Today was a low key day of relaxing and preparation for truly entering the Sierra. I tried to sleep in, being that breakfast didn’t start until 8 am, but that’s kind of hard when you’re sleeping outdoors and the sun shines on everything. It was a bit cool overnight, and there was a fair amount of condensation on my tent, but that’s probably going to be par for the course while I’m in the mountains.
Grumpy Bear’s has a fantastic hiker breakfast, with a big plate of eggs, bacon, and potatoes, and all-you-can-eat pancakes that are thick and huge, probably a foot across.
As the morning warmed, I participated in three pack shakedowns, helping those hikers and weed out stuff from their packs they didn’t really need, saving several pounds of weight in one hiker’s case.
I went across the street to Triple Crown Outfitters to pick up a new fuel canister, suntan lotion, and toothpaste. I walked over with Sassy K, who needed to get new tips for her trekking poles. After trying unsuccessfully to get the tips off at the outfitters, back at Grumpy’s, Patch and I tried to help with detaching the tips by using boiling water to loosen them. Ultimately, that proved unsuccessful, as the tips were permanently attached and not meant to be replaced, and she had to get new poles. (Which, coincidently are the same Leki poles as I got back in Agua Dulce.)
I reorganized and repacked my food, and then went back to the outfitters to pick up some additional snacks. On the way over, a huge gust of wind blew through the parking lot at Grumpy Bear’s, creating a dust cloud that blew over the meadow and sent someone’s sleeping bag tumbling along the ground.
Aside from laundry, the rest of the day was just food and talking with other hikers, and setting up a basic game plan for the Sierra: go toward, and probably not too fast since I’ll be weighed down with food.