while but I must cut it short I have somewhere I must be.



















Here's a couple photos of purple lake. So I round the corner and I noticed MerryPoppins cowboy camping next to the lake still curled up in the fetal position in his sleeping bag lol. Last time I saw him he was with Apache I wonder where he is. So I started the last climb and I was catching up to a girl that was wearing a dress with tights and Altra trail runners(same brand as mine. The foot print on the bottom is easy to spot) . Her pack was pretty small to. Like a day hikers pack. I thought it was weird for a day hiker to be out this far this early in the morning. So I passed her and said hello. I was just continuing on my way when she asked me how I liked my shoes. I told her how much I love them. But I wish that the LonePeaks (the red shoes I switch from in Independance) had the sole/cushion of the Olympus shoes I have on now. She said she was a trail ambassador for Altra and maybe she could let them know what thru hikers using their shoes thought. Hmm, I was starting to wonder who is this girl? We talked a little bit more. She said she was glad that she had a motivated hiker to follow. And that she had not slept in a while. She asked what my name was. And she told me hers. When she said Anish I was like, "wait". "I know who you are!" "holy shit, I didn't recognize you." I only saw her face for a second as I passed and I was walking in front. So funny this whole time I have been talking to the person that set the speed record for the PCT last year! Not every day you meet a Hiking hero. Haha.








I felt like a dork for a second but I had to get a picture with her. So it turns out she was hiking the JMT and was attempting to set the woman's unsupported speed record for the JMT. She was going to do it with no sleep. I think she said she had already been awake like 3 days straight and had only taken a few naps here and there. Wow! That's freaking awesome. I told her about my night with mountain lions and how I'm freaked out about night hiking. She said that was a fear she had to get over when she set the speed record last year on the PCT. Out of all the stuff we talked about that was one of the biggest things that's stuck with me. I need to get over my fear. I realize it's crazy to fear something that's pry never going to happen. Out of the million things that I have feared in my life... None of them actually happened. Someone once said something like that haha. I told her about how I was pissing blood. She said it was pry rabdo or something like that. We hiked pretty fast for about 5 hours. I wanted that beer! We walked up to the store at Reds Meadows just before 11:30am. We had perfect timing. We grabed a couple things from the store and the bus to Mammoth pulls up.

It was cool meeting Anish. Someone I had only read about in magazine and heard stories about. You never know who you are going to meet on the trail.

Two bus rides later I have arrived are the brewery!


















Beer in hand by noon just like I had planned!!!

Look some other hiker trash showed up to. Fantastic.








Me, OG, GoodCheese, ??(can't remember his name) And Puddin.








And then more showed up. Karaoke and LightHouse

Later I found myself quite tipsy and at a Pita Pit where I had 3 Pitas. Then I had some Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Wondered over to the hostel and got a bed and pretty much crashed.

June 26.

I slept in and worked on writing my journal. I pretty much just laid around all day. Jordan isn't going to be here till tomorrow.

That night I met up with Drew and Goldmine. What Goldmine?! I haven't seen that guy since kickoff. I thought we was going to hike together after kick off. Hit he wasn't ready to go when I was. So I've been just a day or two ahead of him the whole time.






Pizza baby yeah!

After I went back to the hostel and watched tv up stairs with a bunch of other hikers. And then pasted out. Tomorrow I get to see my Jordan!

- Posted from my iPhone