PCT 2015 Day 57: Accidental Post Office Zero

• Start: 906.7
• End: 906.7
• Miles: 0
• Camp: Mammoth Lakes

We hit the Post Office straight after breakfast, although by that time it was almost 10am. I’d forgotten exactly what was in my bounce box, food-wise so that needed unpacking before I could even contemplate going to the store for additional items. As it turned out I had a bunch of dinners, some breakfasts, tuna packets and some homemade oat and chocolate bars so I needed very little. Cheese and savoury snacks and some happy food. Happy food is not necessarily good in calorie terms but it can make all the difference to mood. For me at the moment it is Skittles. Especially now the green ones are apple flavoured.

As we were heading to the store at the trolley stop, a car pulled over and Big Red offered us a ride. He has hiked all round Mammoth, and now does search and rescue with the fire department so knows the area well and had lots of tips. After our shop, we pulled the carts over to a nearby table to do our decanting and repackaging, and the guy playing the accordion also wanted to chat. Mammoth sure is a chatty town, despite being mostly a tourist town. 

After all this it was after 1pm, so we decided to have a town lunch and hike maybe 5 miles once we got to the trailhead. During lunch a major thunderstorm started and we decided to delay departure. We then realised that it would take a while to take the various buses back to the trailhead and we wouldn’t be hiking before 6pm. Consensus was to stay another night and hike out early. Whoops.

After checking into the Travelodge, getting a reasonable discount for taking the room that didn’t lock (in bear country – thankfully a first floor room!) we went to Angels restaurant to satisfy my crazy fish craving. Foil-wrapped tuna on the trail does not cut it, and I needed some white fish. Mahi mahi worked just great.