June 22, 2018 A Mammoth Appetite

Granny Hat apologizes for the lapse in her posts, she has been wearing her gardening hat a lot now that summer is truly here.  Boysenberries and peas have been plentiful so Granny has been cooking up jam and shelling peas.  She also has enjoyed more frequent communication with Mission, even one Face Time session with panoramic views of the Minarets and Devil’s Post-pile Monument in the background.  There will be photos to share, I promise.

Mission told how he rode the bus from Red’s Meadows into the bustling, adventure-seeking town of Mammoth, bought a new pair of trail runners called LA Sportiva Machito and then proceeded to eat his way through the city.  He started with an enormous breakfast of pancakes, eggs and hash-browns.  He traded his ice axe (which he won’t need anymore) for the breakfast with a thru-hiker whose name is Burp.  Granny Hat imagines that breakfast was interesting.  Burp had another ice axe but it wasn’t working well and he had decided to ship it home.  So, as he walked down the streets of Mammoth with an ice axe over each shoulder, other hikers began calling him Gimli instead of Burp.  Granny Hat would have taken that as a sign and changed her trail name, if she was Burp.

Next was an early lunch of most mammoth burrito Mission could find and then an extra large milkshake followed by a trip to the supermarket for more food for the pack including a handful of plums, nectarines, bananas and a green pepper.  Granny Hat told Mission to put some fruit and veggies down the hatch after all that heavy eating.  He called us upon his return to the trail and said he felt great, not so hungry anymore.  Hiker hunger is a very real thing.  Granny has had it several times like at hikes at the Pinnacles or Point Lobos.

Yesterday, Mission spent some time in beautiful Tuolumne Meadows, the high country of Yosemite National Park.  Granny Hat and dad attended Calvary Church Placentia when they were kids and went to summer camp many years up in the meadows, Tuolumne is where they first became friends.  They even hiked up to the top of Mt. Dana at Tioga Pass, over 13,000 feet in the sky!  These photos were taken two months before our wedding in 1978.

Mission ate his way around Tuolumne Meadows General Store and diner, picked up a small mailer re-supply and then headed back out on the trail to camp at Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp beside the Tuolumne River.  He plans to hike for three days and meet Granny Hat and Dad at Sonora Pass for a re-supply and “home food”, as he calls it.  He reports that the new shoes have made quite a difference and his feet are still hurting but feel like they are healing. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.  Mission is hoping for some extended cell service so he can send more beautiful photography to Mission Control.  His GPS coordinates earlier this morning were 37.9104, -119.41852.  And here is his progress map from Tuesday, May 19.