June 5th, 2022 by Jon
We woke up in a wonderful, heated room, and I got up and took a shower. How about that? We went down to the community room, where they had a kitchen setup, and grabbed some of the free coffee for Singsong before heading back to our porch. Everyone was starting to wake up and come out of their rooms, and a few of us decided to go to the bakery again for some pastries. I grabbed a chocolate croissant and a strawberry danish, and grabbed Singsong an egg and ham croissant. We took it back, ate on the porch in those wonderful chairs, and sat for a solid hour, chatting amongst ourselves and catching up on things from home.
Andrew stayed the night in his van, which he got yesterday from Lone Pine, and the hostel was totally fine having him park there for a few days. Since he had a vehicle, he very kindly offered to help us do our various chores around town. We drove over to the grocery outlet to get as much as we could there because it’s so cheap, and then hit Vons for the rest. We needed 6 days’ worth of food to make it to Vermillion Valley Resort, where we can grab 2 more days’ worth to get all the way to Mammoth Lakes, where we will take our next break. We also grabbed some food to make for dinner tonight because another hiker we’ve been with, Gumby, really wants to cook a meal for everyone. She’s making most of the meal, but asked us to cook chicken to put on a salad.
After getting groceries, Singsong, Andrew, and I all walked down to the gear store to grab a few things that we needed. Sage to Summit ended up being perfect, and they had everything we needed. Singsong got some new hiking shoes, I got new insoles, we got a few dehydrated meals, fuel for our stove, and stickers to decorate our bear cans. Feeling very pleased to have our chores done, we celebrated with McFlurry’s on the way back to the hotel. While we were there, we got to FaceTime Hanna, Andrew’s fiancée, and it was really good to catch up with her. We’ve done other backpacking trips with her and our dogs, and we missed having her.
Feeling full, we walked back to the hostel, and Singsong took a nap while I got chicken marinating. Then Andrew and I hung out at a picnic table in the shade, enjoying doing nothing. We sat there for a few hours before finally getting started on dinner. Gumby made naan from scratch, tzatziki, a wonderful salad with greens, goat cheese, grilled beets, and squash, and edible flowers. I made some Greek chicken on the grill, and we added that all together for a super awesome meal for about 15 hikers at the hostel. We sat outside at a huge communal table, ate, and spent another hour relaxing and talking.
Finally, we headed up to our room, and while Biscuit, Singsong, and Andrew watched TV and the ladies did face masks, I soaked in an actual bathtub for over an hour. It was glorious and felt awesome on all my muscles. Tomorrow we head back to trail and have a ride set up for 9:00 am. Looking forward to another beautiful section, but we’re also a little sad that Andrew will be heading home. It’s been great hiking together, and I wish he could stay, but he’s got life to get back to.
Looks fun!