Day 84&85 Mammoth Lakes to Red Meadow Hot springs 

Day 84

Start: 902.6 End: 904.8+ 3.5 total: 5.7

I finally was able to sleep in! Martin said he’d bring my bear can to me in the morning so I would know when they were awake. I woke up before them and laid around in my tent until around 7 when Martin brought over my can for me. We got ready then headed out on trail. 

Sparks has been having trouble with her shoes hurting her so she had to switch to her sandals. There was so much anticipation about town the miles seemingly took forever. We hiked 2.2 on the pct before taking a side trail to Horsehoe Lake Camprground near Mammoth Lakes. It’s called Mammoth Pass but it’s nothing like the passes we have been doing in the sierras. There were some patches of snow but it wasn’t very steep ever. 

We finally got down to the lake and a trolley took us to town. There is a trolley that runs every 30 minutes so we didn’t wait long. I parted ways with Sparks and Martin. They had a lot of chores to do before heading back out on trail early the next day so Martin could make it to Kennedy Meadows North before heading back to the Czech Republic. We agreed we would meet later for dinner/drinks. 

I so enjoyed hiking with them but did not want to keep rushing on someone else’s schedule. There was a hot springs leaving mammoth that I wanted to hike out to the following night so that was going to be my plan. My friend Courtney from the AT, the one who got a flat tire when she did some trail magic for me in the desert, she lives in Mammoth. I took another bus after the trolley dropped me off and went to her friends house. 

Courtney and her two friends made a pizza and were getting dominos as well. I had only had a couple packets of oatmeal so I was starving. The pizza hit really good and I got to take a shower and chat with them for a bit while charging my things and taking care of other tasks. 

When we left her friends house I began my other chores such as laundry and resupplying. We ran into Martin and Sparks at the laundromat and told them we’d give them a ride from Vons to their motel since it was a far walk to carry groceries. I got some food I needed at Vons and then received a message from my other AT friend Lucky (goes by KiKi now) that he had made it into Mammoth but was having a hard time hitching and as it was 7:30 the trolley wasn’t running anymore. 

Courtney offered to go pick him up so we snagged him from the trailhead and then got Sparks and Martin and we all went out to Mammoth Brewing Co for a burger and a beer. Courtney, Kiki and I got some breakfast food from Vons for the morning and went and camped out at nearby BLM land. 

Day 85

 3.5 side trail back to PCT – 904.8 +3.5ish Total=7

It was another super chill morning. When everyone was awake we made a great breakfast of eggs, onion, garlic, mushrooms, cheese, bread and coffee. After breakfast we headed into town. Courtney dropped me off at the coffee shop and I talked to some people and worked on my blog. Kiki went off to take care of his chores and errands. 

I met two other hikers McConaughey and Yes And who were congregating outside the coffee shop. I went to Mammoth Mountaineering where Courtney works and exchanged a pair of socks and had them put new tips on my trekking pole. Martin had bought them for me since I mentioned needing some and he found some that were built in the Czech Republic. After I stopped and got a Californian Burrito that I would pack out to the hot springs along with a beer. 

Kiki and I caught the 2:30 trolley and were back at the trail head around 3:30. I left before him, expecting him to catch up as he is much faster than I but he never did. It was a brutal hike out with so much food. Yosemite is in 2 days but the food will be expensive there so I was carrying 6 days of food. I hiked the 3.5 back to the trail and then had another 4 ish before arriving at the hot springs. I walked through an area of downed and burnt trees that happened 20+ years ago. The hot springs is part of a resort & campground that isn’t open yet so it wasn’t too crowded yet.

To my surprise Kiki was already there when I got there. He said he had taken the wrong trail but it ended up being a shortcut. So he only hiked 2 miles to get there and I had to hike 6/7. I was a little envious. There were two other people who worked at a nearby campground there and then another hiker showed up later. It was a super cool little tub that was very warm with the river right behind it so you could alternate Cold plunges with the hot spring. I hung out there until dusk when the mosquitos got bad and then I went to bed just a couple hundred yards away.