Red's Meadow to Sonora Pass

(PICTURES TO COME LATER)
We finally made it out of the Mammoth Condo Vortex, took the free shuttle from "The Village" in Mammoth Lakes to the resort area and decided to go ahead and pay for the $7 shuttle to Red's Meadow. We chose to skip a couple miles of the PCT and take an alternate route so we could see Devil's Postpile. We enjoyed an Epic IPA from Mammoth Brewing at the trailhead and then headed to Devil's PP which is a pretty neat national landmark. We took several pictures then continued hiking to meet up with the PCT. We saw Minaret Falls, which is pretty, but nothing compared to the things we have seen in the back country! On our walk to the PCT trail, we looked up and saw a mother deer with her little fawn! It was the cutest site ever. Dangit has never seen such a small deer (with spots!). We hike about 7 miles and then ran into Lighthouse and Native who (like the rest of Team Eye Candy) decided to get dropped off at the first stop on the bus which skips about 7 miles of the PCT. We continued hiking a couple other miles and decided to camp.

The next morning we ran into the rest of Team Eye Candy-- yay for reunions! We hiked past Thousand Islands Lake, which is beautiful! We actually saw a picture in a calendar of what that area looks like with snow and it's amazingly different than what we saw-- no snow at all! You could go swimming easily. Someone told us that they heard of some campers who had a bear go through their things near the lake while they were out playing around. Luckily, we haven't had any experiences like that--- no bear sightings yet. We hiked over Donahue Pass and met TEC (Team Eye Candy) on top and hung out while they enjoyed some beers they brought with them. We ended up hiking about 16.5 miles that day and slept in a cuddle puddle with TEC. :)

Tuolumne Meadows was our next stop where we resupplied from the General Store. We planned on leaving that evening but decided to stay because Sindad (Sinbad's dad) offered some beers to the group. Things got a little crazy and we ended up camping across the street from the General Store with Lil' One and Hex. We got up at 6am the next morning to pack things up before the world woke up-- our camping spot was not a designated area. We ate some breakfast and headed out by 11am. There are lots of rangers in the area and they are constantly asking about bear canisters. We swam in a river and ate some lunch then met up with TEC at what Dangit calls "River Island"-- a little peninsula in the middle of McCabe Creek.

The next two days had a lot of climbing as well as a storm. Our first real storm on the trail! Thunder and everything! We were able to try out our ponchos, which work great. We camped the first night in a wet forested area with TEC that reminded us of somewhere in Jurassic Park. The next day was our 2-year anniversary! We did some more climbing, waited out a storm and then camped near a lake (Dangit calls Pink Lake because of the reflection from the sunset) with LOTS of mosquitoes. Oh how Dangit hates the mosquitoes! It was our first time setting up and using the tarps-- which also worked well. Lil' One slept with us under the tarps.

Lil' One got up in the morning with us and we started our walk towards Sonora Pass where we would hitch to Bridgeport for our resupply. The 3 of us swam at a lake and met a couple girls who were sitting on the side painting. We hike 19 miles and camped with Shiny, Half-Double and Cache Money.

We hiked 11 miles the next day to Sonora Pass. While on top of the ridge, we took lots of pictures and videos and found geodes! Then... we heard thunder in the distance. We hiked a little faster. Then... some sprinkling rain... then... hail.. RUN! We were being pelted with hail and rain. We had so much fun running away from the storm. We made it to Sonora Pass and got a hitch to Bridgeport. On the way we saw some amazing lightning strikes and a fire off the side of the highway (which was put out later-- don't worry everyone). We resupplied, ate some food at Sportsmen Pub and Grill, sent our bear canisters home along with my puffy and got some milkshakes. While trying to hitch, we looked across the road and watched as a van of Asians pulled over and started taking pictures of us. haha. No luck at hitching (but met a guy who said he would pick us up in the morning). A couple locals told us to camp at the park if we didn't get a hitch and that's what we did. While we were setting up camp, Lil' One got comfy in her sleeping bag. All of the sudden we heard a click and then CHH CHH CHH.. the sprinklers came on! We rushed to grab our things getting soaked in the meantime. We quickly decided a hotel room would be far more comfortable.

We thought that we might have missed the guy who offered us a ride, but just as we were losing hope... he pulled over. Yes!! He dropped us off at the Sonora Junction (too bad we thought he was going the whole way) and he and Lil' One continued on their way towards Carson Pass-- she decided to wait out the storms and head to South Lake Tahoe. Several people passed us including one guy in a small truck. About five minutes later, we saw that same guy turn around. He gave us some drinks and apologized that he didn't have room to give us a ride. What an awesome guy! A couple cars later, a native american guy named Monty stopped and told us to hurry in his car. He dropped us off at the trailhead and we headed on our way.