Bristle Cone is the Trail Angel who gave us a ride into Independence which is behind us. Bristle hopes to be the oldest man to hike the trail by hiking it next year after his 74th birthday. Many thanks to Bristle and Uber Bitch (It's ok, that's her trail name.) for the ride and the blueberry walnut pancakes this morning. You guys are amazing.

So now we sit in our hotel room eating a gallon of ice cream in the sleepy town of Independence. The Sierras surround us on one side and the high desert on the other. Our hopes are to hitch a ride back to the trail in the afternoon and camp near Kearsarge Lakes if we can make it. We have 8 or 9 days of hiking before we make it to Mammoth Lakes which will put us behind schedule, but there is just no way we can rush through the Sierras. This is without question one of the most beautiful sections on the trail and to rush through it would be as insane as trying to walk from Mexico to Canada so we are going to take our time and hike longer days once we pass Mammoth. Keep us in your thoughts we will try to post again when we can.