Day 74

Trail miles: 19.7

Total: 923.3

It went a little back to normal with waking up later. Today we left as a group, and pretty much stayed that way the whole day. With the addition of Spare change and Cool Beans. Krista convinced us to take the first side trail to the Devils Postpile so we could stop at Reds Meadow Resort for coffee and pancakes. I got chocolate chips on mine! It was a nice stop to hang out and change my phone too. Also the bathrooms had running water! We passed a stable with a ton of horses and mules. Devils Postpile was a little underwhelming. I guess it was cool how it formed, but it was a lot smaller than I was expecting. A quick couple of pictures and we were back on the PCT. We stopped for lunch at a parking lot which had a pit toilet.  I know that seems unimportant, but I’m grateful to have four walls to hide behind for once and some toilet paper. There were trail maintenance people cutting trees down with chainsaws the entire time we were there. It feels like we are back in reality after the last section of the Sierras being so isolated. We keep running into day hikers, and that is the only way I can tell it’s the weekend again. Camp is by Thousand Island Lake (which is a little bit of a stretch). It’s funny how used to the scenery you get here. I was eating dinner and looked around and decided that the snowy mountains beside us were normal backdrops for our campsites now. The hike today wore me out and I’m pretty nervous about being malnourished again, so I’m trying to eat what I can. A full moon is coming in the next couple of days!