Holy cats, we were so tired out from yesterday's excitement! We slept in until 7:00 and I got up, had coffee and my last candy bar (which I had been saving for my last bfast). I was ready to GTFO-- BURGERS and rest were on my mind!! I (im)patiently waited for Daveed as he sleepily got out of the tent, ate and started to pack up. The storm had cleared at the elevation we were at, thank goodness. Our clothes and layers were still soggy, my gloves still soaking wet. I did not want to deal with them, so I wrapped them in the garbage bag that had been protecting my sleeping bag (don't need that anymore!) and stuffed them into my pack.
We headed down to the trailhead in the morning sunshine, but storm clouds were still surrounding the top of Whitney. As we neared the trailhead, we passed all sorts of people. Families out for a day hike. Small groups aiming for Trail Camp and then Whitney's summit next day. Silly people wearing cotton t-shirts, shorts and tennis shoes and carrying small disposable water bottles saying they were going "to the top!". I wished them well, knowing full well that in 2-3 hours when they were still hiking UP, they'd be too tired, too hungry and out of water to make it any further... but warned them that it was likely hailing and raining at higher elevation and easily 40 degrees colder than where we stood. So you know, good luck and stuff.
About a mile from the trailhead Daveed said he'd buy me a burger if I chanted "burgers, burgers, burgers" the whole way down. So I did. But after about 3 or 4 minutes he stopped me and said "alright, alright! Enough! I'll still buy your burger. But you can stop chanting now!".
And suddenly, there we are. We arrive at the trailhead unscathed from the previous day's events where there are burgers and beer and ice cream and sunshine and pit toilets and cars and water spigots and people who smell of laundry detergent.
As we walked to the store/cafe, Daveed realized he dropped his rain jacket on the trail somewhere. He gave me his credit card to order burgers and tried to "run" back up the trail (without his pack) to retrieve his jacket.
I arrived at the trailhead store/cafe at 10:30. I walked in and asked the cashier if there were burgers here. He laughed and said yes, but they didn't start serving lunch until 10:45. I asked if I could put my order in now, it was OK if the cook wasn't ready to make my burger for 15 minutes, let me peruse the store and spend Daveed's money. Word. I ordered burgers and beer and fries and ice cream for Daveed and I, bought some postcards and other crap and waited outside at a picnic table. While I was waiting for our food, I wrote postcards to my parents, Baby Levi and my manager Billiam/my coworkers.
A few minutes after our burgers arrived, Daveed trotted back with his rain jacket in-hand and a huge smile when he saw the spread on the table. We clinked our Sierra Nevada beers in cheers to "a great adventure!" then happily ate our burgers, fries, ice cream and sipped our beers. In true fashion, neither of us finished our beers :) We usually share one but how would we have cheers'ed with only one?
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| Ice cream eaten immediately, of course! And of course I dissected my burger in true KSue fashion, eating the veggies like a salad with a packet of salad dressing I found in the cafe, throwing out the bun and eating the pickle first! |
I called around Lone Pine to find us a motel room for the next 2 nights and scored us a room after making 3 calls elsewhere at the Portal Motel. Perfect!
After feasting, we were ready to head into Lone Pine, which was about 12 miles away. We dropped our wag bags in the wag bag disposal container <--- This is how not a big deal the wag bags were. We didn't care about them. We didn't drop them in the disposal until we were heading out. It didn't even cross my mind to do it sooner! Triple bag it friends!
We started heading out of the parking lot excited to hitch hike for the first time in our lives. We walked about 15 yards and got picked up! I attribute it to my charming good looks and stellar tanned and strong looking legs. Daveed attributes it to good timing. Regardless, we got picked up immediately by a father and daughter who were about to start the JMT! Ha! Our first hitch hiking experience was not much of an experience! But that's OK :) They dropped us off in town and we walked to the Portal Motel. We checked in and when we walked into our room we immediately fell into the KING SIZED BED! SCORE!!! The room also had a microwave, fridge, air conditioning, shower, toilet, sink, running water and electricity! WOOT!! Oh! And a table and chairs and counter tops. We both missed sitting in chairs with backs and Daveed missed counter tops most of all.
We walked to the post office to pick up the box we had my parents mail to us a couple weeks earlier, filled with clean clothes, shampoo and something neither of us had used in over a month: DEODORANT!
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| Mt Whitney, hard to believe we were at the summit less than 24 hours ago, and now we're in Lone Pine! And of course the storm clouds broke up this afternoon... |
We each took a shower, and I shaved my legs and pits!, put on our clean clothes and deodorant! and Daveed went across the street to a laundromat to wash all of our trail clothes. After the laundry was done, we ventured out to walk about town. We decided to eat our celebratory dinner at a restaurant called the Totem Cafe, their sign said "Steaks, Ribs, Seafood"-- say no more! We ordered way too much food! Salads, fried zucchini, fried mozzarella sticks! Then our dinners came! I got surf and turf, Daveed got chicken and shrimp pasta. We took half our dinners in a to-go box :)
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| Celebratory dinner! Congratulations to us! |
We walked around town to help our bellies settle a little. I was super thirsty and craving juice again. We stopped at a gas station and bought a bunch of juice and iced tea- YUM. We headed back to the motel to rest and relax. We got caught up on texting our parents to let them know we were still alive, posting pictures to the instant gram and not surprisingly, both fell asleep early, getting lost in the giant bed! After sharing a tent that was 44 inches wide, the bed felt infinitely big!
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| I caught a glimpse in the mirror of my sweet tan lines, had to take a picture, it made me laugh! |
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