Monday May 26 & Tuesday May 27, 0mi/0km

Kern River Gateway Bridge (303.8/2650ft) to Mammoth Lakes (582.4/8020ft) (CA)

Monday was a day of relaxation at the RV park, where I didn’t do much other than eat, read my book, and do a little planning for the upcoming sections of the trail. In the afternoon I did the 15-minute walk down to the shopping plaza, and had a nice late lunch while enjoying the air conditioning and Wi-Fi of the local barbecue restaurant.

Tuesday morning I got up at 5am, packed up, and walked down to the bus stop where I caught the 6am bus to Bakersfield. I waited an hour for the next bus to take me over to Mojave, where I had a 3-hour holdover, waiting for the final bus that would take me to Mammoth Lakes. I hung out in Carl’s Jr with another hiker, we chatted for a couple hours about the PCT and everything hiking related, turns out he’s from Adelaide. I’ve met quite a few Aussies in the last few days! It was fun to compare experiences of our hikes in Tassie, the Larapinta Track, and Bibbulmun track. Small world!

The bus arrived at 2:30 and I sat with a couple PCT hikers who were headed north as well. Koen and Princess were from the Netherlands and Australia respectively. More fun chatting about hiking and tracks (trails) in Australia. I’m getting inspired to go back to Tasmania and do all the hikes that I didn’t do on my first visit. As the bus made its way North, I noticed the Sierra mountains were getting taller and snowier.

I finally got to Mammoth at 7pm, grabbed a quick dinner at a local pizza/ Italian place, and then walked across the street to the Shady Rest campground. Long day!