PCT SOBO DAY 80 – I feel like I'm on holiday
2nd October 2016
0 miles
So we made the decision in the morning to hike out tomorrow. Catwater was giving herself one more day for her toe to heal further and for the antibiotics to take effect. Plus, the forecast is for snow at Tuolumne meadows tonight and temperatures of 18°F/-7°C! We don't need to be out in that!
So after breakfast I went and did the last of my food shopping, I had another fight with Travelex, my currency card company. Eventually after about an hour and a half of trying to top up my card I had to call my parents and get them to do it on a proper computer. With that all sorted I could finally buy my food and order a new tent to be sent to my next stop.
Not all my food fitted into the bear canister. My Fritos, wraps and chips ahoy are outside of it. Anything that had air in the packet I popped with a safety pin so it took up less space. I packed up all my gear and my food into my new rucksack and decided it was going to work. I'm going to keep it. It's a risk, swapping to a brand new pack especially when my load is at its heaviest, but I figured it can't be worse than the Osprey pack which is too big. It's surprisingly comfortable for such a lightweight pack. But I have only had it on my back for 10 minutes. I guess time will tell.
Catwaters sister Annie is still here and she decided to go for a drive today so we went too. We were trying to find some hot springs but they didn't seem to be where the map suggested so we went to Bodie instead. I loved it. I had no idea it was even there.
Bodie is an old abandoned mining town, up at 8500ft. It's boomtown days were 1879-1881. But when it all collapsed people up and left and it's now a ghost town. I found it fascinating. We didn't have time to look all the way around and it was very windy and very cold so I'd love to come back one day.
On the way back we stopped at mono lake, a huge saltwater lake. I felt like I was on holiday! I bought some awesome patches (I sort of collect patches) and I got my Junior Forest Ranger badge. Having prevented 2 forest fires last year and having destroyed fire rings thins year o think I was deserving of it! Catwater picked up a guide to animal tracks and their poop!
The wind was really picking up now and it was cold. The clouds were looking pretty threatening so we headed back to Mammoth. Plus we were hungry!! We went to Mammoth Brewing Company, one of those trendy places. I spotted a Growler. To my UK friends, this is what a growler is in the states...
I got a text from Spice Rack and they had just hitched into Mammoth so she and Crusher joined us. They looked very cold! And it was so nice to catch up with them. We have them a ride to Robertos and we then walked to Mammoth Mountaineering to get the last thing I needed, some lip balm. I lost mine in Chester and my lips have been destroyed. It's not just from the sun but from the wind, cold and dehydration. I have an open sore on the bottom one.
Then we saw flakes of snow on the way back. Then we hung out in Annie's room and I did some sewing to make some (temporary) modifications to my pack. I adapted one of my stuff bags into a holder for my phone (it doesn't fit in the hip belt pockets). And of course I sewed my Junior Forest Ranger badge on!
I fiddled about with it some more and eventually went to bed after a very nice relaxing day.