Sierras – Mammoth – Bishop

Day 104 Fri Oct 6th
Mammoth Lakes- Unmarked Tent site – Red cone cut-off – Along Horseshoe2 McCloud
1749.9
Approx. 417 ft ascent 515 ft descent
2.6 Miles

We had a leisurely start to the day as check out wasn’t until 11:00.

We also cooked up a lovely breakfast consisting of hot links sausages, shredded fried potato, egg mushrooms and cheese. It was delicious and we made so much we had enough to pack out onto the trail for tomorrow.

We then headed down to the Post Office to send our ice axes and my Loan Peak trail runners to Bishop.

Once we were done we found our way to the Library where we sat trying to update blogs and charity pages, whilst being interrupted by irritating loud “American” children.

There seemed to be some kind of homework club going on and one kid in particular seemed to be very vocal despite Sarah and I telling him to be quiet on a number of occasions.

Call me old fashioned but that kid needed a clip around the ear.

We got a ride back to trail at around 16:30 from the Library using the Dial-a-ride service and it only cost us 6 bucks which was a steal.

We cooked up a lobster mac and cheese before getting back on trail on a picnic bench in the trailhead car park.

We had bought this the previous evening with eyes too big for our stomach’s.

Our plan was to do a few miles tonight so that at least tomorrow we could start early on trial without any transportation logistics.

The trailhead was surrounded by dead looking pine trees. We were told by the taxi driver that they had been starved of oxygen due to underground geothermal activity, which produced excess carbon dioxide killing the trees.

As we approached lake McCloud a smartly dressed gentleman and his partner walked down the trail towards us. It seemed a little out of place

He said: “Do I look good in this?” I replied of course and so does your misses. Very smart indeed.

On getting to the lake we could see that there had been some kind of wedding party and we saw a bride and groom walking around the lake with an entourage of people.

What a perfect setting for a wedding being surrounded by mountains and the wild like this. The surface of the lake was also flat calm like a mirror and the sun was setting red and orange.

As we backtracked to where we exited the PCT to get to Mammoth. Sarah commented that it was nice to retrace our steps and know the route back and any possible camp spots.

The trail was easy, mainly downhill and was lined with cushy pine needles. I said to Sarah it’s almost like they’ve rolled out the red carpet for us, as this is Sarah’s favourite type of surface to hike on.

Our lavish lobster mac set us up nicely for the night and meant we didn’t have to cook when we got to camp. We seem to have way more food than normal. Too much in fact to fit inside the bear cans but don’t tell Mr Ranger.

It’s approximately 6 days to get to Bishop and then approx another 5 days to get through the Sierras. Fingers crossed I think our food will last.

Exiting the trail at Kearsarge pass will take at least 2-3 days out of our schedule. But after 6 days on trail I am sure we will be more than ready for a trip into town.

We stopped just short of the PCT junction and opted to camp on higher ground as there were plenty of flat spots we had previously eyed up on our way through to Mammoth.

Because we’re carrying a lot of extra food this meant we also had to hang a bear bag. This proved more difficult than normal. Normally you find a rock and put it in a little bag attached to a 50 ft line. You throw this up around a high tree branch and then hoist up your food out of reach of any bear.

Easy enough after all the practice we have had you might think. However, all of the rocks surrounding our camp spot were more like volcanic pumice and were super lightweight, thus making this task way harder than normal.

After lots of attempts and a lot of cussing, I finally managed to do it, protecting our valuable food resupply from any marauding bear.