We make an early start knowing that we’re heading into town but also have 10 miles to hike which includes Kearsarge Pass, and then have a long hitch into Bishop. Waterboy and the kids go ahead of Blue Lizard with the plan to fish at Bullfrog Lake until she catches up. It’s another beautiful sunny day, and the fishing isn’t bad for Waterboy and Bat Boy. Rockhopper strikes out, but there’s still plenty of fishing left on the trip for him.
Blue Lizard shows up later than expected not feeling well. She rests for a while before we start moving again. It’s slow going at first, but she starts to feel better as we climb, and we reach the top around noon. The trail down is relatively easy, but descends for over 4 miles. We get to the trailhead around 3pm, but it’s pretty quiet and hitching is difficult. We luck into some trail magic from a couple that hiked the PCT last year and enjoy fruit and cold drinks. We managed to get a ride for Camino, but the rest of us, including Manny and General, haven’t had any luck after an hour.
Luckily, Manny has a friend, Christina, in Bishop that’s already volunteering her time as a Trail Angel. Manny contacts her, and she shows up about an hour later. We all pile in, including a Norwegian hiker, Early Bird, who showed up also looking for a ride. It was a tight fit with most of us holding gear on our laps, but that’s become the norm for our larger group and we don’t mind a bit.
Once in Bishop we drive straight to a burger place and start making up for lost calories until late in the evening when the place closes. Camino manages to find us even though we hitched separately.
Emge Adventures 
Wow, the scenery looks incredible!
LikeLike