DAY 58: BISHOP, CA



Lunchbox and Chik Chak lookin' cute outside the BBQ place.


miles: 0

Today we took a day off in the town of Bishop, California - WHAT A PLACE!

Let's start with the end of one of the hardest days yet for us...

Yesterday we hiked 23 miles over TWO difficult passes. That is a lot of work. I'm not sure it was the best idea but it was definitely worth it as we descended over Kearsarge Pass and filtered out into the parking lot at the Onion Valley Trailhead. The descent was long and arduous for us after climbing 2 impressive passes.

Forester Pass was relatively easy, considering it is the highest pass of the bunch. We set off from camp early that day and got up and over the pass before noon! I grew tired by the end of the day as we were ascending Kearsarge Pass, and I literally felt as though I could. not. move. another. inch. I sort of had a melt down.

The 7.5 mile side trip off of the PCT up and over Kearsarge was (hands down) the most gorgeous pass of them all, but I was hurting, and it took foooooooorrrrreverrrrrrrrrrrr.

We got down to a parking lot at 6:00pm and fell into a heap on top of some metal bear boxes. This is where we attempted hitching into town. Rocky has a great skill for chatting people up and getting us rides, but it was definitely a lot harder of a hitch this afternoon. We were lucky it was a Saturday - TONS of day hikers were leaving.

A fishing father-son trio wound up giving us a ride to Independence, CA and dropped us off at the Chevron station. This is where we met Lucas.

Lucas drove seven of us the 42 miles (ONE WAY) to Bishop, CA and even stopped to buy us a 6-pack of the highly coveted Mammoth Brewing Compay "Epic IPA". Just for us! And he had to drive 42 miles back home after dropping us off. HOW AMAZING IS THAT? It was a really fun hitch, Lucas was awesome and we met some other cool hikers we hadn't met yet. We all took a beer and were on our way to find the closest hotel room that night.

The best beer.

Which brings me to today. BISHOP - is a great town. The Sierra's loom in the distance to the West and the White Mountains hover to the East, Bishop nestled down in the hot hot hot valley floor.

Giggle Springs? Mini Mart?

Today brought much relaxation, chore doing, and eating. We rejoiced in the a.m. at the World Famous Schat's Bakery first thing - and Lunchbox was there! It's always so great to see him, the Wolf Pack loves loves loves Lunchbox.

After consuming at least 7 pastries each we hobbled back to our hotel room and did copious amounts of cleaning of our gear, drank beers, and celebrated our much needed ZERO DAY (in the best town so far, too!)

Lunchbox came over and hung out today and he and Rocky talked fish for a while since Lunchbox got his fishing permit on the trail and has been fishing his way through the Sierras. Rocky has been thinking a lot about getting into fly fishing.


Lunchbox and Sour Cream talkin' fish in our room.



Explosion about to take place.



Fishing rod

Chik Chak and Starfox arrived later in the day and we reunited - we had split up the last few days due to differing paces. Also - Rocky, Sour Cream and I were DETERMINED to get to town ASAP. We were pretty beat up from the last section.

It's crazy to think about but, when reflecting on this trip so far (it's been 2 months) I look back to the first day and realize that we hiked 20.6 miles on day 1 and it took us about 15 hours, and we were HURTING. BAD.

Now we hike back to back 23 mile days, over the most difficult terrain (the High Sierras) on 4 hours of sleep and we are still in high spirits and have no soreness whatsoever. We really HAVE gotten in shape, guys.

Went out to a BBQ place. Left to right: Chik Chak, Lunchbox, Sour Cream, me, Rocky, Starfox and Squeaks.



The night ended at a bar where about 10-15 of us hikers gathered to play shuffleboard and pool.

Hikers wandering around town at dusk.

Sour Cream and Rocky playing an intense game of shuffleboard.

Shuffleboard.

FRENZ.