Hikertrash: Life on the Pacific Crest Trail by Erin Miller

Author:Erin Miller [Miller, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-12-04T23:00:00+00:00

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Day 66: Mile 931.2 to Lee Vining

Miles: 11.6

Total Miles: 942.5

Miles to Go: 1,717.5

As the mountain air cooled throughout the night, the wind picked up, funneled down the valley and slammed full force into our tent. I should be accustomed to this by now, but somehow, losing sleep always annoys me.

I woke up exhausted but wide awake with excitement; I was only a few hours away from seeing my mom for the first time in almost a year! She’d driven all the way from her home in Mexico to spend three weeks on the trail with us. While we’ve been on the trail, she’s been collecting backpacking gear, preparing her resupply packages, and training.

The trail was easy, mostly flat and downhill, as it skirted the gorgeous meadow that envelopes the Lyell Fork River almost the entire way to Tuolumne Meadows. The closer we got to the trailhead, the more people we passed.

I’ve begun referring to the herds of spotless day hikers and weekend warriors as "Downy" people. They smelled like fresh laundry. As they skipped by us, all I could see was Snuggles the Snuggle Fresh Bear skipping down the trail, cartoon flowers wafting through the air behind him. I wanted to walk up to each of them, throw my arms around them, and sniff them. If they smelled that good to me, I wondered how bad I smelled to them. The closer we get to civilization, the more conscientious of this I always become. Maybe I should’ve gone off trail and rolled in the meadow wildflowers.

By noon we’d popped out on the highway at Tuolumne Meadows where we made our way to the general store to pick up our resupply packages. The store was crawling with clean vacationers. Trying not to gross anyone out with our repugnant, haven’t-showered-in-eleven-days odor was a challenge.

The plan had been to take the Yosemite transit bus into Lee Vining to meet up with Mom. Unfortunately the bus only goes to Lee Vining once in the morning and twice in the evening; a quick phone call and Mom happily agreed to drive into the park to get us.

Lucky for me, my mom doesn’t care if I smell like a garbage can; she jumped out of her rig and gave me the same giant hug I would’ve gotten had I been clean.

In Lee Vining, we ate a late lunch at Mono Cone, which Bearclaw and I remembered fondly from last summer as having the best pastrami burgers and salted caramel shakes in the world. Across the street, we waited until four o’clock for the Lee Vining Motel to open its doors. The Lee Vining is unique in that they don't take reservations and the office is only open from 4 to 8 p.m., so if you arrive right at four, you’re pretty much guaranteed a room.

A late birthday dinner on the patio of Bodie Mike’s BBQ and it was back to our room to be in bed before hiker midnight. Tomorrow we’ll take a zero to wash laundry, resupply, and get Mom ready for the trail.

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