Before I got off the trail, I had planned to bounce up to Mammoth and do some skiing while the Sierra melted. I had shared my number with several groups of hikers offering to put them up between June 15 and July 1.  I received 5 or 6 calls/texts from these groups…..they are all bouncing North and skipping the High Sierras for now. Only guy I know of who made it most of the way through is Bam Bam.

My cousin JD (aka Soho) is back in LA after recouping from his ankle problems. He will be joining me for a while.

Looking over the snow coverage maps, it seems that a good entry point would be Sierra City, but the place is remote and clearly hard to get to. Instead we are heading to Truckee and starting North from the 80. 25 miles of snow, but then it should be clear sailing for a while.

I loaded up my Asolo boots together with my trail runners for this one. Micro spikes and 8 days of food. Pack weighs in at 43 with water.

JD booked Amtrak to the trail.  The train was scheduled to leave at 9pm, so Alice dropped us at the station around 8:30.   We then  find out the train is an hour late.  Get to Santa Barbara at 11,  loaded on a bus, and drive all night to Emeryville arriving at 6am.   That was a miserable ride….there are no comfortable seats in the AmTrak bus.  Waited around Emeryville for around 3 hours, then board an East bound train to Truckee.  Dropped there at 2 PM, call Uber, get dumped off at the trail head around 3.

What a harsh trip.