Goal for the day: Get home

I had to catch the bus from Lone Pine to Lee Vining at 6am, so I had to do the unthinkable at that point in my trek: Set my alarm to make sure I woke up on time. 🙂

I was still used to getting up before dawn, so it wasn’t a big problem physically. It was just mentally that it sucked.

I didn’t feel that dirty after 12 hours without a shower, so I didn’t bother showering in the morning to save time. Since the local restaurants weren’t open that early, I had gone to the store the evening before and bought some donuts and other snacks to eat in the morning. And a big bottle of Diet Coke, of course.

I got dressed in my new (clean) JMT T-Shirt and in my least dirty clothing. 🙂 I grabbed my pack and headed across the street to McDonald’s where the bus stop was.

Wait… McDonald’s? Only then did it occur to me that they served breakfast and that they were open that early. I could have had an Egg McMuffin and some hashbrown flavored cardboard. Crap.

Anyway, as I was waiting for the bus, I was treated to some beautiful color as the sun rose and splashed color across the mountains (including Mt Whitney) lining the western side of Owens Valley. That was a nice treat.

My concerns about not getting a seat on the bus turned out to be needless worry. Besides the driver, I was the ONLY person on the bus. I still sat back a bit and wore my mask.

I got a chance to see more color from the sunrise as the bus headed north on highway 395.

A couple of people boarded along the way and then I had to switch buses at Mammoth Lakes. Thankfully, I didn’t have any trouble getting on that bus either. There were probably 6 people on it.

At Lee Vining, I got off and waited for the YARTS bus. Again, I worried about there not being room on it and, again, my fears turned out to be unneeded.

That bus had maybe 10 people on it, but it was a full sized bus, so we easily fit without having to get too close to each other. Note to people: Wearing your mask without having your nose covered doesn’t really help too much. You BREATHE through your nose and that would be where the virus would come from if you are infected or infect YOU if you inhale it.

My bus concerns over, I enjoyed the ride into Yosemite. At the Tioga Pass entrance, I smiled as the bus could go around the long line of cars waiting to get in. 🙂

Several of us on the bus asked the driver if he could take us to Curry Village after the normal end of the line at Yosemite Village. We were happy when he said that even if it was out of his way, he would take us there. Since the Valley shuttle buses we weren’t running, this saved me at least a mile of more hiking.

When he dropped us off, we saw a line of YARTS buses parked in the parking lot. Apparently, they go to Curry Village and park until they have to leave Yosemite in the afternoon. Gee, thanks for going “out of your way” 🙂 I gave him a tip anyway.

I had to hike almost a third of a mile to the Happy Isles Trailhead parking lot. The horror!

But my Jeep was still there, but was just a tiny bit dirtier than it was when I had left it 26 days earlier. 🙂

After making sure it started up and cranking the AC to the MAX, I then I did the VERY important task of cleaning a spot off on my back lift gate and affixing the “JMT” decal that I had bought at the Portal Store onto it.

I don’t care if it’s seen as boasting or is vain, I’m proud that I managed to hike the entire 211 miles of the John Muir trail in a single trek.

And I’m not afraid to tell everyone about it!

I drove home and cuddled with my cats for the first time in 26 days (once they finally recognized me), got a pizza, took a shower, went to bed, and slept as long as I wanted to. Not necessarily in that order.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…

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Note: When I have time, I will be putting together additional posts covering these subjects:

• Cleanup and post movies that I shot during the trek.
• A general wrap up of my experiences on the trail and in the weeks after getting home.
• How well my body fared during the trek and after.
• My gear and how it held up or didn’t on the JMT
• Like I did for Mt Meru and Kilimanjaro, I will post elevation profiles and statistics based on the GPS tracks that I recorded during my trek.
• I’ll also go back and re-read my prior daily posts and fix any additional typos, syntax, or details that I forgot or mis-remembered.

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0.33 miles hiked, 0:10 hours, 10 feet climbed (mostly onto the buses)

Highlights:
• Nice sunrise colors during the bus ride along Highway 395
• Made my connection to YARTS bus
• My Jeep started!
• Home safe and sound
• Daily Goal Achieved!!