Day 7 – 7/7/18
~4.7 miles
Saddlerock Lake on Bishop Pass trail to Parcher’s Resort —hitched to Bishop
In the morning twilight while debating just packing up and going before the alarm went off, one of the tent plows blew down and our decision was made.
By 7am were at the trailhead, with of course only people arriving, no one leaving. We had our resupply box waiting at Parchers Resort, just a couple miles down the road, so we decided to walk there. It turned out to only be ~1 mile away and we got there 40 minutes before the store opened at 8:00am. We sat on the porch and smeared DEET cream on our faces. Not quite the relaxing nero I was hoping for.
The gentleman opening up the place let us in 10 minutes early and we sat inside sipping coffee while he finished preparing the breakfast buffet. Just $7.95 for an all you can eat meal! Unfortunately it was just a pretty mediocre hotel continental breakfast spread, but we ate lots of it anyway.
We got our box and went out to hitch down to Bishop for the day. We totally lucked out and got picked up by the first car that drove down the mountain, after just a couple minutes of waiting. Unfortunately, getting into town at 9am doesn’t really help you when hotel check in is at 3 and all you want is a shower and air conditioning (it’s seriously 100 degrees in Bishop). So we got super cheap town clothes at Kmart and changed into them in the bathroom at the laundromat while waiting for our room to be available.
The nice folks at the hotel called us at noon saying a room was ready for early check in. We showered and sorted food, starting to go over our maps for the next section to double check our food rations. I again discovered a major discrepancy between the maps and the guidebook text.
Suspicion, then all out panic set in. Where the bleep did these maps come from??? They were NOT the Steve Roper route, at least not entirely. I ended up rushing off the the library before it closed to download correct map PDFs to my phone and print out some crappy black and white copies for us to compare and make notes on our maps. In the end, it’s all going to work out fine, but it gave me a lot of anxiety on what was supposed to be a restful day. So, pretty much a typical town day.
I liked that cheap dress from Walmart! Glad you have your route all figured out! Can’t wait for future posts.
Sounds like a fun hike (except for the mosquitos). Hope the weather stays nice for you – Really like your KMart dress!!
Now you have yurself’ a town dress! And can use it while doing your laundry too. You look so happy in your new lightweight trail garment compared to your cuban fiber sleeping bag you woke up in.
Hate having a stressful day when, well, you supposed to be having a stress-free vaca day.
Glad you got your maps figured out for your off-trail travel.
It was a thrill for me to happen upon you and Dan at Tuolumne Meadows. I recognized the two of you from a distance by your clothes – Dan’s red shirt and your hood worn over cap. Great end to my overnight up at Young Lake. Thanks for blogging about your adventures, and hope your back stays well.
So fun to meet you! Thanks for recognizing us and introducing yourself. Hope you had a fun trip!