Daily Miles: 16.8
Total Miles: 242.7
Today was a perfect example of how things don't always go as planned, however the trail finds a way to provide.
I had camped as close as I could to Seldon Pass to try to get over it early this morning. It was only about 800 ft. in elevation gain and I made it by about 8:30AM.
The view down the other side was an outstanding site first thing in the morning. The next "goal" was to get to VVR in time to get some dinner. I have been thinking about a cheeseburger for days now. I was hiking around a bunch of hikers who all planned on taking the detour over to VVR. Not all of them needed to go, but I did, because I was running low on food and needed about 2 days worth to get me to Mammoth Lakes where I would take another day off and resupply again.
VVR is a private camping resort on the west side of Edison Lake. The trail goes about a mile or two from the eastern side of the lake. For a (sort of ridiculous) fee off $13 one way or $23 round trip there is a ferry that will come and get you and bring you back. In the past the ferry has operated twice a day once in the morning and once at night. However, some of the other hikers and myself had heard that the ferry is not very dependable, and hikers have hiked the 1.5 miles off trail to the pickup spot only to have to wait hours, or even to the next day to be picked up. There were 2 other options. The first was to hike down the 1.5 to the ferry pickup and then another 4.5 miles around the northern side of the lake. The second option was to take another side trail called the Bear Ridge Trail 3 miles before the trail to the ferry, which ran almost all downhill 7.5 miles on the southern side of the lake.
None of us wanted to miss out on the store or the grill tonight by taking a chance on the ferry, so the consensus was to do the extra miles on the Bear Ridge Trail to ensure we would get there. This meant hiking hard all day long.
When we hit the junction for the Bear Ridge Trail we suddenly had cell service, so I stopped and called home for 15 minutes then headed down the trail to catch up. The trail was fine but there was zero water sources the whole way down to the lake. The last 2 miles were on a road that led up to a dam at one end of the lake. I hit that road and was fully exposed on a very hot day with no water. As I was dreaming of soda and or beer walking the road into VVR, I saw two female hikers walking the other way on the road. My first thought was that they must be crazy hiking back up that trail leaving VVR. Then the unfathomable happened.
They saw me coming and said they hoped I didn't need to resupply because VVR's generator went out and they had no electricity, which meant no grill, no warm water for showers, no laundry, and they had cleaned out the store to preserve food. For me, this was a nightmare. I needed to figure out where to go to resupply. The rest I could go 2 days more without. They said they were hiking down 7.5 more miles to Mono Hot Springs which was down the road farther away from VVR. I really didn't want to hike another 7.5 after already doing almost 17 miles. They did however say .5 up the road there was trail magic, so I figured I would hike up there rest and weigh my options.
As quick as this day got bad, it turned around even quicker. I got to the trail magic to see multiple RV's and tarps with chairs to sit in and coolers upon coolers of sodas and beers.
The people hosting the trail magic dubbed themselves the Old Farts of Lake Edison, and apparently they have been coming up to this exact spot for over 20 years giving out trail magic to hikers. Most were in their 50s-70s with a couple a little younger. They were friends and family and had multiple generations there. They said they would come up overall for about 2 weeks each year.
A few hikers were already there, and a few more strolled in after me. We spent a couple hours talking about the trail and our current perdicament with VVR basically closed. One of the trail angels eventually offered to give us a ride down to Mono Hot Springs so we could resupply. We were so grateful, we offered back that if they gave us the ride down, waited for us and drove us back we would resupply their stock of beer and soda to pass on to future hikers.
It took a while to get down a windy mountain road and back but I found enough at the Mono Springs store to resupply even though I never got my shower or laundry done. Back at the trail magic site they had cooked up some pulled pork for sandwiches and had cole slaw us well. Pretty good substitution for my desired cheeseburger. There were 6 hikers total: two british hikers named Hawkeye and Cookie Monster, another couple who had met on trail named Chris (British as well) and Happy Snatch (She was Canadian), and another very young 18 year old male hiker named Treesniffer. We all hung out late into the night then set our tents up at the next site over from them in the campground. Another perfect example of how your fortune can change instantly on the trail, and how utterly awesome people can be sometimes.
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