Leaving the Sierras: Mile 898

Well, we're checking in from Mammoth Lakes after a well deserved zero-day. We arrived here, by chance, ahead of schedule. After taking a side trail to check out an afternoon swimming spot, we accidentally discovered a shortcut to Mammoth that wasn't mentioned in our trail guide and saved us a shuttle ride into town. We didn't splurge for a hotel room this time since we arrived Saturday night and there was no room at any inn or campground! Much to our surprise, you can camp for free outside the established campgrounds since Mammoth is situated within a national forest (as long as you're 2 miles outside of town). So, to save money we pitched a tent as if we were on the trail and walked into town as necessary. Mammoth is a cool little mountain town that has no shortage of great eateries, bars, and shops. They have a great free public transportation system that makes getting around town a breeze for hikers. Our first night we stuffed ourselves with delicious pizza and salad, something we had been craving since Independence. We then stopped by the local bakery for a variety of desserts, including a slice of carrot cake! 

We rounded out the night by checking out the local brewery, Mammoth Brewing Company.

On our way down from Washington we had met a former Mammoth resident named Mark while we were climbing Mount Shasta. He had given us the key code to the pool and hot tub area of his condo complex. To our delight, the code worked on the night that we arrived and we found that we had access not only to a pool but also showers and laundry! Score!!! This was going to serve as a one stop shop for all of our errands and save us a bunch of money. When we came back the next morning to take advantage of all of these amenities, we found that the code changed!! Perhaps the presence of two dirty, shady, unfamiliar characters aroused suspicion from the condominium residents. Our thrifty plan was totally ruined. We still got to use the laundry but we had to pay for showers at the RV park and we didn't get to swim :( We also got to go to the movies and grocery shop like real people. Even though we feel like we have a pretty loose budget, we're finding it easy to spend more than we would like in this tourist town. Food and entertainment bills rack up quickly, especially when you can eat like a horse.

The last few days on the trail went by really quickly. The elevation changes are gradually becoming smaller as we make our way out of the high Sierras. We finished two of the last major passes, Seldon and Silver. The only pass we have left is Donohue which will be the last time we'll be above 11,000 feet for quite some time. The major passes all started blurring together at the end but we came up with a little lymeric to keep them in order:

For Glenn, Pinching Mattered More, So Sylvia Departed.

(Forester, Glenn, Pinchot, Mather, Muir, Seldon, Silver, Donohue)

As hard as these climbs are, we're going to be sad to be leaving the Sierras and the alpine landscapes. 

We'll be leaving Mammoth tomorrow morning after we make a quick stop at the post office. We'll be picking up the new FlyLite tent sent to us from the guys at MSR. We're sad to have our last night in our homemade tarp tent tonight but excited to product test a new system.

The next stretch of the trail will take us into Tuolomne Meadows, where we'll be hiking a 20-mile detour into Yosemite Valley and up Half Dome. Although the PCT doesn't go to Yosemite Valley, we have enough time and energy to make the trip so we may as well!