May 21 Drive to Lone Pine!

Well, we woke to freezing temps, very high winds and learned most hikers were bailing to Ridgecrest or Lone Pine to wait out the storm. Getting to these towns is not easy and completely dependent on Trail Angels. Jetsetter left last night with a group of guys for Ridgecrest to wait a couple of days. We had hoped we could wait out the storm at Kennedy Meadows, but Chris’ cough was worse and we were both COLD and storm was still a day away. Also with high winds came dust all over the inside of the tent. Not good for bronchitis.

We were sitting on the deck drinking coffee, playing with pups, and Legend (THE trail angel) offered to drive us in a few hours. We were thrilled. Within a few minutes a second man sat next to Legend and asked if anyone needed a ride to Lone Pine NOW. We jumped on the offer and hurried to pack up our gear. We said goodbye to the nice folks at KMGS and left Chris’ phone number just in case a hiker found Rick’s phone.

What an interesting man our trail angel to Lone Pine is! His trail name is ‘A Mountain Lion’, not ‘Mountain Lion’, so if you have seen him on the trail you can say ‘I saw A Mountain Lion!’. He felt it was much more interesting. Ok.

As Chris was putting her backpack in the trunk of his Enterprise rental car she noticed large black bags and a dirty shovel stuffed inside. She thought we would likely be murdered, cut up and buried somewhere in those bags. Saying nothing, she slid into the backseat and began strategizing their escape. No escape was needed — what we learned during our 1.5 hour drive to Lone Pine was that this hiker from Phoenix drives up and hikes in every 100 miles or so and BURIES his food resupplies in 5 gallon buckets. Interesting and time-consuming front end to his hike, but he never has to take the time to go off trail once he starts. Hmmm. Some places it’s illegal for him to do this, so he explained the chore is performed clandestinely - in the middle of the night.

A Mountain Lion dropped us in Lone Pine and we started our hunt for a place to stay. Most motels were booked (weekend), but we finally found availability at Portal Motel. Nice and comfortable! However, we did notice that there was no Verizon store in Lone Pine. Oops.