Tina blazed through the final 14 miles into Walkers Pass showing up just a few minutes after noon yesterday. The bike's front wheel was still being built up at the bike shop and so I was there waiting in the car. That turned out to be best anyway since the wind was blowing ferociously from the west. While waiting I'd had to give up on wearing my cap and, earlier, Bob, who normally rides 50 miles each day into his shop, had been forced to give up on his normal route due to safety concerns. It's the 40 mph gusts hitting you from the side either blowing you into traffic or off the side of the road that are the main issue.
In any case, Tina reported that for the most part the last three days on the trail hadn't been too awfully hot. Occasionally when she'd get on the sunny side of a mountain that was also blocking the wind there'd be some real baking going on but most of her time was not spent in those conditions. The main annoyance over this last stretch were the many miles of deep sand trail conditions -- with over 10 continuous miles of it at one point. That made for slow grinding progress -- particularly on the second day.
I've included a number of general "trail shots" from this stretch. Occasionally the snow-capped High Sierras are starting to show up in the background of these photos -- a glimpse of the coming very scenic but also very challenging times ahead. I just met a hiker yesterday who had been waiting at Kennedy Meadows for three days but had decided to fly home for a couple weeks to let a bit of melt happen before going back in. The stories of those who have gone in are certainly "spicy" .. :) .. I'll share some of those in a future post. Kennedy Meadows is about three hiking days away.
Oh, in the news, the "baby rattlesnake" of a couple posts ago we've decided was actually a Pacific Gopher Snake. Tina's seen more now (and there's a picture of one above). They do look something like the plain Western Rattlesnake but of course don't have the triangle head or rattles (or venom!).
The bike is now back together and the brake rotor is finally looking right -- centered in the calipers and a good distance away from the stanchion. I haven't been able to road test it yet but it's looking very good.
Packing up for Monterey but waiting until ~11am to launch to make sure that at least the first of two "Action Notices" that Keith's company will get today doesn't generate a conflict. We're going to go look for a hat and different trekking poles for Tina in the meanwhile.
ATB, David