It rained during the night a fair amount but it wasn't cold. Both our phones are almost dead so we have them turned off conserving battery. We want to be able to make a phone call if we need to once we are at the parking lot on the other side of the pass. We slept until 7:15 so we didn't get on the trail until 8:30. Neither of us have much left to eat, a few lunch snacks, so I had dinner stuff, turkey jerkey and mashed potatoes for breakfast.
Kersarge Pass 11,760 feet.
There were some smaller lakes along the way down to the parking lot as well. The lower down to the trailhead we got the hotter it got, there was smoke hanging over the valley from fires in the southern Sierra. On the 5 miles down we passed many coming up the trail with, in my opinion, pretty heavy packs. The trouble with a larger capacity pack is you try to fill it! A handful of people were day hiking to the top and back.
By noon we arrived at the parking lot, many many cars parked here, some people camping but most others going up & down the trail. We stopped a lot to give right of way to the uphill hikers. We had an hours wait until our ride from the motel showed up so we found shade & read books then went back to the meeting place to wait. Soon the ride showed, Peggy, myself and another couple from New Hampshire hiking parts of the JMT got in. Driving was the owner of the Mt Williamson Motel, trail name, Strider. She was a great host & suggested we have lunch first as our rooms were still being cleaned. She dropped us all off at the cafe in Independence and took all our packs back to the Motel, it was 98 degrees and very hot. She offered us tips on where to buy hiker resupply stuff in town and since the town was small we walked back to the Motel. Just washing our hands for lunch was a treat! Walking back we checked out the supplies at the Chevron and Shell stations, noted where the library was and checked out the other eateries along the strip back to the Motel.
Strider knows what hikers need and want, she supplied clean clothes we could use while ours were being washed, we each got shorts and a tee shirt for our town attire. Then we took a basket back to our room to fill with dirty clothes that they would wash for us. Showers were next, then opening our resupply boxes that we'd dropped off the day we shuttled cars when Colleen and I met Peggy. We also asked if it were possible to stay another day for a full zero? Strider found us an open room (she's always booked for the summer so we were fortunate!) we repacked our bear cans with the new food, made phone calls to friends and family and it was 5:30. We walked to the French Bistro for dinner. The food there was fresh and homey plus we got a bottle of French Pinot Noir that was delicious. By evening it was cooler on the walk back to the Motel. iPhones, camera, solar battery & kindle were plugged in to recharge. Tomorrow's chores are: library for uploading my photos to allow me room to take more, a visit to the museum in town for information on the California Aquaduct project that drained Owens Valley Lake and pumped it to Los Angeles, quite the project with not a little corruption involved. As well as a memoral display for Manzanar, the WWII Japanese Internment Camp right outside town. Beds felt luxuriously wonderful and air conditioning was great!
8/3/15 Monday no hiking, a ZERO day
The staff served breakfast for guests, bacon, eggs, toast, jam, fruit and tea or coffee. Very nice. Good conversation with fellow hikers. We packed up and moved to our new room, then walked to the courthouse where the library was. We found Nancy who runs the library, it was closed yet she allowed us to use the computer. We needed to download a driver before we could transfer the photos so she got her IT man to do that for us. After we successfully uploaded my photos, we had a delightful conversation with her on a broad range of subjects, I busily noted every suggestion of books & articles she mentioned. Lots of good reading on a wide range of topics and we talked about Nancy's eclectic taste in books and interesting things she was able to discuss with us. Fodder for good trail conversations. Next we walked to the museum where we spent an hour reading about the Los Angeles Aquaduct project, a huge project with not a few underhanded shenanigans. The Manzanar Internment display was sobering and a testimony to the spirit of the Japanese people kept there. They developed a life as organized and rich as they could while being behind barbed wire and guard towers in the desert. We also saw pictures and history from the life of an early Sierra climber & explorer, Norman Clyde.
Then we were hungry and ready for lunch so we chose Subways salads, it tuned out to be a good choice. Walking to the chevron station we bought Gatorade and cheese to fill out our trail lunches for tomorrow. Back at the Motel we rested and read books until 5:15 when we ventured out in the heat to buy dinner. We found a taco truck that was open, we each had a really big drink made out of fresh mango and I had a chicken verde enchilada. We walked back to eat in the cool indoors. Tomorrow we are served breakfast at 7 before we leave at 8. Strider has a group of people she uses to help her ferry hikers up and down the mountain all summer.
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