Day 81 - South Lake Tahoe to Dick's Lake

After a show morning in our hotel room, we finally headed out to send the rest of our packages from the post office. We had some problems sending the one to Old Station, because it contained a gas canister. At first, the clerk said there's no way to send it on the mail. But after checking their books, he said we can send it ground only. That will work.
We then went to the outfitter, to wait for our ride there. We met Bliss Hap, and she joined our ride up to the trail with trail Angel Mel. I also bought a new pair of sun gloves, but they are much heavier and sturdier than my old pair. I don't really like them as much.

Old vs New

Back at the trail head, right after Mel has left, Emu and Mozi came out of the woods. I thought they were ahead of is, for some reason. They were going into Tahoe, but from the next road crossing, 1.5 miles ahead.
We started our hike at noon. We seem to be doing that a lot lately. A short time after we started we passed that 2nd road crossing, at the Echo Lake resort. There were many people around the lake, even as we went further several miles on the trail.

View back towards Upper Echo Lake and Echo Lake

The trail was rather easy most of the day, but after we crossed the last water source, we started climbing up to Dick's Pass. The climb wasn't THAT long. Bit it was already late in the day, and it took me a while. After getting to the pass, overlooking Dick's Lake, the trail keeps going up for a short while, on the mountain side, before finally starting its descent to the lake.

View across the waters of Lake Aloha

We set up camp just by the lake, and later saw some tents not fat away from us. There are some weekend hikers with their kids not far off. And maybe some thru hikers are around as well.

Day 64 - cs892b to Mammoth Lakes

I think we had the coldest night yet. With my new sleeping pad, I didn't suffer that much under my quilt, but my face were exposed and cold during the night. I kept turning to sleep on my side, so I'd have a bit more quilt to cover my head as well. It was cold, but we survived.
In the morning it was still cold, and we had some water bottles and bags freeze on us. I had some extra oatmeal packets with me, so we've made hot oatmeal from all the oatmeal and shared it. That was very nice.
We finally left the campsite just after we got some sun, and started our long hike down. Idan wanted to get to the Red's Meadow store at 15:00 at the latest. That's the place where we were going to catch the bus down into town. It wasn't a hard schedule, for 14 miles, but we weren't in a hurry. So Idan just went ahead into town as fast as he could, like he likes to do. He got there at 12:30. Fast.
Right after leaving camp we met Dan, who was camping just a bit further on. Apparently we've met him some 700 miles back, just before Ziggy and The Bear. I recall meeting him there by the spigot, and that he got picked up by a friend at the highway.
Yair and I walked most of the day together. I put on some music on my phone's speaker, and we also listened to a Louis C. K. recorded show on the way. I hope it didn't bother any southbounders that passed us.
The trail was almost all down hill and easy. We got some nice views to the valley on our left, but near the end of the day there was a big section full of dead and broken trees.

This is what a burnt and broken forest look like

We stopped on the way several times, finishing up all our snacks just because we had them. Some hikers passed us during the day, including Mozi and Emu, Twice and Handbrake. We met them all down at the store.
We finally did get to the store at 14:50. Right according to plan. We got on the first bus, to the ski resort, and had a very nice bus driver. He told me where I can find a coupon for 2 for 1 to the famous pizza place we were planning on, and told me about the fire, 21 years ago, that burned those trees we saw. 3 years ago they also had a crazy wind storm (gusts up to 180mph and constant wind of about 120mph, for 12 hours) that uprooted many trees as well. Scary.
At the resort we got on the free bus down to town, and there we got on the (free, again) bus over to the motel.
We found Idan arguing at the office, getting us a room with a fridge, for the same price, instead of the one we originally got. Then he also got the price down somehow. Amazing.
We got those pizza coupons for dinner, and headed out over there with Twice, Sockpot and Big Boots. They zeroed here today and are leaving tomorrow. We also met Dan on the way, and he joined us.
We got 6 large pizzas for a table of 7, so nobody left hungry. We even got one slice left over from our pizzas for breakfast tomorrow. Others also left with plenty of leftovers.
Passing by the outfitter, I got a card of a local seamstress who might be able to help me fix my tent's zippers. Tomorrow is Sunday, but I will email her asking her if she can have a look, or maybe on Monday morning.

Day 34 - Oasis cache to the middle of the Mojave

A very very long, and different, day.
It all started with a nice walk down towards the Green Valley Road, where Casa de Luna is. The trail was easy, and I especially enjoyed watching the trail climb up the mountain on the other side of the road, knowing that it was inside a fire closure, and I won't have to climb it.
We got to the road at about 10:00, and Cheese came in just after. Terry Anderson, the owner of Casa de Luna, just passed by with her car, and picked us up to the famous hostel.

Butters and Idan in Casa de Luna

Upon reaching Casa de Luna I was immediately given a beer. Then I was led to the Hawaiian shirt rack, where I picked one up for the duration of my stay there. The whole atmosphere was very laid back and relaxed, and it is really easy to decide to just stay there for a day or two. Every night is taco salad night, and the party is always on in the front yard, but at the back there is a manzanita grove, for quiet camping and sleeping.
We resisted the temptation and headed out at about noon, planning to hitch around the closure (no road walk for us). We met Sunbeam and Arctic at the gas station, eating ice cream, so we bought a pint of Ben and Jerry's as well, and shared it. It was a hot day.
Hitching the ride out of Green Valley wasn't easy. It took us about half an hour, when finally the local plumber stopped and took us to Lake Hughes. There it got worse - we tried hitching along with the Australian Girls (Mozi and Emu), but nobody stopped. Probably because we were too many. After we split, and headed down the road a bit, we finally got a ride in a pick up. The driver then also stopped for Mozi and Emu, and later for Alpine Start and French Toast as well. So we all got our ride into Hiker Town - our second trail Angel of the day.

Alpine Start, French Toast and Mozi on the ride to Hiker Town

On the ride to Hiker Town

Hiker Town is a bit different. We just went to the common area, and sat on the sofas until the heat of the day passed. The place was packed with hikers, some who actually did the road walk, and many were heading out at the evening.
Snail Trainer met a friend of his there, who bought a lot of beer and curry take out for everyone. After he left, Idan said he looked like the head guard from Prison Break. And then Snail Trainer said it was indeed Wade Williams - the actor from Prison Break. So Idan scored some points there. Apparently Snail Trainer used to date the actress from the ah-ha video "Take On Me", and she was friends with Wade's wife, and that's how they met. Funny story.
Anyway, we left Hiker Town at about 18:30, heading out for our first night hiking. The trail is all flat and boring for the following 17 miles, and quite terrible in the daily heat.

The open LA aqueduct

At dusk it was much more bearable. We got to the open LA aqueduct, and walked along it for a short while, and then headed into the Mojave desert on the aqueduct road. The sun set, and it was still quite warm, and we just kept on walking on those roads. When the moon rose, we didn't even need our head lamps. But it still felt like we were hiking extra miles at the end of the day, and not like we only did 7 before that. So every step hurt.
I took some ibuprofen, and was surprised to find out how that chemistry really does make the pain go away. But when we reached the point where the trail left the aqueduct road, at 22:20, we called it a night, and set up camp. Along with some other hikers who stopped here before.
Well, that was an experience.