Heading to town :)

It has been an intense week and we were ready for a breather. Took our time packing up this morning and happy to be putting on dry shoes and socks after days of soaking wet ones. And that lasted...about a minute and a half. We came to a spot with water rushing down the mountain from the snow melt. It wasn't fast or dangerous, but it was unavoidable. So...wetness again. Well played Mother Nature.

We hiked about two miles on the actual PCT and then had to take a seven mile side trail over Kearsarge Pass. Not as high as Forester, but kind of cruel to have to hike over a bonus pass to get to town!!! But we needed food for the next 100 miles through the Sierras.

Can't complain too much though because we hiked past Bullfrog Lake which was awesome.

Got to the top of Kearsarge and chatted with a couple up there who were out for a weekend hike, but who want to do the PCT in a few years. Hiked with them most of the way down and they offered us a ride in to Independence. 

This is Karen and Paul, the generous folks who gave us a ride.

Independence is a SMALL town with ...not much going on . Subway is the only  restaurant in town. Most hikers head to Bishop which is about 40 miles away.

First stop though...the gas station for

Walked out to the Main Street and immediately caught a ride and it was the mom of another hiker we had just seen up on the mountain! Small world. She got us to Bishop, where we are tucked in at the Holiday Inn. Did the usual town drill. Food first, shower and laundry second. And then of course...ice cream. Not a lot of choice here, so we went to our go-to, McDonalds, where....their ice cream machine was malfunctioning AND they had no French fries ??? What the....? McDonalds without French fries is like chips without salsa! So we went next door to the mini mart (where we ran into more ice cream seeking hikers). Things happen for a reason, because there we found 

This ice cream treat we'd heard about on day one from my friends, Greg and Laura. The packaging does not do it justice. Two oatmeal cookies, with vanilla soft serve ice cream, dipped in chocolate. It was awesome. Good recommendation :)

Taking tomorrow in Bishop to resupply, then back out!