May 22-23 Zeros!

We woke to cold and snow up on the peaks visible behind the motel. Glad we weren’t headed to Forester in that.

Our plan was to wait for storm from Alaska to pass, for Chris to rest, her cough to finally subside, and for Rick to purchase a new cell phone. As we had discovered that there is no cell phone retail stores in Lone Pine, the bus to Bishop (40 miles north 395) was our plan but it doesn’t run on the weekend. Because we learned Verizon would only mail new phone to the residence/billing address for new customers — will not mail it to a post office — we needed to get to a store.

Chris asked PCT Facebook members for advice. Her phone rang within minutes and ‘A Mountain Lion’ said he was in Bishop after driving to Tuolomne to bury his food cache and offered to pick up a phone and deliver it to Lone Pine. Wow! Chris called the Verizon Store in Bishop and bought Rick a new phone (with bright RED case 😉). A Mountain Lion picked it up and delivered it to us later that day. Incredible. This was after he took several side trips to pick up and drop off other hikers looking for rides to/from the various trailheads. When he dropped the phone off he had a car load of hikers looking for a ride back to Bishop.