Day 50 - wa736 to campsite at pct mile 753

After another chilly night (hang on tight, it's going to be that way for several weeks now)  we got up and started packing our stuff. Happy Pants was already gone.
After worrying about water so much last evening, Yair and Idan decided they had enough water on them, and didn't go down to find the stream and get more water. I had plenty on me anyway.
The walk towards the next water source, Diaz Creek, was easy and pleasant. We got there into hours, and filled up our water for the next section.
From there, we had an easy climb up through some passes, until we reached a beautiful snow water stream for our next refill. The views towards Horseshoe Meadows were very nice.
We met Young Oak, the other French guy on the trail, as he came up from Lone Pine. He stopped at the stream to cook lunch, and told us he plans to hike all the way to Mammoth in 7 days. That's an ambitions plan. Hope he makes it.
From there we had a short and nice climb up to Cottonwood Pass, which had good views in both directions. Idan "felt" this might be a good place to get cell signal, and he was right. It wasn't the first time he had done this, so henceforth he will be known as Signal.

View from Cottonwood Pass, down towards Horseshoe Meadoes

Our next stop was a bit higher, at Chicken Spring Lake, where we filled up for the night. Yair and I filled from the lake's outlet, but Idan (Signal) wasn't lazy, and went a bit further to the lake. He said it was freezing around it, but it was amazing. He also got much cleaner water.

Chicken Spring Lake, our water source for the evening

It was getting a bit late, at 16:15, and we were a bit too tired to continue all the way over to the trail to Rock Creek, about 4 miles away. So we headed out to walk together, and just find a good, sheltered spot to stop for the night. It was going to be over 11,000 feet anyway, so we hoped to get away from any cold winds, at least.

Just another selfie

We finally found a nice, flat, area just off the trail, about 2 miles later. That leaves us 15 miles to get to Crabtree Meadows tomorrow, as a base camp before summiting Whitney.
We cooked in the warm sun, but as soon as it went behind the ridge, the temperature dropped. We finished eating quickly, got everything in the bear canisters and headed to bed.

Days 42-43 - zeroing in Lake Isabella

After the great trail magic dinner up at Walker Pass campground, we also had pancake breakfast for dinner. I failed miserably, and only had one. What can I say? I'm not a breakfast person.
There was another hiker that came in last night, after doing a 40 mile day. And two more that strolled in this morning after doing over 30 yesterday. They were all heading out, and not going into town.
We went out to the highway, and got a hitch in about 10 minutes. The lady who picked us up, Helen, said she just started noticing hikers on this road this year. She leaves in Ridgecrest, and drives over to Lake Isabella every Friday. Two weeks ago she picked up a thru-Hiker from Scotland, and first learned on the whole pct. She was very interested in our hike, and asked a lot of questions about it.
When we got down to Lake Isabella, she said she'd like to take us over to the next town of Kernville, to show us the nice Park over there. So she drove 10 extra miles over there, and we saw the nice Park and the Kern river over there.
Afterwards she got us back to the Lake Isabella motel, and we waited for Big Boots, Rudolph and Bambi. We all shared a two queen size bed room, and Big Boots got to sleep on the floor (and pay less).
We did our laundry while waiting for the room to be ready, and later had a shower. It feels so much nicer to be clean in towns.
Idan and I went over to eat something for lunch. I had a burrito. It was all right, but wasn't made of the freshest ingredients. Then we went to Vons and got supplies for the next, 2.5 days, section to Kennedy Meadows. We also got some town food for tomorrow breakfast and lunch.
Many other hikers arrived during the day, filling up the motel. At the evening Writer came in with a new shipment of hikers, including Penguin. Writer has started a thru-hike on April, and wanted to write about the trail and the hikers. She switched to section hiking, to concentrate more on her writing. She posts her articles on http://howdoyouhikethepct.com
I went for dinner with Big Boots, Sock Pot, Young Oak and Writer, at a nearby Mexican place (a real restaurant, not the fast food from lunch). Writer kept asking us about what motivates us, and what makes us hike the trail. It was an interesting conversation. She got our contact details so she will be able to ask more questions later, for her project.
On our second zero we pretty much did nothing except move three rooms down. And a sand twister took Idan's hat flying across the road, when we went out for lunch.