We decided late last night, when the wind came out of no where and pummeled our tent, that we were going to go down to Lone Pine. We broke camp around 6:30 and ate TWO packages of pop tarts seeing as we didn't have to ration our food. We had to double back 3/10 of a mile to the Cottonwood pass junction and headed down toward Horseshoe Meadow. The grade was steep but not overwhelming and we seemed to have picked a reasonably short bail out option at only 4 miles or so. We passed through several meadows that glowed in the early morning light and crossed a creek that had little fish swimming in them! In our last stretch to the trail head we ran into Walter and Rosel again and Homegirl! It was nice to see them all and we took photos of each other for our respective trip reports. We said our goodbyes and Josh and I headed toward the parking area to try to find a ride.
Just as we arrived a full sized truck pulled up and Pesky jumped out. Josh managed to get the driver to take us down the mountain with her and we were so grateful we didn't have to spend a lot of time trying to yogi a ride. Our trail angel's name was Dance Party and she was finishing up some missed sections of the JMT. After a fun ride down the mountain we were dropped off at the gear store in Lone Pine.
Our first order of business was a real breakfast with real coffee and we made a beeline for the nearest diner. The food was mediocre at best and the service was worse but it was nice to be in town. We decided we would have a better time at finding Josh a doctor in Bishop so we made a sign and stuck out our thumb but no one was biting. A local chatted us up for a while and eventually Josh asked him if there was a doctor around. He pointed us in the direction of the local hospital and we headed over.
Josh was seen by a doctor who gave him he green light to hike. I seems he has tendinitis in his foot which can be managed with lots of Advil and stretching and his hernia has not been re-injured. That was a relief and we decided to get a room and zero in Lone Pine to work on the other malady we were fighting...our brains.
It think a good rest will help get us back into the game and ready to conquer those big passes.
Right now it's 9pm and I'm pooped. I'm glad to have a day off tomorrow.
Until then, goodnight!
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