June 14th, 2022 by Jon
We woke up after an excellent night of sleep. The wind died down overnight, and we had a nice little protected spot that Singsong picked for us. Over the course of 30 minutes, Biscuit, Missile, and Wilco all left for the trail, we ate our breakfast and got going too, chasing them up trail. We were up on a ridge, and after about 0.3 miles, we came to the inlet for a large lake down in a basin below. The recent snowmelt must have really increased the amount of water, because it was pretty difficult to keep feet dry. At one point, there was a log to walk across, and it was halfway submerged in the water, and you had to take a big step over part of it that wouldn’t bear the weight of a person to keep their foot above the water line.
Eventually, we made it across and climbed out of the basin up a few dry rocky switchbacks so that we could walk through a canyon. We walked along the side of it, up on a ledge along the wall, and then down at the bottom. We could see a fair amount of snow sitting there, waiting to melt. When we reached the end of the canyon, we found ourselves staring into another large lake basin below and a massive valley that fell away to the west. It’s like we were up on a shelf of that huge valley. We switchbacked down to the lake basin, passing over many small streams and walking through thick pine trees that obscured any view we might have on the way down.
When we got to the bottom, we crossed the lake’s outflow and had beautiful views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. There was an actual wooden bridge that let us cross the outflow, which was gushing with water and tumbling down the mountainside. We hiked alongside the lake for a small distance before turning up the mountain. We followed a single ledge that led us up and along the mountain at a very gradual incline. There wasn’t a single switchback. As we neared the top, we had amazing views of the larger valley below. We turned then, the trail bending to keep us along the mountain, but we were now on the west side of it, having come up its south face.
We had gone about 4 miles at this point and took a break among some rocks to eat a snack and take our packs off for a second. When we started again, the trail would look mostly the same for the next 8 miles to the cutoff for Mammoth Lakes. We walked through the trees, walking sideways across a very gentle slope, and pine branches obscured any view of anything around or above us. It was somewhat disorienting, a little boring, but still peaceful. We crossed a few streams here and there, but generally just wandered along, making our way over two small rises before heading gently downhill.
We didn’t take any breaks until the cutoff, as we just wanted to get to town. When we finally reached the cutoff, we saw a few day hikers who must have just come out of town, sitting on many rocks and logs along the PCT. We took a break there and then began the 3.5-mile hike to the trailhead, where Wilco’s cousin, Harry, was meeting us with snacks and then was going to drive us into town. The trail led us through an old forest at the base of the mountain, then we climbed up and over Mammoth Pass, which turned out to be a pretty small ridge, and descended towards Horseshoe Lake. As we walked along the lake, we saw about 20 groups of people, some hiking towards us and others sitting by the water. It was weird to see so many clean-looking people.
We passed by many groups, our thru-hiker legs taking us quickly down the mountain. When we got to the bottom, Biscuit and Missile waved us over, and they were sitting with Flamingo next to a white truck. We met Harry, who offered us a beer and snacks, and we chatted for a while. We would find out later that Biscuit and Wilco had both accidentally gone partway up to Duck Lake, a side trail we had passed a while back. We must have passed Wilco while he was up there, and sure enough, he came down the trail about 15 minutes after us.
Feeling a bit refreshed from the food, we hopped in Harry’s truck, and we went down the mountain to get dropped off at our Airbnb, which was a wonderful 3-bedroom 3-bathroom condo right in the middle of town. When we got there, Harry let us hold on to the cooler of drinks since he and his wife, Kris, were staying in an RV nearby, and we planned to meet them for dinner on a different night. We thanked him for all his kindness and then settled in at our place. We picked rooms, showered, and then chilled for a while before Wilco, and I went to grab some food for the 3 nights that we would be staying here from Vons, which was right across the street.
When we came back, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. We watched some TV, aired out our gear, and sat on the couch. I made spaghetti carbonara for dinner, and Wilco roasted a bunch of veggies, and we heated up garlic bread too. After we ate, we sat on the couch some more and then ended the evening with a little hot tub time.
We went to bed feeling very full and very happy. We have another 2 days here to relax and get a few chores done, and then plan to get back on the trail on Thursday.
