Day 15: Zero In Mammoth LakesJuly 5th

I mentioned yesterday that we all sent resupply packages for the next four day leg (to Tuolumne Meadows) to Motel 6 here in Mammoth Lakes. This is common practice for hikers to avoid having to hit PO hours. I’ve only had one hiccup in packages in the last 5yrs of mailing myself resupplies and now I can say I’ve had a major one, ugh. Weeks ago, Why Not called the Motel 6 and asked for their address to mail packages. Turns out the person failed to include the PO Box number. The post office is just a block from the Motel 6 and the packages were clearly labeled to hold for hikers with our estimated ETA. The policy of the PO here in Mammoth Lakes is that if it doesn’t have a PO Box #, they return it to sender. What a shitty thing to do when they are one block away and know exactly what the package is for and know the Motel 6 gets tons. Rockin’s package made it because she luckily sent it through UPS, which isn’t required. 

It’s an annoyance, but not hike ending at all. Myself and Why Not needed to print maps and buy things to resupply, which neither of us were planning to do on a relaxing zero. We lucked out big time, and a blog follower of Rockin’s, named Michael, was in town and lent us his car for the morning. What could have been a tiring full day task took just a few hours, whew. THANK YOU MICHAEL!!! Trail magic saves the day!

Michael saves the day lending us his car this morning.


The rest of the day was spent getting the blog updated, chasing down my box that is bouncing around the postal system, and catching up on correspondence. I do want to give a shout out to my friend GoalTech, who has been my devoted editor on these lengthy posts. He has been letting me know of many of the spelling and grammar errors that I blame all on autocorrect (of course!). THANK YOU GoalTech! It is now 5:30pm and I am going to attempt to do all my emailing and then watch the final two episodes of VEEP, which is really my only goal of the zero dammit! If I’m lucky I’ll get to watch more, oh boy!

So although we hit Tuolumne Meadows in four days, I don’t think we will get service to post anything until we finish three days after that. We are aiming to finish around the 13th or 14th. I know it seems like we should be home free, but this section is definitely no cake walk and is one to be taken seriously. It’s gonna be a tough one, but hopefully, we can finish it out just like we have the last couple weeks. One day (or even step) at a time. 

I personally am getting more adjusted to both the elevation and the terrain. I have moments I greatly enjoy it and moments where I am still quite afraid and swearing, but I think that’s common for the SHR. All is good except my bad ankle (surgery on a severed ligament 10yrs ago), which is yelling at me and my face which can’t seem to get enough protection from the wind and sun. Yep, that damn dorky hat is continuing with me. 

Ok everyone, you can track our progress to the end on my Where’s Wired tab and we’ll be back in civilization in about a week and hopefully headed to the High Sierra Trail after that. A few days on a trail that runs east-west across the Sierra that will get us back to the car where we left it at Roads End.

Oh, and while you wait, here’s a reminder of Why Not and Rockin’s blogs for more fun and photos.
Why Not: nancyhikes.com
Rockin’: ladyonarock.com

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