After a big breakfast at the Evergreen Cafe, I spent the morning taking care of town chores. One of my first stops was the post office where I mailed my hiking pants, long sleeve shirt, dress, and peanut butter knife to Anchorage. I'm not sure exactly how much weight I'm saving, but the total package weight including the fairly minimal envelope I used for shipping was 1 pound, 11 ounces. This is a huge reduction in my base weight! I don't think I'll have any regrets! I also ditched a Nalgene water bottle in town. I don't think I'll need quite as much capacity for this leg, and Gatorade bottles are lighter anyway!
After packing up at the hotel, I headed to the grocery where I picked up about 4.5 days worth of food. I then sat outside getting organized and proceeded to get sucked into the Jensen's Supermarket vortex. I must have been there for hours just hanging out, eating, etc. I wound up meeting a couple of cool guys from Tahoe who I ultimately left town with. Their names are Spatula and Mismatch. Their plan was to camp on top of Mt. Baden-Powell, about 9 miles up the trail. I definitely couldn't resist the opportunity for a summit bivy. I was able to score a ride up to the trail head with a trail angel leaving the store with a car full of thru-hikers, and the boys got a hitch almost immediately.
The hike was beautiful but there was a lot of elevation gain. We actually had to descend a fair amount before starting the climb. We had great views of the Mojave Desert which we'll be hiking through in a matter of days. It looked daunting.
I'm now camped on the Baden-Powell summit at about 9,400 feet. It's been an amazing evening. There are quite a few thru-hikers camped up here. The sunset was spectacular, and we can see all the lights from LA Metro. Spatula has an ipod and speakers, and we've been listening to really good music. Other than flying, I've never been so high above such a huge city, and it definitely makes me feel a little insignificant.
Lots of down tomorrow. I'll probably hook back up with my usual crew at some point. I'm guessing they're camped a couple miles back.
Have a great night!
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