Bullfrog Lake Trail.. to Kearsage Pass Trail to Onion Valley Trailhead… miles 8ish?

I woke up early today… of course.. when all I have to do is 8 miles… I was out of camp by 7. Well the fact that I woke up early, to winter inside my tent complete with frost and wet everything…. May have contributed to my early exit…

As much as I dislike the idea of side trails and extra mountain passes to get resupply… I have to say Kearsage Pass was one of the most beautiful sections thus far and I am glad I did it. The climb was steep - but again seemed easier than my first high altitude days… the switchbacks going down were skipworthy ;) with no snow and mostly smooth dirt… oh how I love regularly used day hiking trails.

Still unsure of exactly how I was getting home… I was thrilled to receive a cell signal halfway down… I was able to book a rental car from Bishop to pick up later in the afternoon… hopefully getting a ride wouldn’t be too hard.

On my way down, I passed a bunch of hiker friends headed back up… Jedi..Summer… Deep Dive… stopping and talking to each one was really nice. They are all still so supportive of my old legs and really uplift my self doubt.

At the very bottom though was Scout and WingIt… they were headed back up too… but I got to spend a few minutes with one of my original tramily members and that is always priceless. A campervan was pulling around the parking lot and Scout said I should jump Out for the ride… so I did… and a very nice lady from the Joshua Tree area agreed to bring me to Independence….

She dropped me off at a gas station… and I hopped out of the car a little too quickly… realizing after she pulled away that I left my trekking poles in the van… oh well…

I went into the gas station to get a soda and asked the clerk where would be the best place to stand on road and hitch to Bishop…. He said right out front… so, I did… for the first time on the trail… I stood on the side of a major hwy.. thumb out and left it to chance…

Within 20 minutes an older man in a pickup hauling a horse trailer pulled over and offered me a ride… I felt bad because he immediately rolled down the truck windows as I got in… it had to be close to 100 degrees outside…so that decision meant the smell coming off Amy was real… we talked the entire 42 miles to Bishop… turns out he was the former superintendent of Inyo County Schools… and I really enjoyed learning about his life as I apologized for the stench over and over again…

He dropped me off right at Enterprise… it’s weird on trail you don’t think about the dirt and smell and how you look… but entering a business in a town and back in the real world you immediately begin to feel self conscious … I did my best to keep my distance as the clerk went over the car details and took my payment… before heading out I grabbed some grub… and then drove in 4.5 hours basically the route that had taken me a month to walk!

Arriving home… I realized I did not have any keys to my house… and apparently unlike me Charlie likes to lock the doors when heading out of town… luckily our friend Toni had been checking our mail and had a key… once inside and showered, I realized Charlie also doesn’t believe in grocery shopping when I am away… so I texted Toni and we went out for cocktails and yummy food.

Looking forward to having a few days at home and spending time with Charlie when he returns… because of reaction to first vaccine shot… I will probably spend the next week at home just to make sure it doesn’t happen again, will let you all know when I head back out.