June 21. Two months anniversary on trail!

Started at 6am walking, making it to the ferry terminal at 8.45am, a good hour before scheduled departure.

Got on the ferry and enjoyed the ride in the beautiful weather…

Starving from 7 days on trail, a decent breakfast was the top priority at VVR…

Soon we met up with everyone else from our about 10 people big bubble – the others had hiked in via the Bear Crest trail and hitchhiked a bit along the road leading to VVR on that side.

Bought resupplies for the required two days to get to Reds Meadows and Mammoth Lakes, got on the ferry back to trail at 4pm.

We had mobile data reception around Edison lake, so everyone was busy online. Cactass got some IT security consulting due to issues with some of her accounts.

We hiked back to the PCT and did some more miles to a tentsite with fire ring at mile 880.

Picking food from the trail

June 20.

Started 7.30am. We saw deer again in the morning.

With our food running low, we decided to walk the extra 1.5 miles off trail to check out the Muir Trail Ranch (MTR). MTR has neither a restaurant nor a shop with food for hikers, but they receive resupply packages and have famous hiker boxes for surplus food from the packages. Two years ago when I was hiking the JMT, I had a resupply box sent there – at that time also the hiker boxes were well filled and the Starburst team benefited from that. This time, the hiker boxes were disappointing – no food. Cactass bought a new gas canister, then we moved on. Now it was clear that we would need to stop at VVR to resupply.

Ran into Sea Bass and Queso, later the complete bunch at lunch break at 2pm at Heart lake just below Seldon pass.

Continued walking at 3pm. We had heard all kinds of news about VVR. There appliances might be broken, so no cool drinks and limited offers in the kitchen. Others said only the small 4 people boat is running. We spoke to some Southbound hikers coming from VVR – they said the restaurant and shop is functional and the big ferry is running 9.45am and 4pm.

We will find out soon enough. Pitched our tents at mile 873, so just 7 miles to the VVR ferry. We need to be there before 9.45am, so am early start is planned. Most of the tentsites are on rocks – couldn’t stake my tent where I planned to. Decided on cowboy camping but only for a while… The mosquitoes were quite active during dinner. Tinkle was so kind to offer her spot since her MSR is freestanding. I managed to squeeze my tent in – it will not withstand much wind but at least the mosquitoes…

Hungry.

June 12.

Starting at Bullfrog lake in the morning with a cup of coffee and a beautiful view.

We had to hike over Kearsage pass – actually extra 7.5 miles off the PCT to get resupply in Independence or Bishop.

Made it quickly to the top of the 11.760 feet pass. In the other side, the trail led down gently along several beautiful lakes to the Onion valley campground.

At the campground, Cactass, Tinkle, Husk, Queso and myself tried to find a hitch down to Independence or Bishop. Around 12pm, it was not easy… Only few dayhikers were around. To kill the time, I started foraging for food in the numerous bear boxes… If you leave food in there unattended, you are supposed to mark it with name and pickup date. After that date, it will be removed by rangers. In our case… After the date, we just eat it… 😜 Had some perfectly fine potato chips, some biscuits…

At the end Husk was the hero of the day. He found a guy with pickup who took us down into Independence.

Getting from Independence to Bishop was another hitch… Here Tinkle was successful and stopped Dan,a nice guy from Australia passing through. He had been hiking the PCT in 2016!

In Bishop, our first stop was of course a restaurant before checking into a motel… 😁

It was a long section in the Californian wilderness. The last 1-2 days before coming to town, I had started rationing my food. It is an interesting experience if your stomach hurts from hunger… And to feel the difference between appetite and hunger…

Will take a break in Bishop, relax, resupply… 😁

May 15. Today’s zero day was fun.

I completed my resupply for the next 5 days to Aqua Dulce – rest of the day was just relaxing.

Explored the little town of Wrightwood…

The local library had a sweet cat that took all that petting well

Dinner was planned at a Mexican place due to the advertised 5 cent margaritas.

Evening at the bar with live singing, pool billiard… Cactass, Tinkle and Gorgeous were brave enough to do Karaoke! 👍🏻
That was a good time.