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 47 - Kennedy Meadows to Kennedy Meadows campground

Today was almost a zero day.
We woke up to a chilly morning, and Yair took off to Ridgecrest to return his rental car. We were hoping he'd have good luck hitching back.

Bambi and Rudolph relaxing at the "Internet Cafe"

We finally got our laundry done, and had a shower, after the water shortage ended. So we were relatively clean. I then started the task of arranging my food for the next 7 hiking days. It's a long stretch, and we also have to fit about 5 days of food inside our Bear canisters. I managed to get all of my food inside my canister, for the entire 7 days. I just don't eat that much. I hope I won't get too hungry on the trail.
Yair got back just before 13:00, and we decided officially that we'd head out in the evening, just to hike the short, 2.4 miles trail to the campground.
We spent the rest of the time organizing, sending boxes to Lone Pine, eating good meals I got from home (thanks!) and laying around.
At about 18:00 we left the general store, and headed out. We stopped to weigh our heavy packs at the Internet Cafe. Idan's was 40 pounds, Yair's was 35, and mine was just 30. I hope I didn't forget anything.

Entering Bear country

The trail to the campground was easy, and Yair got his first taste of the pct. Once there, we found a nice spot not far from the water spigot, set up camp and made dinner.
A short while later Big Boots, Sock Pot and Twice came by, and made a camp fire in their campsite. We joined in for a while, and it was very nice. Penguin also showed up and camped nearby.
All in all, a very relaxing and easy day.