PCT Day 60

Mammoth Zero Day #4

0 miles

Miles 903.4

Asleep until nearly 9am, leaving my warm fluffy bed was a chore in itself. Had my stomach not need growling for breakfast, my stay most certainly would have been prolonged. Begrudgingly, I traded my toasty bed for a toasty shower.

Feeling prime, I headed upstairs to polish off the pot of coffee someone had brewed earlier. Mike, Shiva and Roadrunner were long gone. Belly rumbling, Spikes and I grabbed a trolley from the hostel into town. We went to a neat breakfast joint called The Good Place. It was jam packed when we arrived, which was a good sign. Once seated I ordered a coffee, green chili smothered breakfast burrito and an Epic IPA from Mammoth Brewery…

Hey, don’t judge! When you’re trudging through waist deep snow up 12,000 ft mountain passes every day you can drink beer for breakfast too!

The food was fantastic! Hunger momentarily satisfied, we walked down the street to check out the Fun Shop. I mean, how can one not visit a place with a name like that!

True to it’s name, the place was fun! Filled with board games, magic tricks and other miscellaneous fun things, it even had an ice cream bar! We each got two scoops topped with candy crumbles and whipped cream.

So good! We played one of the demo games while enjoying our frozen treat. Once we finished we cruised over to Vons so I could grab some tenderloins to grill back at the hostel for dinner. Being that it was our last town day before getting back on trail, we’d already committed to spending the day pushing our stomach capacity to its limits, so after Vons we swung by Dominos to pickup a box of cinnamon sugar twist bread.

Feeling hungry again from all of our food related errands, we decided to revisit our good friend Roberto’s for a midday snack of margaritas and nachos.

They were just as scrumptious the second time! Feeling rather unwell due to my calorically dense morning, I was thankful for the trolley stop just outside the restaurant. Back at the hostel, I ate a bit of ice cream before retreating to the couch where we finished getting caught up on season 2 of Westworld. I tried watching HBO’s new tv series rendition of Fahrenheit 451, but simply could not keep my eyes open, so I headed back to bed for an afternoon nap. I awoke around 6pm feeling much improved.

The hostels caretaker, Andy (aka FedEx) had graciously offered to drop some of our food off in a bear box at Tuolumne Meadows, some 40ish miles up trail, which would turn our 6 day carry into a 2 and a 4 day carry. Spikes and I jumped at this opportunity, so spent the next 30 minutes loading up the box that he’d deliver for us. I even threw in an IPA as special treat.

Box packed, it was time to make dinner. Spikes prepared another delicious ferro salad while I grilled the steak tenderloins and asparagus. Spice Man offered us his extra corn, which we graciously accepted.

Dinner was bomb! After cleaning up I sat down to bang out the loads of postcards I’d been putting off writing. While furiously writing I received a text from KP saying that he and Stretch had made it into town! It was already pretty late, and they where whipped, so they opted to grab a room at the motel 6 we’d stayed at the first few nights rather than make the trek to the hostel.

I was bummed to miss an opportunity to see my buddies, but as tired as I was, it was probably for the best. After watching a bit of tv with Spikes I retired to my bed absolutely stuffed from my glutinous day, feeling primed to hit the trail in the morning.

P.s. Shout out to my good friend and favorite bar tender Brittany for supporting the adventure, cheers!