weather up in the mountains. I decided to take the day off deciding
what to do next, so a group of us went down to the local breakfast
place. Picture Elio Gerardi running a restaurant - it's not a perfect
image, but add more space to his living room, a *little* more
tidiness, and then add about 150 pounds on the same sized frame. We
waited about 45 minutes before ordering while the owner took a beer
break after serving the last batch of hikers (he asked if we were in a
hurry and we said to take his time), and served ourselves some cold
coffee while we visited. During this time he got a couple phone calls
that went something like this,
"What?"... "you already asked that." *slams down phone*.
All the other hikers had left except for Charlie, Mike and Myself, so
only we got the show. As he's waddling past it again the phone rings,
and in one swoop he grabbed it, tugged the chord out of the wall,
opened the door with his free hand, and chucked the phone out towards
the garbage can past us yelling, "Hey fuck this phone!", before
casually closing the old sliding door and going back inside. "There
ain't gone be none more calls, Bob", he stated to his help.
We stepped over the phone as we refilled our coffee for the next half
hour, but apparently Bob put the phone back on the counter... "Fuck...
Bob! You put this phone back up here?!" He hit the garbage this time
(almost like he had practice at this). "Put that thing in your truck
when you leave Bob. If you want it".
All in all breakfast was a two hour ordeal, but it was perfectly what
I was looking for. All we have is time to kill today (and until next
wednesday maybe...). He took 5 minutes adding up what we owed him, but
I guess it got too greasy in the kitchen to read so he sat down to add
it all up again. "Uhhhh, like 30 bucks boys." came out after 5
minutes. "How much each?". We quickly said, "ah, nevermind. We'll
check the menu to split it up...".
Kennedy Meadows is a little community kind of like Baynes Lake. It's
about a mile and a half off trail and the last easy resupply before
heading out into the high Sierra Mountains. From here we immediatly
climb from about 6500 or 7000 feet elevation to up over 10,000. The
weather has been great but unseasonably cold lately (65 today, when
last year today was 102...) and it's the same in the mountains. People
have been nonstop checking weather reports hoping to find atleast one
report contradicting what we all know: it's miserably shitty in the
mountains right now. A few days up from here reports are saying highs
around freezing and lows down around -10C, with thunderstorms bringing
in more snow. Most people, like me, are packing quite light and
expecting a few nights down to -7C but highs warm enough to dry gear
out and wear shorts. Not going to happen for about a week up here
unfortunately. Until yesterday there was about 50 people waiting to
see when the weather would break, but many grew impatient and either
headed in for a couple days to check it out, or found a ride out of
our remote place to head to sections further north. I almost left at
6am this morning to take advantage of a ride to a further south
section that I missed, but at 1am while I was frantically packing gear
and trying to print maps and water reports out I said fuck it. It was
a mess of trying to find fuel from other people, sort resupply, deal
with my extra alpine gear etc.
Some of the people I've been hanging out with have left to head
further north, and some are heading into the mountains to feel it out.
I have to leave the mountains 2 days up anyway from the Trail Pass
Trail into Lone Pine, which is just before the rough higher elevation
sections. It sounds like most people have bailed out on that trail and
are hanging out in Lone Pine (a group of 30 headed to a further north
section from there), so I'm not really sure what to do. Sitting around
is fun, but I really really want to get out and I've only been here a
half day...
One option is to take my alpine gear that I have - sufficient for the
next two days, and exit the mountains to Lone Pine, get my maps from
the post office in my Bounce Box, and head further North or South by
bus to hike for a week or two until things start melting again. That
would mean another zero day here tomorrow to hit the post office in
Lone Pine Monday. Or I could hitch out of here and grab gear tomorrow
and get moving. Or wait here for 6 days or so until the expected
warmer weather moves in and starts melting everything again....
hhhmmmmmmmmm. Eating ice cream all day is fun, but so is hiking. I'll
probably just relax some more and let the answer come to me. I want to
enjoy the high sierras, not survive them...
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