Magical Mammoth

If you reference our original resupply plan, Mammoth Lakes isn't a part of it. The plan was to meet mom and dad Lafleur in South Lake Tahoe, and their trip was booked way back when that seemed like a feasible option. Well we forgot to take some dates into account, namely the 4 (amazing) days in Bakersfield and a few extra zeroes here and there. So the plan had to change and we would meet in South Lake Tahoe.

We picked up our 5 day resupply at Muir Trail Ranch and I cursed the fact that we had to carry it up the ensuing climb. We were carrying 5+ days food and would be in town in 2 days! What doesn't kill ya.... I guess.

We left the Ranch around 5:30PM and ended up making it to Sally Keyes Lakes, at mile 864. It was dark, Mosquitos were bad and we were tired so we just went straight to bed. The next morning we arose and got our early enough that a mile up the trail we found an old friend, Gut Feeling, who we hadn't seen for nearly a month! We all hikes together for a bit throughout the day, but we ended up camping a little short of where she did that evening. That day we also passed by the cut-off for VVR, where many people go for a break, or just a beer an and a burger. You could also mail yourself a package there, but it's $18 to receive it, plus it's $18 for the ferry ride across the lake that you need to take to get there. We opted to pass up the opportunity, but when we were passing by it was just when the evening ferry had dropped off and so we saw a bunch of others we hadn't seen for a while! Trip and Dazzle, who we hiked with for a while up to Kennedy Meadows, Cactus and Extra Credit who we hiked with way back before Agua Dulce and Dubz and the Wiz who we also hiked with a tiny bit around the Saufley's. They had all just spent the day at VVR and were going to camp right there where the junction was, so we chatted for about half an hour, but we had to move on. We made it a good ways up the climb to Silver Pass, which we would complete the next day.

July 2nd. Today was a 'get our asses to town' sorta day. We were 25 miles out, but it was SO gonna happen. It did. It was work, but it did. We were meeting my parents in Mammoth now and so we were excited to get there. We rolled into Red's Meadow (where you get off to go to Mammoth) and ran into Meredith (Action Pack) who we met way back at Scout and Frodo's, before we even stepped foot on trail! She was just on her way back out, but pointed us in the direction of cabin B, where there were trail angels! Gut Feeling and Safari were already thee, but they had room for us too!! We wee able to shower, they fed us fruit salad and we slept on a pull out couch. Amazing.

The next morning we had hot cocoa and made our way to the bus. $7 gets you a return ticket to the Mammoth Mountain Lodge. As soon as we stepped off the bus, we heard the voice of my mom calling our names. So awesome! Big hugs ensued and then we went into the lodge where they were staying and my dad got us checked in to our own room! That place was awesome. We each had a nice, loooong shower. Mom and dad were also so nice as to buy us Subway, so we shared that as well. All the euphoria of getting to town was there, PLUS the awesomeness of meeting my parents!! After we cleaned up we all went for a nice lunch, the to Schat's Bakery, then the grocery store. We spent lots of time just chatting and relaxing at the hotel, and made dinner plans, of course. We managed to convince them to go for sushi! After dinner we went back to the hotel and RELAXED. It felt great.

The next day was much of the same. We went for breakfast and ran some errands and relaxed and enjoyed our visit at the hotel.

On the morning of the 5th, we slowly got our packs packed up and all 4 of us took the shuttle up towards Red's Meadow. Mom and Dad hit off at Devil's Postpile and Julia and I went back up to Red's and got back in the PCT where we left it. It goes by Devil's Postpile, so we met up with them again down there and said our goodbyes.

Lovely visit.