We woke after our zero in Mammoth very sleepy but very rested.

We took a shuttle to Red’s Meadow, skipping ~ 3 miles of trail to avoid re-doing 3.5 off-trail miles. Red’s Meadow was just how I remembered it. The food was just as expensive. The line of hikers at Reds waiting for the shuttle was startling, easily 30 people, after our group saw next to no one in Mammoth while we were there. We believe we are once again between bubbles of hikers.

We met some alpacas today, as well as some mules and horses. This section was popular for trail animals.

I took a 6 minute nap today on trail—we were truly zombies out there today, managing sugar and caffein crashes, minor sleep deprivation, and full stomaches at the same time. The very cold weather did not help (low today of 27).

I’m finally in my quilt where I have wanted to be all day, and nothing could make me leave our tent until morning.

Alarms set for 4:30 am got us up and out of our tent in a record 20 minutes this morning as we were chased by sunrise all the way to the trail exit to Mammoth.

We caught mountain ridges at dawn in the moonlight, passed mile 900 AND 33% of trail, hiked 10.5 miles, and entered the Ansel Adams wilderness (reminding me of my Dad, hi Dad!), all by 8:30 am, making our resupply almost 2 zeros. We then proceeded to do as many of our chores as possibly and then visited the local brewery.

Alarms set for 4:30 am got us up and out of our tent in a record 20 minutes this morning as we were chased by sunrise all the way to the trail exit to Mammoth.

We caught mountain ridges at dawn in the moonlight, passed mile 900 AND 33% of trail, hiked 10.5 miles, and entered the Ansel Adams wilderness (reminding me of my Dad, hi Dad!), all by 8:30 am, making our resupply almost 2 zeros. We then proceeded to do as many of our chores as possibly and then visited the local brewery.