Day 43 – Zero into Independe
Originally published on Mason Hikes the PCT 2017.
Mileage: 0.0
Oops. We didn’t plan to zero in Bishop, but due to how much we needed to do and how late we got to town yesterday, we took it easy and hiked zero miles today.
I was a sleepy boy this morning, so I woke up to give Savage my laundry and then slept in until about 9. When I got up, no one was in the room because they had all gone to the awesome town bakery, but they came back bearing gifts and I received my first muffin of the trip that I myself had not bought. Thanks guys!
We needed to figure out a plan, so we checked out of the hotel and went to the hostel, where we at outside to discuss what we needed to do. We decided that going to the outfitters was first (I needed new sunglasses to prevent snow blindness and a few of us needed replacement socks), McDonald’s was second (Wi-Fi and milkshakes 👌), then the grocery store (food keeps us alive). We also ran into Boo multiple times who said that he might hike with us for a bit because Mr. Clean is leaving the trail temporarily.
By the time we had resupplied in the grocery store, it was around 5, so we had no chance of making it back to the trail. We decided that getting into Independence was a good intermediate step, so we made a sign to help with hitching. Savage got a tiny bit overenthusiastic on the “I” in Independence, so we ran out of room and our sign said “Hikers to Independe” instead of “Independence”. Close enough.
We had a super hard time hitching from the wrong side of town, so we walked/hitch danced down the road until an awesome guy named Troy pulled over. Troy was not driving your normal sedan, but rather a giant conversion van with a custom sleeping platform, fridge, pantry, and storage. It was awesome!
Troy is a rep for Kelty and Sierra Designs where his job description is basically “drive around and talk to people about our products and their camping experiences”. He is currently covering the US west of Colorado in his awesome van, so he essentially lives on the road in his van. He was at the outfitters in town and was headed to Lake Tahoe for the night, but was kind enough to drive 40 miles in the wrong direction for a few PCT hikers. He was an awesome guy that made our to back to Independence a blast, so thanks Troy!
Once we got to the campground, we set up tents and walked into town for some food. The first place we find was a cute little French bistro, so we decided to give it a shot. That was an amazing decision.
I had an absolutely delicious burger with caramelized onions and stilton cheese followed by a slice of praline cake, both of which hit the spot in a big way. Normally I’m not a fan of blue cheese on burgers, but oh my god was it good.
The cherry on top of the whole restaurant experience was the cutest corgi mix named Carlos. So fluffy and loving!
We finished dinner, went back to the campground for a fire since Troy had given us firewood, and popped a celebratory bottle of bubbly because Troy had also given us a huge bottle of champagne. What a nice guy!
Once we finished the champagne, it was time for sleeps because we are getting back into the mountains tomorrow, so we’ll need all the energy we can get. I miss the snow!